Quick and secure way to draw and open a tip up folding knife?

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ooheadsoo

Joined
Dec 18, 2005
Messages
112
Sorry if this doesn't belong in this subforum. I'd search but I can't seem to figure out how to get the search engine to work despite reading the faq.

The only way I can figure out how to draw and open a tip up knife without excess shifting and flipping the knife around is to reach my thumb all the way inside my pocket to remove the knife, seat the spine in my palm and use the opening mechanism. With tip down, for me, it's easier and faster by just grasping the top of the knife to draw it from my pocket, securing it in my palm, etc. It's faster and more effortless if I don't need to dig my thumb into my pocket. Now that I'm "stuck" with a very nice tip up Yojimbo, I have to resort to refining my tip up technique. The problem with what I've already got is that my pockets are often tight and it's unintuitive for me to stick my thumb down there. This is especially true if I'm sitting down and my legs are compressing the pocket.

Am I missing something?
 
ooheadsoo said:
Am I missing something?
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Heh, I think I might be missing something. I'm guessing your preference is tip down? I haven't had a tip down knife in a while, drawing/opening tip up is a no-brainer for me. :confused:
 
So do you guys just reach in with your thumb? No interesting alternatives? It's much smoother, to me, to simply grasp the top of the knife while it's in the pocket tip down and when you pull it out, it naturally places itself with the opening mechanism at the top. With tip up, you need to reach down into the pocket to get your thumb near the opening mechanism, and it requires a down and then up motion. The tip down carry can be drawn with a smooth motion that doesn't require changing directions.
 
ooheadsoo said:
So do you guys just reach in with your thumb? No interesting alternatives? It's much smoother, to me, to simply grasp the top of the knife while it's in the pocket tip down and when you pull it out, it naturally places itself with the opening mechanism at the top. With tip up, you need to reach down into the pocket to get your thumb near the opening mechanism, and it requires a down and then up motion. The tip down carry can be drawn with a smooth motion that doesn't require changing directions.
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Yeah with tip down you kind of tilt the spine of the knife into your palm. The general idea of a tip up is to put your thumb in and slide the knife up, with your index finger keeping close to the opening mechanism (in your case the compression lock). It should be effortless but apparently you're having a bit of a pants problem--I have the same problem with certain jeans, but oh well.
 
Personally I find the tip up knives to be my preference these days but there are some that simply work better tip down. The Spyderco Military for example. It is just too long to get your hand on the proper place without a reshift to a better position to open it tip up carry. Tip down puts your hand in a better position to open it immediately upon retrieval. In fact tip up seems to work much better for the shorter knives in general. Once the handle gets over 5" its probably going to work faster easier and better tip down. At least that is my take on it.

STR
 
Tip up draw comes more naturally to me, though that's a matter of personal preference.

However, tip up, especially on a Spyderco, also gives you the option of easily recreating the Emerson wave effect, either with a zip tie through the hole or a more permanent dremel tool modification, where the blade opens automatically as you draw it from your pocket.

Do a search on "wave" or zip-tie -- there are a bunch of threads about it.
 
If tip-down works better for you, why not stick with it?
My first quality folder came with a tip-down-only clip setup and thus I got used to it. When I bought my first tip-up folders, I gradually developed a preference for tip-up carry.

ooheadsoo said:
Sorry if this doesn't belong in this subforum. I'd search but I can't seem to figure out how to get the search engine to work despite reading the faq.
Click to expand...

Try searching for "tip" and use the (very worthwhile) "search titles only" option. You probably won't find a lot of threads that pertain to this particular subject, but it might help you the next time you have a question.
 
Buried in the OP, I mentioned that I have a nice Yojimbo that I'd like to try in my edc rotation.

Thanks for the tip on searching.
 
tip up is good for inertial openings like the "brownie pop." Pull knife out & use physics (works best w/heavy blade) to cause blade to pop out w/o touching it.
 
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