When and what were the first one hand openers?

R

Roger Blake

Joined
Oct 11, 1998
Messages
707
When and what were the first one hand openers? I mean the non automatic, not switchblades. Knives opening by stud, disk, or hole requiring only one hand. Who produced them first (custom or factory).

thanks,

------------------
Roger Blake
 
I do'nt know it they were the 1st but Spyderco gets credit for popularizing them
 
I can reliably date the balisong or butterfly knife to 1895 and I've been told that it appears in books dating the early 1700's though I have not seen them myself.



------------------
Chuck
Balisongs -- because it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!
http://www.4cs.net/~gollnick
 
I got a device called a "Flickit" that was essentially a friction fit stud that I put on my Gerber Folding Hunter sometime in the late 1970s.

------------------
Walk in the Light,
Hugh Fuller
 
Hey Guys...

You know,, you just beat me to this post...

Was thinking this Very same thing last night...

Many years ago probably 25 now,,before all these fancy holes, studs and disks came out,, there was a little gadget called the "Flick-it".

I bought it when I was just a kid.. I can't believe I've still got it. Actually I'm holding it right now...

This is a little clip with a ramp on it. It attaches to any blade by means of tension. It just slides over the blade, actually it is tapped on with a hammer...

It's a really cool little item, although it is a little bulky.

Does anyone remember the Flick-it and is it still available ? This one is sterile, so I don't know who made it....

Any help would be great as I'd like to get another for a couple old lockbacks I have...

Thanks....

Eric..

------------------
Eric E. Noeldechen
On/Scene Tactical
http://www.mnsi.net/~nbtnoel
Custom made, High Quality
Concealex Sheaths and Tool Holsters
Canada's Only Custom Concealex Shop!

 
My first production one-hander was a Blackjack Folding Mamba....ambidextrous thumbstuds with vicious edges.
One-piece Zytel handles. Bought it in the mid-late 80s. Gave it to a German backpacker couple in about 1988....they didn't have a knife ! And backpackers were going "missing" at an alarming rate....several were found in shallow graves in a State Forest a year or so later.(bad guy is in jail, now)
I replaced it with another of the same model....still with the vicious edges on the studs.


------------------
BrianWE

If I am a Figment of Your Imagination....Stop It, PLEASE!
 
Though I can't speak about 'first' I do know I've read and seen drawings/pictures of one hand openers dating back to civil war time. Believe what I remember was that because of cannon and ball we had lots amputees. Surgeons got real good at amputating feet/legs/arms/hands and saving the injured's life. Result was we had a post war 'boom' of men needing devices to make their lives more liveable. I remember seeing a folder that had a stud/pin in place to facilitate opening. Also remember seeing a knife/fork combo, also a folder, made to do the job of both, also a one hand opener. Certainly the idea came from somewhere, where prior to this I lost the trail. BTW I've given a cpl. knife demo's in a nursing home, kinda a show 'n tell, get about 6-10 show up that want to see and talk knives. Some have partial paralysis from stroke and such. After looking at some of my older pieces that they remember I show them some of my onehanders. Ya ought to see their faces light up when they figure out how they can open'em up using their one good hand. Ya can tell there's a lot of kid in all of us no matter the age of the body. Lots of fun.

------------------
Only perfect practice makes perfect
 
I was in the old courthouse in Tombstone, AZ a few months ago and saw a pocket knife that was probably 100 years old in a display case. It had a hawkbill type blade and a hole in the blade very similar to a spyder hole except a bit smaller. I don't know if it was for use as a hole or whether it held some sort of stud that fell off at some point, but it definately looked like a one-hand opening folder. I took a couple of pics but I don't have a scanner yet, so I can't post it.

Ryan

------------------
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 6:23


 
There were indeed a number of amputees post Civil War. Doctors could, and did, amputate a limb in about one minute! This was to minimize the pain the patient suffered. It was a rather poor job, to say the least, but it did work. This, BTW, was the practice in the surgical theatre as well as on the battlefield.

The hypodermic syringe was invented at about this time so that morphine could be injected to wounded soldiers, a lot of whom ended up as morphine addicts.

Someone(s) decided to introduce a new drug to take the place of morphine; it was just as effective and non addictive. They suceeded beyond their wildest dreams. The new drug? Diacetyl morphine, commonly known as heroin. Walt
 
The Christy Sliding Blade Knife has been in continuous production since 1936. They are smaller than the current tactical blades, but they are awfully handy. You can see them at:

www.christyknifeco.com
 
What I want to determine is when the modern type (stud, disk, hole) one hand opener came into being.

------------------
Roger Blake
 
No where near as old as the Balisong, but about the time of the first Spydie, there was the Rolox. When open it looks like a standard folder until you realize the opening for the blade to fold into is on the wrong side. Blade opens (and locks) by sliding it forward in the scales. Won't close under the normal back-of-the-blade lock test, but I wouldn't want to stab a rib with it.
 
The first Prototype Spyderco Clipit was shown at the SHOT show in New Orleans in 1981.

The first production Spyderco Clipit was introduced Oct 81 at the Dallas, Texas State Fair.

The Japanese Higonokami and the Bali Song have been around for hundreds of years.

Many knife people developed the "style" of opening a folder like a clipit by just pressing on the side of the blade on a spring back or lock back folder. I learned this "trick" as a kid in the 50's.

IMO, I think "evolution" is more of what's happening, than "mutation". We learn to see farther by standing on the shoulders of our predecessors. Perhaps the evoution is accelerating, like everything else in this modern world.

sal
 
November 98 issue of tactical knives page 43 credits Robert Terzuola with the invention of the thumb disc in 1989.

Kevin
 
Spyderco holds the patent for the round hole, so I would bet they were among the first to have it.
I don't know who had the thumstud idea first.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top