Holes - preferably ovals, as they take less height, or add it into the blade. They also give availability for the thumb to find them if your grip is not quite spot on, which is often.
Tip down works better for me, but switching back and forth from tip up to tip down has taught me I just need to pay attention to whether the hole is high left or low right in the pocket, and adjust depth of grip for retract as necessary. Tip down seems to open faster for me as I can have the blade up sooner than the tip down knife. The tip down knife just needs 90 degrees of blade motion, the tip up requires 180.
All this is apples and oranges in application as any user familiar and comfortable with their favorite knife has learned how to do it with certain predelictions from other jobs pre-trained. Try switching from a tip down hole opener to a tip up stud or whaterver your favorite is to something exactly opposite. It'll be frustrating the first week for sure.
Tip down works better for me, but switching back and forth from tip up to tip down has taught me I just need to pay attention to whether the hole is high left or low right in the pocket, and adjust depth of grip for retract as necessary. Tip down seems to open faster for me as I can have the blade up sooner than the tip down knife. The tip down knife just needs 90 degrees of blade motion, the tip up requires 180.
All this is apples and oranges in application as any user familiar and comfortable with their favorite knife has learned how to do it with certain predelictions from other jobs pre-trained. Try switching from a tip down hole opener to a tip up stud or whaterver your favorite is to something exactly opposite. It'll be frustrating the first week for sure.