If you had to choose between these two...

If you had to have one...

  • Quick action with side to side play

  • No side to side play, with slower more deliberate opening

Results are only viewable after voting.
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WedgeAntilles

Gold Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2020
Messages
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Nope, not another thread about which of two knives I should buy. Instead, it's about the choice between 2 actions/features.

In many of the knives I've owned under a certain price point, I have found that I can have a quick smooth action OR I can have no side to side blade play.

Now at a certain point, this can be eradicated. (My Koenig Arius and Grimsmo Norseman are two examples. And my beloved CRKs are known specifically for the slow roll.) But from Spyderco to Benchmade to Hogue and others it seems the choice is a knife you can open consistently with speed (but you'll have some level of side to side play) or you can tighten the pivot to remove the play, but a flipper or flicker it will not be. So, when given the choice, which direction do you go?
 
If you forget the PM2 and Spyderco lockbacks for a moment … most of my other PB washer Spydercos (Manix variants, Militaries, etc) can be easily flicked with no side to side play. Same is true for my PB washer Hinderers, for my Zaan, etc. The trick is always the same: you adjust the pivot so that some friction remains, and then you let the knife / washers break in.

That implies that you don’t keep disassembling the knives over and over again.

So it’s not always a trade off.
 
Out of over 100 Spydercos and Benchmades, I have encountered about 3 that I can recall where there was a conflict between easy opening and no blade play, plus about a dozen Spydercos (all lockbacks) that stayed stiff even when I loosened the pivot. Those three went back to the dealer.
 
Kettleman said:
Why not have both and stay with your "beloved CRKs". The Umnumzaan has amazing action and ZERO play.
Click to expand...
I do have an Umnumzaan that I like. I own more CRK than any other brand. Part of my reason for asking the question is I have been put off of buying "lesser" knives that I've felt the need to choose.
 
WedgeAntilles said:
Nope, not another thread about which of two knives I should buy. Instead, it's about the choice between 2 actions/features.

In many of the knives I've owned under a certain price point, I have found that I can have a quick smooth action OR I can have no side to side blade play.

Now at a certain point, this can be eradicated. (My Koenig Arius and Grimsmo Norseman are two examples. And my beloved CRKs are known specifically for the slow roll.) But from Spyderco to Benchmade to Hogue and others it seems the choice is a knife you can open consistently with speed (but you'll have some level of side to side play) or you can tighten the pivot to remove the play, but a flipper or flicker it will not be. So, when given the choice, which direction do you go?
Click to expand...
I recommend you buy a fidget gizmo to fidget and a CRK or other knife with tight tolerances to cut.
 
ferider said:
If you forget the PM2 and Spyderco lockbacks for a moment … most of my other PB washer Spydercos (Manix variants, Militaries, etc) can be easily flicked with no side to side play. Same is true for my PB washer Hinderers, for my Zaan, etc. The trick is always the same: you adjust the pivot so that some friction remains, and then you let the knife / washers break in.

That implies that you don’t keep disassembling the knives over and over again.

So it’s not always a trade off.
Click to expand...
Most of what you listed other than Spyderco are past the point of concern for me. It usually the sub $250 price point where I find this. My ZTs have all been good allowing me to have no side play along with good action.
 
WedgeAntilles said:
I do have an Umnumzaan that I like. I own more CRK than any other brand. Part of my reason for asking the question is I have been put off of buying "lesser" knives that I've felt the need to choose.
Click to expand...
ahhh ok.
 
One knife that stands out to me in my collection for having both of these attributes simultaneously is the Sog Seal XR. This brute of a folder flips open like greased lightening, closes just as fast when the lock is disengaged and locks up literally like a vault. You wouldn’t want to carry this one around every day but you certainly could if you wanted to fidget with your folder in one instant and baton a 2x4 the next

https://imgur.com/a/sST9cKY
 
Any noticeable play is unacceptable to me in a folding knife. To me that's absolute.
I think the action being quick or slow is merely a matter of individual appreciation, quicker feels better and is "cooler" adding
more pleasure to "flicking".
But if a quick deployment is really an issue, I'd carry any of my fixed blades.
 
I chose the second poll option, but I prefer to loctite my pivots and tune til there’s good action and no play. Let it dry overnight, good to go.

Did that with my grip I got from my boy a week or so back. It develops up and down play when the body screws that hold the axis assembly get loose too. Loctited every screw on the thing. Every body screw, the pivot, even the clip screws.

It’s smooth as silk with no play and feels solid as a brick shithouse.
 
I lke deliberate opening action, which can be slow or quick. I m not a knife flipper.
 
I picked quicker action, but just on the edge of it.

In reality, most of us would try to split the difference, I think.
 
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