"Flip-It" (??) device

M

Mainspring

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Mar 22, 2000
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Back in the day...pre Spyderco...if a guy wanted to open a folding knife with one hand without flipping it across the room there was a cylindrical device that attached to the blade that allowed for one hand opening. As I recall, this device was called a Flip-It device. It was just a small non-moving "button" that friction fit to the blade with a small allen screw. These days all tacti-cool knives come with this device built in, but back in the dark ages we had to do this ourselves.

Do any of you old timers remember these wizzie-gizzies? What were they called? In this age of super duper way cool folders that come factory equipped with the same thing, can one still buy this device?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.
 
A one-armed bandit?

onearmbanditopener.jpg
 
I remember opening Buck 110 Knives and their ilk by grasping the blade and giving a down and up snap with your wrist. You end up holding the opened knife by the blade.
 
There was another, similar device called the Flick-it (I don't recall how it was spelled) that was not a stud so much as a small flat bar that clamped to the blade. Thomas Harris wrote of it in Red Dragon -- he described a character having "knife fighter's mange" (patches of hair shaved off his arm from testing his folding knife's edge) and being known to carry a folding knife with a Flick-it clamped to the blade.

The One-Armed Bandit Esav mentioned looked like this out of the package:

bandit.jpg


I bought several of them from SMKW "back in the day."
 
They are still out there in well stocked B & M stores. I put one on an Explorer Boot Knife folder with micarta grips I found in a Branson tourist trap just a few years ago.

Of course, it was about 25 years after I wanted the combo. It just took that long to connect the dots.
 
There was one I bought and put on a Buck 110. It was like a heavy u shaped spring that squeezed onto the blade and it had a small part bent at 90 degrees to get your thumb on. This was back in the early 70s and I don't remember the name of it.
 
Yeah, I wish the Flick It would make a come back. It was a lot more streamlined and eye appealing than the One Armed Bandit.
 
I remember those. I also remember that the knives of yesteryear weren't as easy to open as they are today, with a few exceptions. Not sure if those gadgets worked well or not, never tried them.
 
This would cause my new Buck 110 in CPM 154 to get alot more carry, not that it doesnt I just need my knife quickly sometimes.
 
Thanks for you input everyone. I appreciate it. I just scored one on Ebay now that I had some proper search terms.

tirod3...what's a B&M store?
 
Mainspring said:
Thanks for you input everyone. I appreciate it. I just scored one on Ebay now that I had some proper search terms.

tirod3...what's a B&M store?
Click to expand...

Brick and Mortar. A store you can touch, enter, smell, lick the counter if you're so disposed.
 
Raymond1000 said:
I remember opening Buck 110 Knives and their ilk by grasping the blade and giving a down and up snap with your wrist. You end up holding the opened knife by the blade.
Click to expand...

Or, depending on the quantity of brew on board, you end up with the blade stuck through your foot. :eek:
 
Guyon said:
Brick and Mortar. A store you can touch, enter, smell, lick the counter if you're so disposed.
Click to expand...

Do you do that too? Now when they look at me real funny like I'll tell 'em "Oh yeah? Well Guyon does this too!!"
 
I thought flicking a folding knife open by grasping the blade and flicking the handle downwards was called a "New York Drop."

While I am not at liberty to discuss the mechanics of The Brownie Pop, the blade deploys while the handle is in the hand of the user.
 
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