Folder design with best lateral/prying strength

I keep a crowbar duct-taped to my back under my shirt every day, right next to my EDC machete. perhaps you need to upgrade your EDC game.

 

I always have a flathead on me and I never pry with my EDC knife blade.

Folks that pry with their knives aren't the same crowd that nerd out on Lateral strength knife designs.

This is a solution in search of a problem.

 

I've got a multitool in my pocket right now. Inkosi in the right main pocket. Leatherman Rebar in the watch pocket. I'm a contractor, so having even the most basic tools on my person is just part of who I am. However, it's really not a big issue to carry a dedicated prying tool with what i need to pry regardless of my work load.

My Inkosi can certainly hold up to whatever i can throw at it. However, and this is just me, I'm going to do any grunt/beater/prying work with one of the tools on my $50 Leatherman before I subject my $450 knife to it.

I think everyone's point about lateral blade play for prying has to do with the fact that you really shouldn't pry with a folder unless you have to. And the prying we will all be guilty of doing won't really affect the knife in any adverse way. If you are flexing titanium or even just FRN with steel liners, you're going too hard and using your tool wrong. You are either trying to get out of a life or death situation or need to buy a multitool.

 

I do. I made this one but you can find them pretty cheap online.

 

There isn't a huge "push back on lateral strength" at all.

There is a recognition that a folding knife is a stupid option for somebody wanting to pry something.

Design a pair of scissors that's better for prying, or toothbrush, or pair of earrings.... be just as stupid.

But keep at it. I'm sure some knife designer is going to be so intrigued by your notion that he/she will jump in here.

 

I dont know if this was a response to my post but I went back and read your op and I'll take a shot at it.
I guess I would start with a blade made from thick stock and no holes in it like someone else mentioned. I'd go with a razel style tip for tip strength and all steel handle construction. Maybe a thick steel frame lock with an additional lock that would hold the lock bar in place.
The problem with this to me is I would end up with a knife that didn't cut things very well. Truth be told, I've done some of the light prying that you described with folders that I have and they have held up just fine.

If you have the need to pry things on a regular basis why not carry a small pry bar and just have your knife for cutting task?

 

Any knife maker who make folders can make folder like you want .It will be strong for prying like fixed blade in same dimension .BUT would you pay the price ?
This is second folder knife I make .It is some kind of friction folder . No bearing no shims no ball detent . Frame/scale are from 2.5mm , 64 Rockwell HSS steel , blade is 3mm 64 Rockwell HSS steel , pivot is 6mm. hardened stainless steel .Even spacer between scales is 3mm HSS steel.If you try to use this knife for prying I can bet that blade will fall not frame .My point is make scale in same thickness/or more / and hardness in same steel / as blade and you have almost if not all strength of fixed blade with same thickness on spine .... Money talk here my friend
Everything is peened except pivot ....

 

I would probably buy it. Or, at least have to work really hard to talk myself out of it.

Pivot pin is pretty small, IMO, and that scale is just plain old plastic. C'mon, now. That would snap like a twig.

 

So we are looking to come up with a folding knife that will withstand lateral pressure better than a high end production knife, but less expensive than an entry level multitool?

I'm not brainwashed by marketing. I have a passing education in basic physics and the cost of materials needed to complete such a task.

 

If I need to do some *light* prying, and even removing most normal staples, I use either the small screwdriver/can opener blade, or the large screwdriver/bottle opener blade on my SAK. If I’m doing some *light* prying chore that I think might strain the pivot, I simply pinch the base of the implement while doing so, which takes the strain off the pivot. I’ve never loosened the pivot on an SAK doing this.

Another inexpensive option is a small mini-prybar. I have one that cost me less than $10 on one of my keyrings (the one I also keep a mini-flashlight and a Jet Scream whistle on). It’s durable, inexpensive, and has no pivot to loosen.

IMO, both are better options for light prying than a knife blade-only, single-bladed folder. Any folding knife, regardless of lock style, is by design a fixed blade knife that comes pre-broken.

Jim

 

Much discussion over this, buy a cheap knife and pry, open paint cans, scrape gum off cement. When you snap the end of the blade off who cares? Buy a new one. A tanto voyager would be the highest price range.
Or just borrow someone else’s knife for your prying tasks haha

 

Trashed by CS .... That knives have everything on them that I don t need . I use knife to cut things when I need not to try to split the Earth And I don t like proportion blade/handle on that knives........

 

Then why not just buy a knife with a triad lock? If that is the gold standard, so be it. For me, lateral play is pretty much a nonissue. I have no doubt that I could hang off my titanium frame lock laterally and it suffer no real I'll effect, and I'm a solid 205lbs

I just dont care enough to do so, and I have dozens of other tools to handle my prying needs.

 

In my profession, most prying is only opening stubborn access panels, usually sheetmetal panels stuck due to rust or being bent. I guess light prying is the best way to categorize it.

I don't see prying in like getting a bank vault to open but more of a stubborn door. Either way I agree that a prybar is the better tool, I also don't use anything other than a chinesium Kershaw to pry open stubborn access panels.

 

Your watching this one like a hawk. Almost respond post for post.

If a knife maker bragged about prying ability first thing would be all of the complaints and warranty claims for broken folders back to them.There is no existing problem. Knives were meant to cut, not pry. Pry bars are meant to pry not cut. There's a reason prybars don't have pivots.

Most knives can take slight prying, but I can think of one time I've used one for that.