What's up with ZT? Does every knife they put out have to be a flipper?

Anyone claiming to "deploy" their knife should be taken with a grain of salt.

And who cares how fast you can open your folder, and why claim "I can do X faster than you..."? What, do we have a referee here with a stopwatch?

Good lord...:rolleyes:

For what it's worth, I enjoy flippers and thumb studs/holes/disks too. Neither opening method is superior. I mean, what if you guys had to carry a slipjoint? Man...the agony of taking 1.67 seconds to open your knife! How would we live!!!:rolleyes:
 
Where a well-designed flipper or Spyder-hole is great is when one is wearing heavy winter gloves.
Many knives with thumb-studs and disks cannot be effectively opened while wearing bulky gloves (I have a bunch of all sorts, so I get to try out the various opening methods).

But basically, just buy what you want. :)
Want a ZT without a flipper? Get a ZT 0630.

Or just buy a different knife from a different company; pretty sure at least one or two companies out there will have knives you like. :thumbup:
 
Blues Bender said:
Anyone claiming to "deploy" their knife should be taken with a grain of salt.

And who cares how fast you can open your folder, and why claim "I can do X faster than you..."? What, do we have a referee here with a stopwatch?

Good lord...:rolleyes:

For what it's worth, I enjoy flippers and thumb studs/holes/disks too. Neither opening method is superior. I mean, what if you guys had to carry a slipjoint? Man...the agony of taking 1.67 seconds to open your knife! How would we live!!!:rolleyes:
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Exactly.
 
Blues Bender said:
Anyone claiming to "deploy" their knife should be taken with a grain of salt.

And who cares how fast you can open your folder, and why claim "I can do X faster than you..."? What, do we have a referee here with a stopwatch?

Good lord...:rolleyes:

For what it's worth, I enjoy flippers and thumb studs/holes/disks too. Neither opening method is superior. I mean, what if you guys had to carry a slipjoint? Man...the agony of taking 1.67 seconds to open your knife! How would we live!!!:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Hahaha , that "stopwatch" comment had me cracking up. I agree with you btw.
 
stabman said:
Where a well-designed flipper or Spyder-hole is great is when one is wearing heavy winter gloves.
Many knives with thumb-studs and disks cannot be effectively opened while wearing bulky gloves (I have a bunch of all sorts, so I get to try out the various opening methods).

But basically, just buy what you want. :)
Want a ZT without a flipper? Get a ZT 0630.

Or just buy a different knife from a different company; pretty sure at least one or two companies out there will have knives you like. :thumbup:
Click to expand...

Good point. I don't prefer any opening method, I have, and like them all. BUT....when wearing heavy gloves nothing is easier to open than a flipper.
When it was brutally cold here I took a few blades out when walking the dogs. Flipper opened up easier than studs or hole.
Just sayin.
Joe
 
Opening a knife one-handed is a feature I really, really like. I honestly don't care one bit about speed in opening a knife. If I needed the blade open as quickly as possible I would carry a fixed blade.

I don't mind flippers as long as there is a stud, disc or hole on the blade so I can still use my thumb for pushing it open. Unfortunately, ZT forgot to add that little detail to their latest offerings. ZT and about everybody else, that is.
 
palonej said:
Good point. I don't prefer any opening method, I have, and like them all. BUT....when wearing heavy gloves nothing is easier to open than a flipper.
When it was brutally cold here I took a few blades out when walking the dogs. Flipper opened up easier than studs or hole.
Just sayin.
Joe
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Just more personal preference and experience. I find flippers useless when I am wearing heavy gloves or more likely mittens. Cold here is < 0F and there are no gloves that are warm enough for me at those temps. When you have serious winter gloves or mittens on, the material gets in the way of the blade opening, it is hard to press a flipper, and you can't feel what you are doing through the thick fleece or whatever. I also cannot wedge a finger onto a thumbstud. Discs sometimes work but by far the easiest for me is the larger spyderholes, such as found on Military. YMMV.
 
I like thumbstuds just fine...but the flippers that I have used seem to work just fine. It is a transparent parameter to me...meaning that I just don't notice it...it works that well.
 
All good points. Variety is the spice of life for sure. For me, I don't really have a need for fast deployment. I really don't flick knives either, as I more prefer to ease/butter them open. Just seems less aggressive. I will admit that back in the day deployment speed was something I cared about.. until I realized it really didn't matter at all. Then I began to appreciate the slipjoint for it's classic, no rush opening. That being said, there are some places I go that only an Emerson tags along, for when deployment speed is the most important.
 
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ZT builds knives that sell. If most of there knives are assisted/bearing flippers you can be assured they sell better than assisted/manual thumbstud knives.

And by that I mean the ZTs sell better, not necessarily the market overall. They are dominating the flipper market. Spyderco flippers are underwhelming still and Benchmade is lost in the woods.
 
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Scurvy092 said:
ZT builds knives that sell. If most of there knives are assisted/bearing flippers you can be assured they sell better than assisted/manual thumbstud knives.
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This is pretty much true. ZT caters very hard to market trends and sticks to a formula. They build a good knife, but they also play things very, very safe.
 
I've got push buttons autos,scale release autos, leverlocks, flippers, spydy holes and traditionals. To me they're like donuts. There's no such thing as a bad one :)
 
Like wazu13, I have lots of different knives--no autos, though. I like flippers, spydie holes, thumb studs. I have axis locks, frame locks, liner locks, and have even come to appreciate back locks. The one thing I don't care for is spring-assists as there seems no need and closing is harder. I have de-assisted those of mine that I can and much prefer them that way.

I also wonder about the speed-of-deployment thing. How many tenths of a second makes a difference? Ease of deployment (there's that word again) and especially closing seems more germane.

I carry what will be appropriate for the day when I head out. Sometimes it's better not to have a knife that flies out with a whack--why offend or frighten when there's no need?--so no flipper that day.

Lots of choices out there and it seems silly to wish a maker would tailor their products to your preferences when you could just buy something else that you like better. Whatever floats your boat….
 
ZT's offerings may have limited opening mechanisms but they do it very well. Spyderco primarily has Spyderholes and Emersons the wave so it seems some companies excel at certain specifics. As a side note, I have been able to open my 0562 using the thumbstuds. Gripping the knife in a manner enabling their use my fingertips would add pressure to the detent making opening it impossible. The thumbstuds are not practical or easy to use I just tried it out of curiousity.
 
ChazzyP said:
...it seems silly to wish a maker would tailor their products to your preferences when you could just buy something else that you like better. Whatever floats your boat….
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Huh? Manufacturers are pretty much supposed to cater to our preferences, that's what keeps them in business...
 
Insipid Moniker said:
Huh? Manufacturers are pretty much supposed to cater to our preferences, that's what keeps them in business...
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So, should every manufacturer make some of everything in order to satisfy everyone? Or should each manufacturer just satisfy what's currently popular or trending in the market? Spyderco doesn't make great flippers and Benchmade doesn't make great ti frame locks. I'd rather they do what they do best (though there's no harm in trying) and buy other styles from other makers.
 
ChazzyP said:
So, should every manufacturer make some of everything in order to satisfy everyone? Or should each manufacturer just satisfy what's currently popular or trending in the market? Spyderco doesn't make great flippers and Benchmade doesn't make great ti frame locks. I'd rather they do what they do best (though there's no harm in trying) and buy other styles from other makers.
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Manufacturers should be flexible enough to respond to market demand. Also, Benchmade has made some incredible framelocks over the years. The Skirmish springs immediately to mind.

Pointing out that you want X feature on your knives is feedback for the manufacturer. Particularly when you do it on the largest knife forum on the internet and one that we absolutely know manufacturers pay attention to. That's one of the best ways to judge demand and market preference. Sure, if you're like me and dislike ti framelocks, you're probably already in the minority and there's not a huge reason for a company the size of KAI to put out products specifically to satisfy a niche audience, but if a few hundred people on here start complaining about flipper only ZT models? You can bet they'll be a few next year that have some thumbstuds thrown on.
 
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I would also love to see a few ZT models using thumbstuds. I've been hoping for a ZT version of the Les George VECP. We got the 909, which is close, but flipper only. I don't really like flippers too much so I have sold off all but one ZT. There are plenty of other brands out there though, and ZT does make excellent knives. I'm sure once my flipper itch needs another scratch I will get some more ZTs.
 
They make what their folks tell them are most likely to sell best. People here are not generally fans of SpeedSafe. KAI uses it a lot because they sell the mess out of them. Threads like this one are always amusing. KAI is in business to make money, full stop. If their distributors/retailers were clamboring for more thumb studs and fewer flippers, that's what they'd get.
 
I like Zt knives pretty good. Maybe they dont want to have to pay to use the spidy hole or if they need the "thumb studs" as blade stops.

On a side note, why do some of you have to turn every thread into an argument. So you can "deploy" your Knife faster "for emergencies". How often is that necessary? Chill out and don't make everything some show off competition. My knives are all tuned to open slow and smooth and after many years I have never found the need to trim my "knife deployment" time down from 1 second to point 7 seconds or wherever those times actually are. Either way, who cares.

OP best of luck finding the right knife. Maybe if you find a keeper you can have CM shave off that Flipper.
 
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