Do you like assisted opening knives?

I find them kinda too middle of the road for me. With the evolution of flippers taking care of the non-automatic fast one hand opening, I don't see much use for them.

If I carry an auto, I carry an auto. I don't really care about how "weapony" the knife is or if I were to be hauled into court over how my knife opened. I'd like to think that if it progressed to such a dire outcome that the action of the knife would be far down the list.

I just like fast to open and close knives because I have to make a lot of cuts at work. Because of that, I like manual flippers but have really grown to appreciate not having to reposition hand when I use an OTF.

Having to fight the spring to close an AO isn't my cup of tea.
 
The closing is also what makes them a no-go for me. Had a stainless steel Leek back in the day, it never got away from me, but it was not fun to close when. Especially when wet.

Funny how times change, now in the folder market the thing that sells the most amounts to "assisted closing". (drop shut)

Silent H said:
One of my favorite knives of all time, the Benchmade 496 Vector is an assisted opener. It works really well with the flipper and the axis lock. I used to live in a state where autos were illegal, so an assisted opener was the next best thing.

That being said, not all assisted knives are the same. I'm not a fan of assisted knives with thumbstuds, and I'm not a fan of torsion bar style assists like the Kershaw Speedsafe and CRKT OutBurst. I've had much better success with the coil spring assisted knives like most of Benchmade's Axis Assist knives.

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How confident are you a police officer or court would make the distinction between assisted and automatic?
 
I think assisted knives had its place a couple of years ago, now with good cheap knives going with bearings and good action, no, its maybe a lazy way of just making a good knife, Cant understand why ZT still does it, when they have great action on their non assisted models,
 
i have a kershaw leek, and i dont care for how its assisted at all. i like manual opening knives better, i find i can open them just as quick, not that i ever have to open a knife in 1 second tho lol. plus after owning my leek for some time as my only edc knife the spring got quite weak and is on the verge of needing a new one. I think its just a bit of a gimmic, at first when i got the leek it had a certain wow factor to it but it soon grew off, and now its just a bit of a pain. all the best:thumbsup:
 
I have a few assisted. Do like them. But to be honest, bearing flippers are better IMO. Also, some are better than others, ZT0350
was an early purchase and it is a fantastic knife.
 
I own a few but not a fan in general. They don't open any faster than a well executed design would otherwise open, and hinder the ability to easily close one-handed. Although I own two Barrages that I have yet to de-assist, I particularly dislike assisted AXIS lock knifes, because IMO it defeats half of the purpose (the closing half) of such an intuitive lock system.
 
Knives&Lint Knives&Lint how do you close them? Just curious, I notice I unlock and use my leg usually to close fully. It's second nature now and don't see it as much of a problem.
 
Have a spring assisted I bought when starting to learn about knives. Can't stand it.
 
I’ve had five or six. I’m typically indifferent. The only knife I have that I like because it is assisted is the Kershaw Link. Maybe I just got a good one, but I think it’s lovely. The only one I’ve had that I dislike because it’s assisted is the CRKT M4-02.
 
No assisted opening for me. Spring assisted knives were illegal here in MI although that changed in '17. I haven't bought many knives since the law changed but I don't need spring assisted. I don't think I own a flipper either. I'm still carrying a boring old Ontario Rat 1 in D2, Spyderco Endura, or BM Rift.
 
TX180SX said:
Knives&Lint Knives&Lint how do you close them? Just curious, I notice I unlock and use my leg usually to close fully. It's second nature now and don't see it as much of a problem.
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This is true for me as well, I don't see it as a problem at all. I will say that it is 6 of 1, etc. I do like it when the ZT0301 pops open that big chunk of a blade.
 
I can take them or leave them. I've owned quite a few but only have 2 left right now. I assume that AO is intended to deploy the knife faster but I find problems with this in practice. First with a flipper or with thumb studs, you have to be able to hit the thumb studs in order to activate the knife and this is not reliable enough for me. The only AO knife in my EDC rotation is a Benchmade Stryker and the thumb studs are rounded a bit and not big enough for me to reliably hit them to open the knife, so this slows me down. The best I've seen is a Kershaw Blur and those big sharp "sabertooth tiger" thumb studs are easy to hit and you don't slip off of them. I find the larger blade holes in some Spyderco knives to be easiest, faster and more reliable than any other opening device. The other issue I have with AO knives is that some of them I don't trust completely in my pocket. The Stryker and Blur have been very reliable though. So now most of the AO knives that used to be in my EDC rotation have been replaced by Spyderco knives with the big blade hole.

(I keep saying Spyderco with big blade hole, because I find that the Spyderco knives with smaller blade holes don't work very well for me, and the Benchmade that I owned with a blade hole didn't have sharp enough edges to keep my thumb from slipping out.)
 
Every once in a while a maker will come out with a new design that instantly grabs my attention, but it's AO.

So I keep one old AO knife in my collection (a BM Emissary) to remind myself how useless AOs are.

Then I spare myself from wasting money on the new AO and instead spend my money on a really, really good manual.
 
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Nope. They are harder to close. With holes/studs/flippers there really isn’t a necessity for assisted opening in my opinion.
 
TX180SX said:
Knives&Lint Knives&Lint how do you close them? Just curious, I notice I unlock and use my leg usually to close fully. It's second nature now and don't see it as much of a problem.
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True, not much of a problem, just a minor annoyance. With AXIS locks, I simply pinch the lock with my thumb and index and let the blade fall shut (or do the same and use a slight wrist motion). To me that's the beauty of the AXIS type lock. It's not that it's much harder to use my leg to assist in closing, it's just that I'm accustomed to doing it the aforementioned way, and given the choice I'd prefer quickly flicking a knife shut with the lock. Add that to the fact that the assist really doesn't allow me to access the blade much quicker than I can already access it with a quick flick, and in my eyes it is a feature that detracts from the usefulness of an AXIS lock. For the same reason I'm not a fan of AXIS autos.

With other knives, if I'm being completely honest, in my limited experience I see assisted opening as somewhat of a crutch for quickly opening a knife that otherwise just does not have a smooth opening action. I'm no expert and I could be wrong, and I'm sure there are exceptions, but I personally have never experienced an assisted knife that has wowed me. I just don't see the benefit for my uses other than novelty (not that there's anything wrong with that). Just my personal preference though.
 
Tundraman said:
Fun to play with if you figure out how to close them with one hand easily and safely. But I see absolutely no practical use for one. I have one, 581 Barrage which I only carry once in a while. Great knife, with or without it. I would get another assisted knife but definately not for that reason. With or without, I don't care. Its the "open" knife that matters. I have wanted a Buck 110 that was customised to be assisted for years. Now that I have gotten older and have a decent collection, I see no reason or have the bug for it anymore. I guess I see it now as a useless extra.
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Do yourself a favor and de-assist that Barrage. Trust me. It becomes a whole new knife.
I really liked my 581 when I got it. Then I de-assisted it. Now I love it.
 
I have a Mini Barrage and a Leek that are assisted. When I bought them, I thought the assist was pretty cool, but soon figured out a that a plain Axis knife is as quick and easy to open. The assist doesn’t add anything to the function of the knife, but it doesn’t really detract, either. One-handed opening in general does not mean much to me, except as a sign the knife has a pocket clip and is bigger than anything I want to carry.
 
I've had a lot of Kershaw Speedsafe knives over the years. Most of them have been cheapies but my "fancy carry" for years was a special edition Leek. It was eventually retired in favor of the M390 Dividend. I really liked Speedsafe maybe twenty years ago. As better manual actions have come way down in price, my interest in assisted actions has waned dramatically. The reasons are simple. The Speedsafe assist means having an extra mechanism in the knife. It requires extra care. It's an extra thing that can break.
 
Thanks for the responses folks. Productive discussion so far. On the topic of de-assisting AO knives, I’ve heard that this can kill the detent of the knife. How often does this happen?
 
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