Is your SpeedSafe knife faster opening via the thumbstuds?

M

MacTech

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Jan 7, 2006
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611
I've been playing with my three AO Kershaws, Rainbow Chive, Leek and normal Leek, and I've noticed a consistency with all three of them

the flipper/index opener is marginally slower than the thumbstud, when I use the index flipper, the blade seems to open a fraction of a second slower than with the thumbstud

the thumbstud seems to give a harder, faster, "thwackier" open, so I wanted to verify this, I grabbed my Eternalight ErgoMarine flashlight, set it to the fastest strobe setting possible, and opened each knife at least 4X with each opening method

under the strobe light, I could see 3-5 instances of the blade "frozen" as it opened when the flipper was used, when the thumbstud was used, the motion was generally too fast to be frozen, maybe 1 freeze at the most

I made a short QuickTime movie of the strobe effect and speed difference...

this happen to anyone else? do you find the thumbstud marginally faster than the flipper?
 
I don't know, whenever I try to open my Leek with the thumbstud I end up cutting my thumb.
 
I have several Kershaw and other brands of AOs and I agree that the thumb stud is faster than the flipper for me. I think it has to do with the type of pressure you apply to open the blade with the thumb stud vs the flipper.
 
Mine are also faster with the thumbstud......when just comparing the 2 techniques. Drawing the knife from my pocket and deploying the blade......the flipper wins out.
 
your thumbstud should be faster. Its almost as if you are assisting the "assist". By using the index flipper only your limiting yourself as to how much power you can put behind the blade. With the thumbstud its easy to get faster opening. remember a torsion bar is a torsion bar, if you were to be able to somehow do a scientific test with a computer and a robot ( way too much work) actuating either mechanism with the same force, i think you find them near identical in speed.
 
I've noticed that if I've been using my Lahar or JYD a lot that I tend to overdo it a bit with the flipper on the SpeedSafe knives, they open way faster than with the thumbstuds.

On SpeedSafe knives (or other AO's) I tend to just slide my thumb forward along the edge of the scale, hitting the thumbstud and popping it open. I don't generally follow through with my thumb, it stays on the edge of the scale/handle (less likely to cut my thumb).
 
Yes, my Leek (S30VG10) is definitely faster with the thumbstuds.

But with my Spec Bump there's no discernible difference.
Perhaps because there's no liner lock applying friction?

I noticed a difference in blade deployment speed when using the thumbstuds or flipper on my Buck Tempest - out of the box.
A drop of lube cured that - now there's no difference.

And my Camillus Heat and Sizzle also show no difference between flipper and thumbstuds.

My Leek definitely opens faster with the flipper after I applied a drop of FP-10 lube to the pivot than it did before.
 
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