How do you open your slipjoints?

justsomedude

justsomedude

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May 23, 2011
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I had an epiphany today.

I am a right handed person, I hold the knife in my right hand and use my left to pull the blade out. I recently injured the thumb on my left hand forcing my to hold the knife in my left hand and use my right to pull the blade out, it was so much easier I thought I'd broken the knife!
Of course it makes sense, the right hand is doing most of the work so as a right handed person this is the way I should have been doing it all along. Maybe it's because I was more familiar with modern, one-handed openers before finding an appreciation for traditional slipjoints?

Tell me, what's your strong hand and how do you open your knives?

What's a thread without pictures? Here's the knife it happened with:

EO85.jpg
 
I'm right handed but I tend to hook (anchor) my left thumb in the nail nick and pull up (rotate) the handle so my right hand is doing all the work.
 
Never really given this any thought, but I'm right handed and have always held the knife in my left hand and used my right to open the knife.
 
Right handed. Hold with my right and open with the left unless it's a nail breaker, then I reverse.
 
I'm ambidextrous and having been born a mechanic my hands and fingers are very nimble so depending on the hand that grabbed the knife and the knife, I may use one hand when possible by pinching and hooking on the seam of my jeans or more conventionally using two hands.

Either hand and my thumb or index finger to start it by the nail Nick and then pinch when I can get a better grip and drag the handle till the blade's open.
 
I have always held the knife in my right hand and used my left thumb to open the knife. I guess it's so I don't have to change hands to cut something.
 
I hold it in my right and use my left thumb. But then as a lefty, I have to put the knife in my other hand...
 
I'm right handed. I hold the knife in my right hand and open it with my left. I've been doing that for so many years, I'd have a lot of accidents if I tried anything else. I know this because I just tried it and managed to poke myself pretty good!
Oh...thanks for the thread... ;)
 
I am right handed and currently hold in my left while opening with my right, but I really need to rework that as I nearly drop my knife from time to time with the "hand off"
 
I'm right handed, I hold the knife upside down in my left hand and use my right thumb nail to open the blade, It's good for those nail busting #73L's.

Kris,.
 
I'm right handed.

If the blade pivot is on the right when I am holding the knife with the nail nicks facing me, I hold the knife in my left hand in a vertical position with the pivot down. I then use my right thumb to open the knife. I much prefer this.

If the blade pivot is on the left when I am holding the knife with the nail nicks facing me, I hold the knife in my right hand in a vertical position. I then use my left thumb to open the blade. I don't do this well.

So for most jack knives, which have a nail nick facing each side of the knife, I open the major blade with my right hand and the minor blade with my left.
 
For me its knife and task dependant. At work I often have one hand busy and one to get my knife out and open. Lately I have been using my Old Timer 30T for work and can easily one hand it in my right or left hand. I do this by holding the knife in my palm and pinching the main blade open to half then finish opening on the sole of my shoe. This wont work with all of my knives though. For more leisurely tasks I palm the knife in my left hand opening with my right.

Chris
 
I hold the blade by the nail nick with my left hand, and open up with the handle in my right. Usually.
 
Lefty. Reach in left pocket or to left side of waist, pull out knife with left hand and open blade with right hand. Seems most of the nail nicks (main blades anyway) are designed for this.
 
Im a lefty.
I hold the knife in my left hand and open with the right thumb nail if its a knife with more than one blade. The blade then opens towards the arm instead of against the front but I have been doing this for 40 years so the turn inside the hand to get the knife right is intuitiv by this time. Sometimes I use my indexfinger nail and that makes the knife open with blade pointing forward direktly but this just work good up to medium pull hardness.
One bladed knifes I most often pinch open.

Bosse
 
I'm left-handed, knife is always in the watch pocket on the right side of my jeans, so it is removed with the right hand, transferred to the left hand opened with the right thumb, pinched when possible.
Just for fun I sometimes practice opening slipjoints one-handed, its not what they were made for and its dangerous, but I guess danger is my middle name (fat-dangerous-corgi).
 
Hmm...been standing here opening imaginary knives trying to figure out which way I normally do this. I'm a righty, hold the knife in my left horizontally, reach over the top with my right and engage the nail nick with my right thumbnail. If the pivot is on the right I open the blade with my right arm motion. If the pivot is on the left I rotate the handle with my left.
 
Right handed. Hold knife in my right hand and use my left thumb to engage, pull it open with right thumb on the front cover, and first three fingers wedged up against the back. The left hand remains stationary. If a nail nick is on the back side (like a stockman with a sheepsfoot and spey), I turn the knife over.

I tried reversing hands, and could barely make it happen.
 
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