What is your definition of smooth?

If I can open a knife one handed and not cut myself, it is smooth. Your definition might vary.
 
Not possible to answer. As was mentioned in this thread a few times it is subjective. I will give some examples of knives with different types of smooth. Sebenza, their have been many comments on how wonderful and smooth they are but it is a stiff type of smooth because the knife was not meant to be flicked open. I own a 21 and I don't like the action. ZT 0452CF which is considered to be one of the smoothest knives out there and I agree. Benchmade Axis Locks, if you hold the axis lock back the knife is free moving with zero resistance, to me Benchmades are the smoothest quick opening knives out there. Then I have 2 Steel Will Gekkos, they have a fluidity that is only found on Italian knives and as far as I am concerned the nicest most enjoyable action of all my knives and I have quite a few. It also depends on how you adjust the pivot on your knives, if you are willing to live with the slightest amount of side to side play on occasion you can get most good knives to fly out (not backlocks). I also like different opening styles for different knives.
I could go on but I assume that you got the idea. You will eventually come up your own definition of what you call smooth and it entails a wonderful travel into the knife world. Have fun
 
whitty said:
We have a number of customers that come in the store that like to show us their personal knives. They like to show off their own modifications, or the things they did to make XYZ knife smooth. Smooth is a word in the knife world that I don't think anyone has truly defined. 10 different customers can hand us the same model knife and all 10 will ask us to notice how smooth it is. The problem is that all 10 will be different in the way they open, close and lock up. Some are fast, some are hydraulic, some are tight and some are loose. There is never any consistency in the use of the word from what we have seen.

So the questions is: What is your definition of smooth when it comes to a folder?
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Depends.

My small 21 that is broken in extremely smooth. My Emerson cqc7v that is broken in is also very smooth but the action is not as free. Also some knives are very smooth after they break past the detent. Some knives break the detent smoothly and some

I agree that freeness of action is different than smooth. A free action generally means the knife will be smooth. However not every smooth knife is necessarily free.
 
emjay4248 said:
Not possible to answer. As was mentioned in this thread a few times it is subjective. I will give some examples of knives with different types of smooth. Sebenza, their have been many comments on how wonderful and smooth they are but it is a stiff type of smooth because the knife was not meant to be flicked open. I own a 21 and I don't like the action. ZT 0452CF which is considered to be one of the smoothest knives out there and I agree. Benchmade Axis Locks, if you hold the axis lock back the knife is free moving with zero resistance, to me Benchmades are the smoothest quick opening knives out there. Then I have 2 Steel Will Gekkos, they have a fluidity that is only found on Italian knives and as far as I am concerned the nicest most enjoyable action of all my knives and I have quite a few. It also depends on how you adjust the pivot on your knives, if you are willing to live with the slightest amount of side to side play on occasion you can get most good knives to fly out (not backlocks). I also like different opening styles for different knives.
I could go on but I assume that you got the idea. You will eventually come up your own definition of what you call smooth and it entails a wonderful travel into the knife world. Have fun
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Keep working on that sebenza. My small 21 flicks amazingly well. Also The large 21 you have I had flicking open with no problem. I think you still have the pivot too tight for a brand new Sebbie probably.
 
Hard to define and the perception can be somewhat subjective. In general knives that are not smooth have kind of a grabby feel as it gets to the detent. Smooth knives open or close with barely any perceptible grabbyness anywhere. The type of lock also has a lot to do with it. IMO Benchmade Axis Lock with the lock pulled back is the smoothest action opening on any folder I own. With it just opened with the thumb studs, its pretty much on par with any avg liner locks.

Smoothest flipper and framelock I own is a Hinderer XM 24 and it's also the smoothest overall framelock, followed by a tossup between my Sebenza 21 Insingo and any of my ZT framelocks. For some reason, the Sebenza 21 with the standard blade is not as smooth as the 21 with the Insingo. But IMO the Hinderer puts them all to shame. Smoothest action on a knife I think I ever have owned. Smoothest liner locks are my Spydercos. Kershaw the least smooth.
 
To paraphrase Justice Potter Stewart’s ruling on pornography. “ I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.”
 
Consistency of resistance at all stages of opening. I think a lot of people talk about "smoothness" when they really mean "low friction", which can be entirely different.
 
"Smooth" is used to describe bourbon, not knives. Maker's Mark comes to mind.

Folders should be sharp, centered, and without blade play. Smooth? Save it for the alpaca crowd.
 
Definition by example-Fellhoelter Kwerk
Hinderer non flipper
virtually no resistance and flow open almost by themselves
 
Some completely different yet inescapably smooth folders I've had:
Rockstead Shin (simply unbelievable, really)
Spyderco Gayle Bradley (original solid liner specimen; best of the 4+ bunch I've had)
CRK Large Inkosi (easily tuned to insane hydro-smooth)
CKF Veksha (ceramic multi-row bearing plush)
Emerson Full Custom CQC-7B (handmade by the Man)
CKF MILK (best flipper, EASILY, I've ever, ever touched)
Spyderco Vallotton Sub Hilt (those Taichung folk know their stuff)
Benchmade Rukus (I cannot believe they made the list, but they belong with this one)
Emerson Full Custom Super Roadhouse (handmade by the Man)
 
As long as it doesn't feel gritty I'm fine.

Flippers are waaay to particular for me, I know if I owned one I would get real nitpicky because I was this way with my first one hand openers.
If I couldn't flick it open without having blade play I didn't want it and I would keep the things drenched in oil so I could do this.
 
Like your customers, and from the replies so far, smooth is in the eyes of the beholder. If I'm going to put even more money into a knife that is already expensive ( according to the normal world) you better believe I'm gonna tell you it's smooth ;)
For me and what I think is smooth is different because not all my knives open with thumb studs, for those, from the time I break the detent hole to the time it's locked, if there's no resistance, drag or hang ups, it's smooth. If I grab a flipper and it opens flawlessly with the same amount of finger pressure each time, it's smooth. For an A/O, when it flies open and doesn't try to jump out of my hand, it's smooth. For a slip joint, if it doesn't peel my thumb nail back and has no drag, it's smooth.
 
marrenmiller said:
Consistency of resistance at all stages of opening. I think a lot of people talk about "smoothness" when they really mean "low friction", which can be entirely different.
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You can have low friction and still have a gritty knife. I have an Intrepid Vanguard series from Kizer. The first one flew out but was gritty and I couldn't fix it. I sent it back to them and they were nice enough to send me a new one. I'm sure it was new because I asked if I could swap it for one with Black scales instead of OD green and they obliged. Opened it up and it was the same problem exactly. The action was amazing out of the box but again the knife was gritty. There was obviously a problem in manufacturing. I still have and use it but the grittiness never went away.
 
To me there are different kinds of smooth. There's the hydraulic smooth. You open it manually and you don't have any gritty feel. It doesn't fly open but has the same resistance all the way through.
There are bearings that have little resistance and no gritty feel when manually opening.
One thing with flippers is it can have a gritty feel when manually opening but still open and lock up fine as if it smooth due to momentum.
 
Smooth, from closed to open or open to closed, would be feeling friction free with no feeling of lumps and bumps as the blade travels. For me it’s not dictated by looseness or tightness.
 
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