r8shell
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2010
- Messages
- 25,458
No argument about that.There was certainly no confusion on this issue among American cutlers, they did not for example mistake a spring knife for an automatic knife, which as in the Old World, they called a 'Fly-Open Knife'


My issue is that nowadays, I can't help taking into account what some words sound like to non-knifey people. There seems to be a new association of the word "spring" to mean some sort of spring assisted opening mechanism.
I use the word "pocketknife" to mean any folding knife in my pocket. That can apply to a spring knife or a friction folder. I might say slipjoint, but I refuse the word slippie.


