Difficulty "thumbing" blade open; I'm new to ZT

[EChoil]

Congrats on your case of stud thumb.... Long term I think you'll be fine with it, there's a learning curve sometimes---they all flip differently.

RevDevil is right---don't drill or poke on your knife. If it's giving you that much heartburn exchange it for another one. It sounds like the knife is fine and maybe you're a bit impatient to master it. I still think this story is going to have a good ending.

For the record and since it was raised, I've heard stories about the 560 series detents being 'all over the place' too....seems to get mention now and then. Evidently I got a good one---works great by stud or flipper. And yeah I know, technically ZT will tell you the studs are only for locking and not meant to open the 560's......

 

[EChoil]

I have an 0561. I've heard that they have various amounts of blade detent, mine seems to have a lot and I cannot open it with the thumb studs. I don't have any problem opening it with the flipper and when my finger pulls hard enough to overcome the detent, the blade opens pretty fast and has enough momentum to open all the way.

That sounds like it's supposed to be....by design. At least I think ZT would tell you that .

 

[Kaizen1]

If the knife is like mine, it's not a matter of being broken in. It's an issue of getting used to opening it with the right technique. I've owned and handled quite a few knives and this model has been one of the more difficult models to learn how to open consistently. It just took a little bit of practice.

 

[Braincandle]

Keep your fingers off the lock bar and this baby opens up with whatever technique you want. But a real Emerson man puts the knife back in his pocket and uses the wave because that is the manliest way to open a knife ever.

Side note - I am not in love with the scale design, would have preferred smooth CF or a different type of grippyness than what they went with.

 

[RevDevil]

I have an 0561. I've heard that they have various amounts of blade detent, mine seems to have a lot and I cannot open it with the thumb studs. I don't have any problem opening it with the flipper and when my finger pulls hard enough to overcome the detent, the blade opens pretty fast and has enough momentum to open all the way.

The thumb studs are now officially blade stops. Thomas announced it a year or two ago. The newer knives being released has domed or rounded blade stops, and no longer are they stepped to provide traction. Short of writing "Not a Thumb stud" on the blade that is about as obvious as it might get for the masses.