Is "flinging" a folder open with inertia abusing it?

I don't slam my Dodge pickup door when a gentle push will do. I don't drop the bolt on an empty chamber on my semi-auto M1 or AR15 rifles. I don't cut food on ceramic plates or metal baking sheets or glass cutting boards. I don't start my Honda motorcycle and immediately rev it to 4,000 rpms while cold. I don't use my Craftsman ½ inch drive as a hammer. ...and I don't flick my folders.

SIFU1A, I don't think I've purchased anything but real tools here that can withstand as much abuse as any other tools. If you can think of "real" tools that I should have purchased here, I'm all ears.
 
Don't take it too seriously. Just use it and do not care so much about it.
After it has disintegrated in your hand because you had been "opening it too hard" then let's have this kind of thread :D

It takes quite a time to wear a metal...
 
SIFU1A said:
some would say real men buy tools which will withstand abuse.............
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I treat my tools with respect. I could play cowboy and spin the cylinder of my 40 year old Ruger SA when I load it but I don't, that is very hard on the hand. I don't dry fired my shotguns playing Doom, it's hard on the firing pins. I don't run my Mini at 6000 rpms all the time, it's hard on the engine. I don't push hyper velocity rounds thru my suppressors, it hard on the wipes. My tools will withstand abuse in an emergency, I see no reason to subject them to it unnecessarily. Because I take care of them I know they will last a lifetime, not the 4-5 years someone mentioned for their Spyderco. I own one of the black all metal Police Models, must be 15 years old at least, it is as tight as the day I bought it.
 
i inertia open my folders, and have never had a problem either, i train sometimes for SD and ya have to practice deploying the things, i have sure had some of my stuff for 5 yrs too with no problems.

like i said ya shouldnt be obbssesive/compulsive about it and do it all day long, but practicing deploying the thing occasionally is just something ya gotta do w/a SD folder, and i still dont think inertia opening knives is any harder on them than waving them open, and EKI stuff gets waved all the time.

so what knives have ya bought which wouldnt hold up to inertia opening?? i am all ears too lol.........i suppose i should aviod them lol.

what good is a tool which will withstand abuse, but ya dont know how to abuse it (ie ya carry a folder for SD, something happens, ya need to deploy it quickly and <gulp!!) ya are gonna have to draw and inertia open it or some scumbags gonna take it away from ya and stick it were the sun dont shine, and since ya have never practiced this since its "abuse" ya try to do it and drop the thing, what good is your heavy duty do it all never fail knife now, huh?)

i suppose it just depends on what ya carry the thing for, i wouldnt ever inertia open mine to cut a piece of string, or some pizza, but if something happens and i do need to deploy it fast i am gonna practice with it to do just that, and that means ya are gonna have to wave it, or inertia open it, after drawing it, and any knife i own is gonna have to withstand that, or i'll get something else.

if it isnt for SD then it doesnt matter i suppose, but then again i wouldnt spen $500 (and up) on a utility knife, myself.

imho a good well built knife should be able to shrug off the occasional inertia opening no prob, and its been my experience that most of them will do just that,
 
A manufacturer that makes such a claim is probably just covering it's butt. However, any knife that suffers detrimental damage as the result of flinging open is probably not worth keeping.
 
Probably not related but...

My machinery in heavy construction (Cat 950) used to shovel granite little stones for concrete sometimes wear out faster for some 950s than others.

Apparently (according to my foreman recently) impact of steel to steel in the older units (cause stuff don't fit as nicely as they used to) causes damage and eventually failure. Even when subjected to lower impact usage the clankety clank oldies experience pin/bolt shearing compared to the well fitting newer boys even when we use them to the fullest.

Basically in my opinion it is not a good thing to do onto your knives without a doubt... :)
 
I've always believed its abuse, as noted it's hitting metal against metal in a fashion it wasn't designed for. On a side note when I see people doing it and I mention it they think I'm nuts and flicking knives open seems to be the accepted practice in the Army.
 
SIFU1A, I don't speak "text message" but will respond to one comment you made. Deploying your self defense knife by flicking takes too much three dimensional space &#8211; space the bad guy may not allow you to have. It is no more "speedy" to flick it than just to just use the thumbstud or hole, if practiced.
 
There is a difference between flinging a Frisbee :thumbdn: and flicking a booger:thumbup: and jerken :jerkit: your chain . Use just enough force to get the booger off of your finger.
 
Show me a knife that will be damaged by being flicked, and I'll show you a POS knife. I wouldn't carry such a knife. I don't care if it's a Spydie, Buck, Sebenza, or whatever sacred cow.

This isn't some elitist notion about me carrying only the most bulletproof of knives. It's the other way around, by my experience of flicking open, repeatedly and carelessly, very cheap knives, without significant damage.

Think about it. A knife that will fail when being open in this fashion is very likely to fail catastrophically when being used hard in a very normal way. Who around here would even bother with such an accident waiting to happen?
 
huugh said:
It takes quite a time to wear a metal...
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I've done it.
Didn't disintegrate, but developed more vertical blade play than I like.
Ended up in the "retired knife" pile, and I don't slam my knives open now.
BUT, it IS fun to do, so if you like flicking them open, get one which you can dedicate to flicking. Flick it till your wrist hurts; I just don't recommend flicking the knives you plan on trusting your fingers to.
Of course, a FEW flicks never killed any but the crappiest of knives.
 
pedicabdriver said:
what about waved knives? with a fast draw, i'd say they open just as hard as if you were flicking it.
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Not really, unless the pivot is really loose on your flicking knife, or unless your TRYING to mash the hell out of your waved knives.
I used to pride myself on my flicking ability; I can flick open the OLD Cold Steel folding tantos, the ones I've never seen a picture of here; they don't flick for anyone else but one person I've met.
Eventually, my tanto developed blade play. Eventually, my Colt Ar-15k developed blade play.
Eventually, a bunch of knives(about ten) developed blade play over the years, and I thought, "hey, maybe I should stop mashing the hell out of my knives."
As for SD practice, you can easily open a blade with a hole as fast as an inertial opening, without mashing any components, and without needing extra room(even a little bit of extra room can be at a premium).
There is NO NEED other than the fun of it for flicking your knives.
BUT, if you like replacing them every 4-5 years, go for it. Really, I mean it. I just like MY knives to stay in tip-top shape other than requiring occasional sharpening.
 
shecky said:
Think about it. A knife that will fail when being open in this fashion is very likely to fail catastrophically when being used hard in a very normal way. Who around here would even bother with such an accident waiting to happen?
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Nope. Those same "crappy" knives were able to take full power stabs into wood(pine and oak and trees) with no blade play developing; had a few bust the tip off, but no blade play, UNTIL the flicking started.
Smack a piece of steel, any steel, with a hammer for a while; what do you see? DENTS, peening, wear, on the steel your hitting, or on the hammer face, or both.
It is a simple fact of material wear, which is fine if you accept replacement as the price of your fun.
 
bruce said:
SIFU1A, I don't speak "text message" but will respond to one comment you made. Deploying your self defense knife by flicking takes too much three dimensional space &#8211; space the bad guy may not allow you to have. It is no more "speedy" to flick it than just to just use the thumbstud or hole, if practiced.
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sometimes it would & sometimes it wouldnt it depends on the scenario, its certainly an option i wanna have available to me if i should need it. as far as being fsater/slower that just depends.

same thing with waving a knife open, some scenarios wont allow ya to wave it, some will,

ya lost me on speaking text message though, WTF are you speaking of??
 
I've heard a couple instances of the Camillus/Ralph 5.5" D2 blade (stop??) breaking from the impact of repeated inertia openings. It seems like it's been discussed here. I've got 2 of them and have been a lot more carefull opening them since I read about this. Joe
 
Absintheur said:
If you beat steel against steel often enough there is going to be peening of the metal or loosing of the joint, just simply fact. how long it will take for that effect to cause damage is determined by the quality of the knife, the type of steel, and the weight of the parts hitting each other.
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What, you mean physics comes into play?

I agree, carry a knife for a year or two then take a look at the blade stop and you will see the effect. It may just be an initial change in the polish of the part but eventually it will deform to some degree or another. OF course, with the better built knives, this may take hundreds of thousands of opening cycles to achieve any real damage.
 
There is flicking, and then there is FLICKING! Takes some practice on your part and a correct adjustment to the knife's pivot, but I have been flicking knives open over the past 10 years with no weakening of the knife parts. The flinging or slamming open a knife will definately take a toll over time, but what can be done is to flick the knife open so that the blade just falls into the locked position with only a little "snick" and not a large "BANG". Since I crry my knives for everyday use I don't slam them open, except to do so one time after I've disassembled and then reassembled them. The hard opening is done just to "adjust" everything! In a sd situation.............well, I hope that it never happens to me.
 
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