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.
irsh said:
Is this one of those Knife Snob threads? 🧐

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I guess it could become that. That wasn't the intention.

Let me add an additional place of where this came from for me. I'm left-handed. That means there are a great number of knives that are off the table for me. While I can manipulate a right-handed frame lock or liner lock just fine, if they can't be bothered to give me the option to swap the clip, I've largely avoided them. So I look for knives that can be ambidextrous at the least. Enter the Axis/Able lock common to Benchmade, the Hogue Ritter, and some Spyderco models as well as others. It's part of the reason most of my Benchmades have been sold off. I couldn't ever get it to a spot of both solid lockup and action. My PM2s from Spyderco can sometimes get there, but I've found it difficult to keep them there. (Maybe they just need more break-in.)

So while there are some makers making solid actions and lock-ups, such as Civivi, many of those models are out for me for other reasons. Leaving me to debate this topic with those models that are ambidextrous or lefty completely and having to decide what I'm willing to tolerate at different price points.
 
Look for left-hand Hinderers, Chris Reeves, Spydercos, Olamics, and Shiros...
(Portsider here also!)
 
I don't have this squeaky/loose dilemma anymore since I got a nice set of bits and quality lubricants


hEUtRyK.jpg
 
WedgeAntilles said:
So I look for knives that can be ambidextrous at the least. Enter the Axis/Able lock common to Benchmade, the Hogue Ritter, and some Spyderco models as well as others. It's part of the reason most of my Benchmades have been sold off. I couldn't ever get it to a spot of both solid lockup and action. My PM2s from Spyderco can sometimes get there, but I've found it difficult to keep them there. (Maybe they just need more break-in.)
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I have 12 compression-lock Spydercos, if I counted right. Ten of them, including two PM2s, will flick open with thumb or middle finger and drop closed. No break-in required. The two Caribbean Salts will flick open but need a wrist twitch to close. The Yojimbo was very difficult to open out of the box because the pivot screws were stupidly tight, but once I broke the thread-locker, it opened and closed just fine. Not a trace of blade play in any of them.

I have over 20 manual Benchmades. Just the other day, I got a SPOT Show Bailout that it is too tight to flick open and the pivot is thread-locked. I may have to send it back. Of the others, there were maybe 3 or 4 where the pivot screw needed to be loosened no more than an eighth of turn to get them to drop closed, and all of them now drop closed. Except for the bad Bailout, all of them could be easily flicked open with either a thumb or a forefinger out of the box.

I have handled and tested around a hundred or so other Benchmades in local stores. A few needed the pivot screw to be loosened slightly. An Auto Reflex had some blade play out of the box. An Auto Stryker had bad centering. An assisted Boost was hard to open out of the box. There was one other that was not fine out of the box or off the dealer's shelf, but I can't recall what it was. I have notes somewhere.

The more heavily-used of the above knives sometimes need to cleaned and lubricated every few years to maintain the action.

Where do you buy your knives? I want to make a point of not shopping there.
 
Another Shepherd said:
I have 12 compression-lock Spydercos, if I counted right. Ten of them, including two PM2s, will flick open with thumb or middle finger and drop closed. No break-in required. The two Caribbean Salts will flick open but need a wrist twitch to close. The Yojimbo was very difficult to open out of the box because the pivot screws were stupidly tight, but once I broke the thread-locker, it opened and closed just fine. Not a trace of blade play in any of them.

I have over 20 manual Benchmades. Just the other day, I got a SPOT Show Bailout that it is too tight to flick open and the pivot is thread-locked. I may have to send it back. Of the others, there were maybe 3 or 4 where the pivot screw needed to be loosened no more than an eighth of turn to get them to drop closed, and all of them now drop closed. Except for the bad Bailout, all of them could be easily flicked open with either a thumb or a forefinger out of the box.

I have handled and tested around a hundred or so other Benchmades in local stores. A few needed the pivot screw to be loosened slightly. An Auto Reflex had some blade play out of the box. An Auto Stryker had bad centering. An assisted Boost was hard to open out of the box. There was one other that was not fine out of the box or off the dealer's shelf, but I can't recall what it was. I have notes somewhere.

The more heavily-used of the above knives sometimes need to cleaned and lubricated every few years to maintain the action.

Where do you buy your knives? I want to make a point of not shopping there.
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Here on BF, or from authorized online dealers. Maybe you've had better luck. I have just had too many where the choice was quick action or no play, but not both.
 
If blade play was a haunted spirit, then its been following me around from knife to knife, that and a phantom wet grinding sound on several knives in a row like two fine sand paper grits slowly grinding against eachvother when opening and they were brand new knives
I Just can't with folders anymore.
and I keep giving them chances ( won't name brands, but they are highly recommended ones)
 
Blade play is a no-no for me. I have 6 Spyderco's and none have play. 2 compression locks, 1 CBBL, 1 liner lock, and 2 frame locks. My Para 3 didn't have play either.

I will say that my PM2 and Manix 2 are 9 years old, and well broken in, and the GB1 is 10 years old in a week.

I remember when I installed the RGT burlap micarta scales on the PM2 it took some tuning to get the blade centered, fast, and no play. The Yojimbo 2 didn't require any of that. It's about 6 or 7 years old.

I did run into an issue with the Ikuchi I owned (pre CQI) where I either had the option of severe off centering and blade play or having the pivot so tight it wouldn't open. I returned it. DLT was understanding and took it back, great company to work with. The rep told me it would go back to Spyderco as defective.
 
WedgeAntilles said:
I have both lefty Hinderer models, over a dozen lefty CRKs, and a lefty PM2. Would love to get a lefty Olamic at some point.
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Their Buskers. and Wayfarer Classic & Compact models can be fully "Southpawed".
 
Alot of times, aftermarket scales can change a knife for the worse : i ruined a perfect PM2 this way and a Cold Steel AD15 ,too .
 
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