- Joined
- Apr 25, 2011
- Messages
- 267
For that reason I couldn't see myself going full time to friction folders. Using them yes, but not everyday. I can control my cutting when it's in my hand, but when it's in my pocket I've no control over the blade slipping out. It's movement can be minimized, but hat tip poking out can still happen easily enough. \Not that it would suddenly sever my femoral or anything, but I've no need to get even mildly stabbed by a knife unless it's in my hand by my own stupidity.
I don't need locks, although I still carry one of my two lockbacks on occasion because I like those particular knives and don'twish to get rid of them, and I don't wish to have knives around that I'll never use. But for pocket carry every day I tend to go for slipjoints, although I'm very much new to the slipjoint world I'll admit. The springs can fail, but the likelihood of this is far less likely than a lock failing, and the added but of safety of a spring keeping the blade firmly closed when not in use is something I like. I do sometimes worry about guillotining my fingers, but that won't happen with anything less that brute force stabbing and foolishness, and I'm careful with my knives. I recognize that the same technique breeding safety concept applies to friction folders as well, but again the added bit of safety of a spring just incase is comforting.
Friction folders may have been around forever, but I think people from hundreds and from thousands of years ago who carried them would not necessarily look down upon a slipjoint if they had access to one. They might think it fantastic and want one for themselves. Some surely would, others would not. They couldn't ma
ke that decision though simply because the had no access to slipjoints or the ablity to manufacture them for a reasonable price, or at all. If they did, perhaps they'd think differently. Another way to look at it, when slipjoints first came about, it was at a time when pocketknives, for those who carried them, were friction folders, and they still looked to design something a bit sturdier as they finally had the resources and ability to do so.
Personally I like frictions, and slipjoints. I carry slippies by choice for a variety of reasons, but my real preference would be to always carry a small fixed blade (and maybe a small slipjoint in the pocket) as my edc without society's hassles and outright lunacy about it. I do carry a small fixed blade sometimes as I legally can, but I'm looking to get a smaller on than I currently carry to make it's public use discreter and easier, but in the meantime my slipjoints are my workhorses. My Opinel #6 gets carried sometimes, and I do tend to use it as a friction folder a lot, but that lock still gets engaged when it goes back in my pocket.
