Drop Shut?

rhino

rhino

Joined
Dec 30, 2000
Messages
3,850
I started watching youtube videos with knife content maybe two years ago, but I've owned, used, sharpened, maintained, and loved knives for more than four decades. One of the trends in the videos that puzzles me is the focus on "drop shut" for folders.

I get that a smoother action is better, but in my world, opening is what mattered. I never had concern about how smoothly or how easily a knife folded and closed and long as it did.

When did the "drop shut" craze start and when did it become a thing in and of itself aside from an overall smooth action?
 
Interesting observation.

My Hogue Deka, Böker Tree Brand Anso Solo, Southern Grind Spider Monkey, Fox Baby Core, and TOPS Mini Scandi Micarta will all literally fall shut if coerced to do so.

I didn’t know it was “a thing”.
 
I guess this became important a few years back when a wave of younger noobs got into knives. We suddenly had a bunch of guys treating their knives as “fidget toys” instead of cutting tools.

I suddenly started seeing terms like “drop-shutty” and thought WTF is this horsesh!t? It’s just a trend just like spine whacking was a while back. Anyway, doesn’t matter one iota to me as long as it closes.
 
Don't care myself. Some do and some don't.

Overused and/or trite words of the Knife World

Some terms or descriptive words get overused to the point that they lose their impact or even become laughable or annoying. The world of knives certainly has its share of such words and terms getting thrown around. Which do you find cliche, banal, or outright lolzy? One that I think has...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com

You'll probably find "drop shut" in that thread. Also, the absolutely inane "drop shutty."
 
Didn't it start with Norsemens a decade ago? I enjoy playing with my knives and closing action is equally as important.
 
I don't look upon Youtube as any representation of reality. People with Youtube channels need to come up with new content to bring in the views, so I imagine they are constantly racking their brains trying to come up with some new and trendy angle about knives to discuss.

I have folders that snap closed (lockbacks), and I have folders that need to be manually closed (liner locks). Being able to easily (and intentionally) unlock a folder is important to me, but ease and speed of actually closing the blade into the handle has never been an issue for me.
 
I like "one shake shut" but not drop shut. I'm rather attached to my fingers. I think the whole bearing flipper thing is what brought it about. Some of what goes into the "drop shut" things is not necessarily how smooth the pivot is (bearing or washers) but how heavy the blade is, and how loose the pivot is. This is why so many people "tune" the PM2.
 
From the couple I own, blade weight has alot to do with it...I picked up a very blade heavy Mordax from a fella here and it drops closed like a guillotine. I actually dislike certain knives without a guard to do drop shut because I feel it's kind of dangerous (AKA red horse hell razor).

Its trendy right now, just like button locks.

Edit: theres definitely a good balance, not all good action knives are drop shut; non of my civivi's have it and they're all butter smooth.
 
The Aflac Duck said:
The pivot has almost nothing to do with it. It’s purely lockbar tension and the detent, as well as the finish on the blade where the detent meets. Nothing but misguided efforts to measure other knives against each other.
Click to expand...
I was just going to "like" this, but I felt like the whole thing needed to be quoted for truth.

I can't figure out how this became a performance quotient, or a benchmark of any type. I think it's possible some people have a lot of time on their hands...
 
midnight flyer said:
I was just going to "like" this, but I felt like the whole thing needed to be quoted for truth.

I can't figure out how this became a performance quotient, or a benchmark of any type. I think it's possible some people have a lot of time on their hands...
Click to expand...

Shirogorov. They use all sorts of different bearing types and it gives people the perception that their knives are so smooth omg!

Everyone had to compare at that point, and now we’re here.
 
K.O.D. said:
I like "one shake shut" but not drop shut. I'm rather attached to my fingers. I think the whole bearing flipper thing is what brought it about. Some of what goes into the "drop shut" things is not necessarily how smooth the pivot is (bearing or washers) but how heavy the blade is, and how loose the pivot is. This is why so many people "tune" the PM2.
Click to expand...

A light shake or two shut is my happy place. I have plenty of knives that fall shut if tilted 0.01 degrees off the vertical, and usually I add tension to the lock bar or over tighten the pivot to get them to taking a shake to close. If I don't over tighten my ZT 0850 it falls shut with scary ease even when there's no detectable blade play, sort of amazing for a production knife on washers that isn't crazy expensive, but that's a big heavy blade to come flying towards your fingers if you aren't careful.

I actually sold one knife because even with the pivot tight it was entirely free swinging (Buck Marksman, strap lock and bearings). That thing seemed to defy the force of friction altogether, and while it was probably unlikely, on a missed flip open it would bounce back like a guillotine blade falling.
 
I rather like knives like the 940 Osborne, although I think of it as something closer to a gravity knife than a normal folder, and open/close it that way.

But for liner/framelocks, especially bigger ones, it strikes me as silly, potentially dangerous fashion. The worst example I personally own is an Artisan Proponent, which seems to be what you get when a crow bar loves a guillotine.
 
I like easy-shutting knives in general, but not too easy. I don't want it closing on my thumb.

I especially like them with axis locks, so I can unlock with a thumb and finger then flick it shut.
 
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