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Kershaw Blackout - easy to open?
- Thread starter Goldskin
- Start date
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2000
- Messages
- 333
First of all--Welcome to the Forums.
My Blackout became easier to open,after a week.It is my everyday
carry,& i never had a problem with it.I love it!
My Blackout became easier to open,after a week.It is my everyday
carry,& i never had a problem with it.I love it!
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2002
- Messages
- 3,179
for three or four years now. Opens just fine. Don't remember what it was like when new. We have three Kershaws in the house (Blackout, Chive and a 10+ year old DWO) and so far I've been impressed with all of them. Good bang for the buck. I'd say just keep playing with it, it shoulld loosen up a little.
Frank
Frank
Yes... the Blackout should be very easy to open......
BUT.....
the thumb stud opening is a different technique.
I believe most people's difficulty with the Kershaw/Ken Onion Speed-Safe assisted opening mechanism is the assumption that the thumb stud action is/should be the same as a comventional liner-lock.
It is NOT.
On a Speed-Safe knife the thumb stub is pushed away from the handle and as the blade reaches about 30deg the torsion spring starts to take over - and one should take the thumb out of the way to allow the blade free movement to open by itself - sounds simple.
On a conventional liner-lock the correct opening sequence is to push the thumb stud to rotate the blade out on its pivot and continue to follow through until the blade is in the final locked open position - sounds "similar".
But if one does this on a Speed-Safe knife - the follow-through pushes the thumb directly onto the blade edge (ouch!).
So there is a slight difference in opening technique - that has to be (re)learnt.
Try holding the knife handle (closed) with both hands - for confidence - and use the opening thumb to find the best angle to push the blade out - remember to only push the blade out - NO follow through. Once that "optimum" angle is found - practice one-handed - then you'll probably find the Blackout is much easier to open than any conventional liner-lock.
Unless of course there is something FAULTY with your sample of the Blackout...............
BUT.....
the thumb stud opening is a different technique.
I believe most people's difficulty with the Kershaw/Ken Onion Speed-Safe assisted opening mechanism is the assumption that the thumb stud action is/should be the same as a comventional liner-lock.
It is NOT.
On a Speed-Safe knife the thumb stub is pushed away from the handle and as the blade reaches about 30deg the torsion spring starts to take over - and one should take the thumb out of the way to allow the blade free movement to open by itself - sounds simple.
On a conventional liner-lock the correct opening sequence is to push the thumb stud to rotate the blade out on its pivot and continue to follow through until the blade is in the final locked open position - sounds "similar".
But if one does this on a Speed-Safe knife - the follow-through pushes the thumb directly onto the blade edge (ouch!).
So there is a slight difference in opening technique - that has to be (re)learnt.
Try holding the knife handle (closed) with both hands - for confidence - and use the opening thumb to find the best angle to push the blade out - remember to only push the blade out - NO follow through. Once that "optimum" angle is found - practice one-handed - then you'll probably find the Blackout is much easier to open than any conventional liner-lock.
Unless of course there is something FAULTY with your sample of the Blackout...............
I don't think it's a break in period so much as our learning the technique correctly. It's not like opening a normal one hander. Aside from what was said above about no follow through, I think there's an angle at which you need to push the stud, though I can't explain what that angle is. Once that angle is correct, it needs very little pressure to get the knife to open. If you don't get that angle correct, the knife won't even open a fraction no matter how hard you push at it.
I remember I made my thumb sore the first few days trying to get the Whirlwind to open consistently. After a 10 minute struggle I'll get the hang of it for the night and put it away. The next night I end up having trouble again. It wasn't until a few nights in a row that the correct action starts to get ingrained in muscle memory and I can open it with barely a touch of the stud. When I let my friend try it though, she couldn't do it consistently no matter how much I coach her. So it wasn't that the mechanism softened up as it was that she hadn't gotten the technique down. Just keep practicing, it gets easier.
The speed safes with the flipper are much easier to open using the flipper.
I remember I made my thumb sore the first few days trying to get the Whirlwind to open consistently. After a 10 minute struggle I'll get the hang of it for the night and put it away. The next night I end up having trouble again. It wasn't until a few nights in a row that the correct action starts to get ingrained in muscle memory and I can open it with barely a touch of the stud. When I let my friend try it though, she couldn't do it consistently no matter how much I coach her. So it wasn't that the mechanism softened up as it was that she hadn't gotten the technique down. Just keep practicing, it gets easier.
The speed safes with the flipper are much easier to open using the flipper.
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2002
- Messages
- 701
yup
my avalanche callused my thumb
but you get used to it after a week or
about torsion bar failure
the one that came with my scallion broke after 3 months (ok, my fault, played with it everyday)
i emailed kershaw and they mailed me a new one, gratis
talk about good service
my avalanche callused my thumb
but you get used to it after a week or
about torsion bar failure
the one that came with my scallion broke after 3 months (ok, my fault, played with it everyday)
i emailed kershaw and they mailed me a new one, gratis
talk about good service
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2002
- Messages
- 2,483
I didnt. I sent them an image of it in pieces and they sent me two new springs. to bad i lost the knife a week a later.:grumpy:
yeah, if so, yes, and the one on the avalanche was 1570
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2002
- Messages
- 2,462
I have found that you can "Thumbnail" the knife open with just the back of your thumb on the stud, once you get used to it. This also keeps you from having to think about "following the blade with your thumb." As for lube, a tiny bit of lube such as Tuf-Glide, Mil-Tec, 3 in 1, or even Transmission fluid on the pivot will help smooth the action, and keep it flicking great.
Bill
Bill
I've thought and experimented a bit more about using the thumb-studs on a Speed-Safe assisted opening mechanism.
On all 6 of the Speed-Safe knives I have, the optimum angle seems to be:
Draw a line from the pivot point to the thumb-stud -
push at right-angles (90deg) to that line.
Once you see/feel the blade start to move and leave the handle -
lift the thumb out of the way.
So the motion is somewhat like flicking - an initial slight downward pressure to get purchase/grip on the stud, then when the blade moves - up and out of the way.
Do NOT follow-through as on a conventional manual liner-lock - that merely pushes the thumb onto the blade edge.......
If the angle is right, then there's fairly little initial resistance -
if the angle is off then there will be times when it feels almost impossible to open the thing.
So the initial push is very similar to a the optmium initial angle for a conventional manual liner-lock - ie: one is trying to rotate the blade out from the handle - except on a Speed-Safe knife the angle is much less forgiving.
But once the blade starts moving - on a Speed-Safe knife one had better get the thumb out of the way!
I use the fleshy outer corner of my thumb next to and just below the corner of the thumb-nail - this seems to give me good control I can open the blade in slow motion fraction-inching the blade until it's ready to spring out. Others use the thumb-nail itself - which might save wear on the thumb - but I find it doesn't offer the degree of control I'd like, and once the correct/optimal angle is learnt opening is "easy" and there is low wear on the thumb anyway
- but as always YMMV.
On all 6 of the Speed-Safe knives I have, the optimum angle seems to be:
Draw a line from the pivot point to the thumb-stud -
push at right-angles (90deg) to that line.
Once you see/feel the blade start to move and leave the handle -
lift the thumb out of the way.
So the motion is somewhat like flicking - an initial slight downward pressure to get purchase/grip on the stud, then when the blade moves - up and out of the way.
Do NOT follow-through as on a conventional manual liner-lock - that merely pushes the thumb onto the blade edge.......
If the angle is right, then there's fairly little initial resistance -
if the angle is off then there will be times when it feels almost impossible to open the thing.
So the initial push is very similar to a the optmium initial angle for a conventional manual liner-lock - ie: one is trying to rotate the blade out from the handle - except on a Speed-Safe knife the angle is much less forgiving.
But once the blade starts moving - on a Speed-Safe knife one had better get the thumb out of the way!
I use the fleshy outer corner of my thumb next to and just below the corner of the thumb-nail - this seems to give me good control I can open the blade in slow motion fraction-inching the blade until it's ready to spring out. Others use the thumb-nail itself - which might save wear on the thumb - but I find it doesn't offer the degree of control I'd like, and once the correct/optimal angle is learnt opening is "easy" and there is low wear on the thumb anyway
- but as always YMMV.
