I need some honest answers...

When I was maybe 10 I folded the blade on a SAK over on my finger trying to cut into a tennis ball (no idea why I was doing this).

Lock or no lock, if you do stupid stuff with a knife you're going to get cut.
 
Yes sir, I have had some of my knives bite me from time to time. I thought most all knife knuts had this problem every now and then. Kinda like an occupational hazard. I remember when I first cut one of my fingers pretty good and was bleeding all over the woods and my uncle said, "don't worry boy, that's why God blessed us with ten fingers, you still have plenty of spares."

As far as slippies go I've cut my right thumb way too many times. More than Id like to admit when I was younger. Always when I was doing the same dumb thing, which was pinching an overly stiff blade open with my left thumb, middle and index finger, and not having the good sense move my right thumb out of the way in case it snapped back on me -- which, like I said has happened.. and I have one ugly right thumb to prove it. :D It has come in quite handy though, for teaching my kids what not to do. :thumbup:
 
I cut my hand with a SAK once. I was cutting duct tape off of a car antenna(this thing had a good 10 years on it). My hand slipped and pushed the back of the blade up against the antenna and downward onto my hand. That was a good seven years ago and I have a scar to remind me to be conscious of my hand placement and cutting angles.
 
I've gotten bitten with locking, non-locking and fixed blades. The problem wasn't ever with the knife but with the person holding it. For example, I have a fixed blade sheath knife and was holding the sheath as I tried to put the knife back into it but wasn't actually looking so I simply stabbed myself in the palm. I know look where I am putting that thing. :-(
 
Slip joints are as safe as any other knife if the user will learn proper cutting skills. A locking knife just has a safety mechanism that no matter how strong should not be totally depended upon.
 
I have never cut myself with a pocket knife that I remember. I've cut my self lots of times with carving tools being somewhat of a wood carver, always when I was being absent minded. I did cut the top off my left thumb knuckle when I was about 10 yr old, with a Imperial fixed blade, skinning the bark off of a limb. Grandpa taught me how to sharpen a knife and I kept it sharp. Mother poured coal oil on it and wrapped it with gauze, it worked fine I still have a scar today but still have the thumb knuckle.
 
This thread is a great reminder of "pay attention to what you are doing." Slipjoints, locking blade knives, screw drivers, saws (power or hand), and drills can provide injury if used wrong or carelessly. Funny story, just last week, I was using my Bulldog whittler to cut Costco grocery boxes so I could fit all of the cardboard in the recycling bin. A task that I love doing btw. As I was slicing with ease down the corner of one box, my knuckle came in contact with the edge of a flap of cardboard, which sliced it open quite nicely. I gasped, and my wife and her friend, (knowing of my knife knut issues) said, "Ok, now he did it!!!!" They were honestly concerned about my bleeding in the kitchen, but they would have been just as ready to tease me if in fact I cut myself with my knife. I replied to them the danger is in the cardboard, not the knife. I am glad to say at this time, I have not cut myself due to my slippies folding in on my fingers.
 
Ever happen to any of you serious slippie users?
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Uh, no.

Sure it's possible to cut yourself if you're not careful, just like when using a fixed blade or locking knife.

Though I have had accidents opening multiple blades to display a knife when not being used, but never fold one on my fingers.
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That's the only decent slipjoint cut I've gotten in the last 20 years, situating multiple blades for a knife scan.
 
Every time I've been cut it was my fault. If our grandparents' generation got along with non-locking knives, I see no reason I can't. Every knife I've ever inherited is non-locking, and my favorite is the Case two-blade Hunter type...non-locking, of course.

thx - cpr
 
The only times I've ever had a knife fold up on me unintentionally were when I was doing something unknifely like jabbing the tip into something carelessly, prying or using it inappropriately as a screwdriver. There is no reason that I can imagine why a knife would fold up while slicing with it. If you regularly jab, pry, or turn screws, then you need some tools other than a knife.
 
Yeah, I have a pair of crescent shaped scars about a quarter inch apart on the side of my right index finger to indicate my learning curve. One came from trying to start a cut for a switchbox in a sheetrock wall and getting the angle of the SAK wrong, the other was far enough back that I don't even remember how it happened, only that it was something similar. Either of these learning experiences could probably have been prevented by a lock, leading to me being the young man in jackknife's recently posted sad story.

I think everyone should be required to carry nothing but slipjoints for at least two years or two really good scars before they are allowed to own a locking knife, just to ensure they know how to use a folder properly. :D
 
Nope.

I've done it with a poor finger movement while intentionally closing one, but that different... i wanted it to fold.

What I hear the most is from outdoors types that tried to clean game with one and had back pressure on a blade inside a carcass, or in a delicate cut, pulled back too far and pushed on the back of the blade... User error, wrong way to make the cut, obviously, since the knife closed. :P

With a slippie, if there is pressure on the wrong side of the blade, it folds. Fine, even if I get cut, the knife is fine. But a locker will resist, and possibly be forced... I might be safer until it does let go, but then when it does, I'll still get cut. So, then on top of a cut, I have a broken knife.

Either way, I'll probably get cut, so i want a functioning knife afterwards.

G.
 
I have only been bit by my knives cause of my own fault. Never had anything serious, painful yes. An old rake can be dangerous too havn't you seen bugs bunny cartoons?
 
Just got myself last week. Not sure how I did it but got the first nuckle on the right hand ring finger.
 
I am trying to recall if there is a Bugs Bunny cartoon where he is seen with a slipjoint? It would provide a great avatar.
 
Morablades said:
I was talking to a guy yesterday and I pulled out my Case Lrg. Trapper. He was impressed with the quality, opened it and said, "I don't like it because it doesn't lock." He then proceeded with a story about how he once folded a slipjoint on his fingers and never used one since. My first reaction was, "Buddy, your supposed to use the slippies with the sharp end down." How do people use slipjoints to where they close on Their fingers? Seriously. This always amazes me when I hear stories like this. Never happened to me. Though I have had accidents opening multiple blades to display a knife when not being used, but never fold one on my fingers. Ever happen to any of you serious slippie users?
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You know, I've been thinking about this post, and it's question since I was here this morning. And thinking about the guy who didn't want to use a slippy since he had one fold over on him.

This is very typical of the outlook these days of people. If they have an accident, they won't take any responsibility for their part of it. I'd like to ask that guy if he'd ever had an auto accident, and if so, did he stop driving cars?

It's easy to blame the tool, and not admit they did something stupid with it. It's easy to go with the flow of having everything you own idiot proofed by our great society, with child proof caps, safty locks, air bags, auto warnings if a tire is low. People now want to have a turn key and go life. Why would they take any time to check the car over? Why should they learn how to use a pocket knife and not get hurt? In thier mind, everything should be taken care of for them.

It's passing strange that for many generations, our great grandfathers and back, used plain old slip joints in an era when a pocket knife was actually a far more used tool in daily life than now. Like I said in another post, cowboys in the 1800's with thier cattle knives, immigrant farmers from Europe going in the land rushes of the frontier, sailors climbing a hundred feet up the masts to reef in the top sails in a squall, all carried a simple slip joint knife. Sodbusters, barlows, sailors knives with a big sheepsfoot blade. Lockblades were available, like I pointed out that Booth had one on him at Garrets barn in 1865. A very nice folding lockblade dagger. Yet in the working world, they almost never caught on. Tradesmen, shop keepers, boys of all ages used the slip joint for hundreds of years.

Not till 1963, and the birth of the Buck folding hunter, did the folding knife market change. Not till well after the post WW2 population shift to the urban areas, and the birth of the new building boom called suburbia. When kids came home from school to the tract home and did homework, instead of coming home and helping dad on the farm with afternoon chores.

So, unless I'm totally crazy, it seems like the more modern civilized times where a knife bigger than a little pen knife is hardly needed on a day to day basis, has resulted in a movement for bigger and stronger built locking blade knives, with newer "more secure" locks that are being brought out by both custom and production companies. They show knives in vises with a barbell weight suspended from the handle of the open knife, advertising the strength of the lock. Never mind that they'll never see duty cutting vines off of a jammed combine, or help repair a harness on the Overland Stage from Tombstone to Brisby. I have to admit I don't understand. But then, there's a lot I don't understand about today's culture.

I'd like to ask that young man about cars and accidents. I'd like to ask him if he ever had a hangover and it made him stop drinking. I'd like to ask him alot of things.

But them I remember my dad telling me something. He told me that life was like a dirt road after a rain. Only an idiot steps in the mud puddles, when its just as easy to sidestep the problem if you just watch where you're going.
 
Stabbing the point into something. I think that is the most common, impulsive act that leads to injury. Most cuts from traditional knives Ihave seen involve not paying attention to how you are holdding the object to be cut and cutting the off hand. I am not personally aware of injuries that are a result of closing that did not involve stabbing with the tip.
 
I've closed a slipjoint on my fingers, literally closed it. (rolled it over in my palm, used my index finger to start the blades downward swing, didnt remove pinkie from the blade path)

Nothing but stoopid.
 
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