Tip up or Tip down

I hadn't noticed spine to pocket seam till this thread, My CRK and Native are both oriented that way.
My SAKs are made that the key ring /fob puts the master blade tip up.
And for grins, I checked my belt carry.. 112,501..etc and they are all in the sheath tip up, spine to rear.
 
Tip up ... spine out towards the front.
Hasn't Been a problem for me either.

I like my options for opening my knife better this way.
 
Mostly tip up , because I prefer wave opening .

Strong enough detent to prevent accidental opening .

The only knife I carry with other stuff in that same pocket is on my keychain . ;)
 
Both, not an issue for me. IMHO tip down was a safety necessity before detents became more reliable. Point in case, the Benchmade Emerson 970 and 975's of the 90's were tip down but when Emerson CQC-7B's came out in the late 90's with the Emerson double detent, they were tip-up.
 
I carry in my right front pocket. Tip up since the blade is against the seam of the pocket. I'll NEVER carry or own a tip down knife.
 
hhmoore said:
What I remember most about moving to knives with clips is that, for a while, they were all tip down.
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My first knives with clips back in that era were tip down, these were knives with metal liners and G10 scales. When Spyderco started making knives with FRN molded handles the molded clips had to be tip up so the clip wouldn't interfere with the pivot.
There a lot of threads like this where people give their preferences- usually it runs about 3:1 in favor of tip up.
There are a lot of ways to carry a clipped knife. Some people like the added security when they can carry tip down with the blade pushed up against the edge of the pocket where it can't open. Some people like wave devices or lanyards and fobs which both require tip up. And depending on your clothing it is possible that tip down is faster to deploy or maybe the speed is equal. So there are a lot of factors that can favor one way or the other for each individual person. If carrying a knife with weak detent then you certainly should choose a method that keeps the cutting edge away from your hands, whatever that method is.
I have my own preference but there are knives that I like that are only made to work "the other way" so I own and carry knives of both types.
 
There are those that carry knives tip up and those that are wrong. I don't care how you carry but I will judge you on it. 😆
 
Been carrying a spyderco delica clip it since 1992 it’s tip up / ready to open one handed, sitting here looking at my daily carry’s all are tip up from the factory,
spyderco , benchmade, case , buck, I carry a serrated edge In right pocket and plain in left never had a problem with tip up on left or right side
 
I've only had a knife open once from tip-up in my right pants pocket. I had been organizing my office, moving boxes, etc. The knife stayed clipped but had rotated out into my pocket, away from having the spine against fabric. Meanwhile, the thumb studs had been pressed against something just right from outside the pocket and pushed downward. The knife had partially opened and rotating back to its normal spot gave me a little poke from the tip!

It was nothing serious. It didn't draw blood. It was nothing like the time a tip-down knife in the same pocket caught the edge of my pinky. 😯

Having the spine against fabric is generally safer. If I'm carrying a small firearm in a pocket holster, that'll stop me from clipping a knife into my right pants pocket. That sometimes means carrying a folder tip-down against the side seam of my right rear pocket. I also tend to prefer tip-down for flipper tab placement when carrying in a shirt or breast pocket.
 
Rat Finkenstein said:
spine of knife against the back of pocket = tip up or down won't matter
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Absolutely this.
I carried a tip down knife but didn’t follow this rule.
For some insane reason, it had opened and locked, and I don’t know how I didn’t stab my sides or cut myself.

for me, tip up with the spine against the pocket is the easiest to arrange.
 
It’s that age-old question! Solution: fixed blade.

Kidding aside, spine against the pocket seam works for me too. Depending on the knife design, something might catch on the pocket clip (thumb stud, jimping possibly) as you pull the knife out. Weak detent also sucks.
 
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