tip up/tip down carry question

brewmeister bill · Feb 13, 2012

twid said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOzZ4xTjh4I&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Here's my tip up/down video. I don't have the largest hands so I prefer my bigger folders tip down. It feels like less fumbling to me weather it is or not, it's faster for me. Obviously tip up for waved knives. Other than that I don't really care and usually leave the clip as it comes from the factory.

Thank you! that first knife in the vid is perfect to describe how I am with tip down carry! I don't have it down as fluid as you, but imagine that in slo-mo. It feels awkward to me...

bdmicarta · Feb 21, 2012

twid said:
Here's my tip up/down video. I don't have the largest hands so I prefer my bigger folders tip down.

I have always preferred tip down. You seem to reach your thumb pretty far down into your pocket and put your fingertips on the clip during draw, then there is a repositioning of the knife in your hand after you open it. It is too fast on the video to really determine all of that. I have relatively tight jeans pockets so I don't reach into my pocket. My pockets are too tight to actually reach into my pocket and grasp the knife handle. The tip of my first finger usually is on the top end of the clip, where the screws are on most clips. The tip of my thumb is on the back of the knife opposite this. I pinch the end of the knife between those two points and pull it out. As my hand comes up and rotates one way, the knife rotates the other way and falls into my palm. At this point my thumb is on the thumb stud/hole, I open the blade, and no repositioning is necessary, the knife is automatically exactly where I want it to be.

With tip up there is no chance you can reach into your pocket and have the knife cut you unless you have the clip on the wrong side of the knife, or the knife in the wrong pocket.

I don't understand this. With tip up if the knife opens a small amount, when you put your hand into your pocket it seems that you are impaling your hand right on the end of the blade. I had a tip-up blade open partially on me one time and I didn't know it. When I tried to pull the knife out the point of the blade went through the front of my jeans.

SpookyDriver · Feb 21, 2012

bdmicarta said:
I don't understand this. With tip up if the knife opens a small amount, when you put your hand into your pocket it seems that you are impaling your hand right on the end of the blade. I had a tip-up blade open partially on me one time and I didn't know it. When I tried to pull the knife out the point of the blade went through the front of my jeans.

I carry tip up. The blade cannot open partially because the spine of the blade is pressed against the inside seam of my pocket. I've carried this way for over a decade in shorts, jeans, dress pants, cargo pants, etc and it's not possible for the blade to open even slightly. And even if it did open slightly, the blade would be on the opposite side of the knife when I reach in my pocket and wouldn't be able to cut me anyway.

And to answer a previously asked question, I've never had the knife move from the position in which it was clipped unless I reach down and move it myself.

brewmeister bill · Feb 22, 2012

SpookyDriver said:
I carry tip up. The blade cannot open partially because the spine of the blade is pressed against the inside seam of my pocket. I've carried this way for over a decade in shorts, jeans, dress pants, cargo pants, etc and it's not possible for the blade to open even slightly. And even if it did open slightly, the blade would be on the opposite side of the knife when I reach in my pocket and wouldn't be able to cut me anyway.

And to answer a previously asked question, I've never had the knife move from the position in which it was clipped unless I reach down and move it myself.

This has been my experience as well...in more years than I care to count, I've never had it shift or open (even in the cheapest of knives I bought in my younger years)...I still don't think one way is more right than the other, but it seems both sides think the other way has some of the same faults (re-positioning, etc)

Chris "Anagarika" · Feb 22, 2012

RR carry is best tip down with normal/right hand clip. The blade will be against the seam, and the way it's retrieved & deployed is the same as RF (Harkamus' description)

My other larger blades are zip tie waved, so they are tip up.

MRaymond · Feb 28, 2012

I carry my PM 2 tip down as it came and my thumb stud knifes tip up. Short of having a "waved" knife, I don't see how I could get a knife open any quicker than grabbing the spyderhole and flipping it as it comes out of my pocket.

bdmicarta · Feb 28, 2012

I did a few experiments yesterday.
I took a few of my tip-down knives, clipped them in my pocket, pulled them out and noticed that when the knife rotated into my palm my thumb was in the right place to open it.
Then I took my mini-Grip which is my only tip-up knife and did the same with it. I have carried it for 2 years and never noticed a problem pulling it out and deploying it. But when I did it slowly and observed it, I pull it out and when it moves into my hand my thumb is about halfway down the scales. I have to shift it in my hand before it is in the right position for my thumb to open it. This is a relatively short knife, if I did this with a longer knife I would be holding it on the wrong end for opening and it would have to shift a lot before I could open it. I think I understand how the tip-up people do it, they reach farther into their pockets and grab the knife before pulling it out. With my hands and my jeans pockets I can't do that.

themandylion · Mar 1, 2012

I carry my knives tip down for my safety. It doesn't matter if carrying tip up provides for faster deployment in an "emergency," because in said emergency, I'll just use a pistol.