Detent

V

viper576

Joined
Oct 7, 2014
Messages
28
What was the first knife and year that detent came out? I stopped collecting in 2015 and then it was assisted open was big now the detent works like an assisted open knife without the spring. I like the history aspect of knives. This is why I want to know about detent. I have 15 knives without detent from 2000 to 2015 and 1 with detent from this year.
 
Folding knives have had detents for decades. A detent is what holds the knife closed. In the early 2010's companies started using ball bearing pivots and a stronger detent to give action, especially in flippers, that equaled an assisted opening. Assisted opening had started to be noticed by lawmakers, and in places were getting lumped in with automatics and made illegal.

The flipper was invented by Kit Carson (1990s I believe) and mass produced by CRKT (M16 model) though it never had the quickness, smoothness, or reliability of modern flipper knives.

The detent can be created multiple ways. In framelock, linerlocks, and compression locks, it is a steel or ceramic ball bearing that resides in the lockbar and fits into a divot in the blade tang. The force required to overcome the lockbar pressure causes the blade to flip or flick open.

Ball bearing, backlocks, axis locks, and the shark lock use a spring(s) to hold the blade closed.
 
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I never seen a detent or ball bearings on any knife I had I had Spyderco, Benchmade, crkt, SOG, cold steel, Boker, and Kershaw. They must have started them on knives over $200 because I had knives from Spyderco that were $180 at the time.
 
I have a bunch of liner lock knives from the early - mid 90's. All of them have a ball bearing, press fitted on the flat side of a liner lock (facing the blade tang). Both cheap and more expensive knives.
If you unlock a liner lock and slowly close the blade, you can see the ball bearing engage the blade when it's almost in the closed position.
And if you look at the lock tab with a flashlight you can see the tiny ball bearing that engages a divot on the blade.
 
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