Quality folding knife advice needed

[Spydiefan04]

I'll second everything Klattman just said. The hole especially a Spyderco round hole is AMBIDEXTEROUS whereas thumbstuds are often put on one side of the blade only and sometimes on both. Holes do not snag on a pocket when being drawn like thumbstuds somtimes can, and holes give a much greater surface area for the thumb to contact. Overall a hole (oval or round especially) is superior to a thumbstud, about the only advantage of the thumbstud is that is allows greater variety in blade shapes, in that the stud can simply be added to any blade design and does not have to be an integral part of the design as do holes. There are some good thumbstud knives out there though, the best being the BM 710 (and the Sebenza but it's outta ur price range at around 300 dollars, as are the Striders) and the Al Mar Sere, but overall Holes are better.