What's the best production flipper?

It depends on whether you are looking for smooth, fast, or simple utilitarian usage. Or some combination of the three.

Spyderco definitely falls into more of the utilitarian aspect. I've owned a Southard and own a Domino and neither would I call smooth or fast.

I own a Kizer 4423 and it is incredibly smooth, but not particularly fast.

I've owned multiple ZT's, and the 0801 was an absolute rocket ship. It flew open faster than the Flash taking a dump.

Brous Bionic falls somewhere in the middle.



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I just picked up a Liong Mah Endevour from his site a few weeks ago for $365.00 (it was a sale), the knife is amazing, it flies open and has a nicely finished satin blade. the fit & finish of the back spacer makes it look like an integral frame. The ergonomics are also the best I have felt in this price range.

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My ZTs are some of my best flippers. 801, 572, and 452. These are all excellent flippers named left to right from smoothest to snappiest.

My Spyderco Domino is quite smooth and fast but doesn't flip as effortlessly. I would stay away from Spyderco Flippers bexaise of the problems the Advocat and Mantras have been having with the ball bearings wearing through the support washers. Apparently it can happen on dominos and southards too.

No one will believe me becaise it is extremely counter intuitive but my Emerson CQC7 flipper is like greased ice on wheels. It doesn't have a super snappy action though because of the detent but can be flipped quite fast.
 
This CKF , with ceramic bearings is a stand out among mine. I can open the blade partly and just barely move the handle the blade will move so precisely into to lockup, it's super smooth. Flipping is pure effortless no matter how you do it.

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i would vote for the older 452cf my newer version is a great flipper but, is slightly not as good with detent. Its more on par with a custom vs the newer ones that are great but, not as nice. The 450 is a great flipper and something thats not the best but good overall is the boker kwaiken.
 
Lemon, since you brought this one back from the dead (it is close to Halloween), I'll say any of my ZT0562s. Though I'll admit that the cheaper, G10 version with Elmax seems the smoothest, if not a little loose, though locks up beautifully. Regardless, those Olamic 247s, mmmm, yummy.
 
Hard to believe, but the best flipper action I've encountered by far have been on two examples of the new WE 711 "Blitz." It's obviously an entry-level WE liner lock at $100, and comes with a 3.4" VG-10 blade and G-10 scales over steel liners. Nevertheless, the blade rides on ceramic bearings and it comes with a (somewhat idiosyncratic given the price) titanium pocket clip (allowing right-handed tip up carry only).

I first bought a green one and was pleasantly surprised when the flipping action fully lived up to the knife's name - Blitz. Positive action was not dependent upon technique; both "light switch" and "push button" were equally reliable, fast and snappy, with absolutely no wrist flick or unnatural grip or finger placement necessary.

Thinking it might be a fluke, I ordered a second one, this time in red. This one too had the same wonderful flipping action, and to be brutally honest, both samples easily better other pricier flippers I own and have handled selling for more than ten times the price.

Frankly, I find such performance at this affordable retail price quite remarkable, even more so when you consider that Blitz blades are ground from 0.12" stock and therefore cannot have the sheer mass and inertia that a thick-bladed flipper would.

WE happened to tune the detent retention and flipping action just right. More power to them.
 
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My best flipper in terms of sheer versatility (thumb studs or flipper, so not just a strict flipper) and fall shut with little movement might actually be my Real Steel Thor, but that could just be from the nearly 4" blade coupled with a good detent and bearings. You have to actively try to make it fail to flip.
 
Officer's Match said:
The Brous T4 I used to have was also an amazing flipper, actually better than the Divisions I've had.
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My Brous Virtue is the best flipping flipper I've ever owned. My ZT 0095 is a very close second. My Brous Bionic XL is just slightly behind the first two. My Kershaw Skyline is a good flipper to not run on bearings. Once I used Benchmade blue lube on it I can now flip it open with no wrist action. It's hard to beat the little Skyline flipper for the price.
 
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I have owned quite a few flippers, and my favorite is the ZT 0770 in carbon fiber. It is one that I have kept... Whenever I consider selling it, I take it out of the box and flip it once, and put it back in the factory box. It is assisted, but is absolutely great.
 
I've got a few flippers that I enjoy... but, overall, I prefer them to have another opening method. (Preferably, functional thumb studs; but I can deal with a hole)

I don't know if it is my "best" flipper...but my GM3 is definitely my favorite. (That statement obviously limited to only include those flippers that I have actually tried.)
 
Best flippers...

Closing (weak detent): CKF Trekoza (drops like it’s hot)
Snappy AF: ZT 0452CF, Liong Mah Warrior One, Bastinelli Safe
Smooooth: Shirogorov F95 Connoisseur on washers! (Try one)
All Around: Liong Mah GSD
 
Size makes a big difference in this question. Some knives are able to flip quite well do to the size & weight of the blade. I have medium to small hands and prefer somthing around "3. I just received a Farrum Forge Falcon made by WE Knives that's got a 3" blade and it flipps beautifully everytime! Though I will add that it comes with a sculpted clip that seems a bit to thin and some have claimed easy to bend. I don't use the clip so I didn't really notice myself. This knife impressed me so much I sold it lol. I know that sounds crazy but I mean I sold it so I could use the money to add to the money I managed to dig up to put a Custom Farrum Forge on layaway lol.
 
ChazzyP said:
.... I also have a couple cheap Buck Vantages that flip poorly and a SOG TwitchXL that's assisted. Obviously any assisted flipper should come out well, but I don't care for that feature at all, which is why I de-assisted my 0350 and my non-flipper Benchmade 581.
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The funny thing about flippers is that if you hand almost any one of them to a non-knife or non-flipper person they usually can't get the knife to deploy at all. My take is that almost any flipper requires its own special technique--be-it push-button, light-switch, pre-load--and some practice. As with anything, YMMV.
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From my limited experience with flippers, I don't think you can go wrong with a ZT. Not generally a fan of de-assisting knives, but folks do it. The SOG Twitch XL is assisted and it opens slowly in comparison to the regular Twitch. I doubt it would be much good un-assisted. The SOG Vulcans (regular and mini) flip very smoothly. I don't like the handles generally but they flip nicely. These were actually my very first flippers. I carried the mini-vulcan for a while and don't really have any issue with it other than I am not a fan of the textured handles (hot spots). But how often do I use a knife long enough that hot spots matter?

I bought a Steel Will Mini Cutjack (3") in the last couple of weeks and it flips nicely. You need some wrist motion to make it flip quickly which is okay with me as sometimes you don't want to make the much noise opening it (thack as the blade opens quickly). The regular Cutjack with a 3.5" blade opens nicely too, but I didn't want the larger knife for regular carry.

I agree as non-knife people will generally have to be shown how to open a flipper the first time. This is especially true for frame locks. I was showing my brother in law the Cutjack and he was nervous opening it. I showed him a number of times. He is having trouble opening some knives now but is a big knife person, so the ease of opening a flipper was appealing to him. Wouldn't be at all surprised if he buys one. I would suggest the regular Cutjack for him since he has big hands.
 
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I'm too lazy to read through, did anyone mention the Freeman 451 Button Lock Flipper? Because it's the Freeman 451 Button Lock Flipper.

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