Fastest opening spring assisted knives?

W

wdriver

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Dec 12, 2012
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I'd like to know who makes the fastest opening spring assisted knives. I have a SOG Flash 2, a Trident Mini, a Timberline Vallotton Large, and I just ordered a Benchmade Barrage 580SBK. The SOGs are good, but the opening spring is pretty weak. The Timberline opens very fast (much to my suprise, especially since it's a cheap knife). I'm eagerly awaiting on the Barrage, hoping that it opens faster than my SOGs.
:confused:
 
Kershaw knives are pretty quick, especially the ZTs if you use the flipper to help em out. They open so smoothly that the weight of the blade is the only factor.
 
DDR Gunhammer is the fastest and hardest firing assisted opening knife (by far) that I have in my collection.
 
Fastest doesn't mean the best, I'd say the small and light and small ones would be the fastest. Old say the Kershaw Chive.
 
My fastest assisted opener is a Kershaw Avalanche, even faster than my Blurs.
 
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Kershaw Blur is the fastest of my collection. A lot of the ZT line open decently fast except the 030X are quite slow due to the substantial mass of the blade.
 
My Barrage is definitely the fastest among my larger assisted knives, it really slams open. The leek and chive may be faster due to the very lightweight blades but it's really tough to say for sure.
 
Benchmades assisted opening folders use a spring that is of very high quality. Whenever you open the blade you hear the "thwack" sound with authority and when you close it you don't feel very much resistance you could close it one handed.

Sog uses a weak spring that is very similar to Benchmades and it doesn't feel as authoritative as the BM.

Kershaw uses a torsion bar that is also pretty good and with a speed just as good as BM.

BM and Kershaw have the fastest opening assisted folders and have good quality too.
 
My Benchmade 615-1 Mini Rukus and 580 Barrage with the AXIS assist are the fasted assisted openers that I have handled. These two are followed closely by my ZT 0350KW.
 
I would have said a few days ago that the Leek blew... that was until I got new torsion bars (got 2 shipped for free- Kershaw warranty rocks!). My bar was worn out and the blade barely moved with the torsion bar, and now it opens fast enough that I cannot see it, and it can be knocked out of my hand if my grip is poor. I have seen high quality autos that open dramatically slower (when they were actually fast). The factory spring may or may not be great (mine was a bit of a dud), but it just takes one call for a new one.

Long story short, get a Leek and order a replacement torsion bar. Worst case, you have a spare if yours goes bad.
 
I handled a couple of Benchmade assisted-openers recently, and was impressed. But I can open my non-assisted Axis-lock 710 and Mini-Rukus just as fast or maybe even faster.
 
Kershaw Chive and Cryo feel like they're my two fastest assisted openers. The Chive is a very light blade with a fairly strong torsion bar. The Cryo is a bit larger, but it flies out fast enough that I can feel the knife torque in my hand once the blade slams open. Not sure any of that makes a practical difference though. The difference is really only going to be a small fraction of a second.

The biggest benefit to A/O, in my opinion, is that it opens the blade and gets it into a fully locked position easily and consistently. It's not so much the speed at which it propels the blade itself.
 
benchmade emissary shoots out super fast, have to hold it tight or it could fly out of my hand.
 
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