Which thumb nail do you use to open your slip-joint?

[6Strings]

Depends on the pull strength of the individual knife, most of the time held in my right Hand and pinch or use the nail Nick with my left. If the pull is strong then held upside down in my left and use my right.

 

[akaMatt]

Hold the knife with my left hand, and use my right to open either by nail or by pinch. The only knives I use differently are from Colorado!

As an aside, for fun I just tried to hold my 93 lamb with my right and use my left thumb nail. I think I’m lucky I still have an attached left thumb!

 

[Wild Willie]

Whichever one isn't broken, and when both are then I use this...

 

[Misplaced Hillbilly]

Knife in right hand using left thumbnail, UNLESS its a two or more blader with nicks on the wrong side. Then I use my left index finger Either way open until enough blade is exposed to pinch it. Futher more I "test" edges with my left thumb pad, by running my thumb along the edge until I feel the edge "bite" the way I like Hence why my thumb looks like this

But even I don't do that crazy thing Mike does

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Depends on the knife. I'll switch hands, depending on how everything's oriented.

My favorite carry is a Case '75 pattern stockman. I always open blades holding the knife with the blade's spine facing UP in closed position. So, with my Case '75, I use my right thumbnail to open the clip blade (on the mark side of the knife) and the spey blade (with knife turned around to the pile side), with the handle held in the fingertips of the left hand. The sheepsfoot, also opened from the pile side, gets opened with my left thumbnail while holding the handle in the fingertips of my right hand. And lately, I've also been pocketing a Buck 311 slim trapper pattern with clip & long spey. Nail nicks are on opposite sides. So, I open the clip with my right thumbnail (mark side). Knife gets turned around to the pile side to open the spey, so that one gets opened with the left thumbnail.

Both knives shown below, from both sides:

 

[CelloDan]

John and I had the same scout leader.
I am so glad to have learned the proper way

 

[Un-Chained]

Worked many a year on benches and less so on desks. I’ve always had a slippy with me, or, in the box and in a drawer. Having had so many cuts and bruises to the hands and fingers, I’ve managed to perform in an ambidextrous fashion

 

[EngrSorenson]

John and I had the same scout leader.
I am so glad to have learned the proper way

why would you risk injury your stopping hand? You can always injure your bow hand and then tape the bow in place with duct tape.

 

[CelloDan]

why would you risk injury your stopping hand? You can always injure your bow hand and then tape the bow in place with duct tape.

wow , never thought of it that way

 

[sheep herder]

I actually had to pick up one of my knives and try it to find out which thumb I use on the blade. I still don't really know cause neither way feels un-natural. I guess it just depends on the knife and which end is the pivot end when looking at the nail nick.

 

[GE Jr]

I fret with my left hand, pick with my right hand. I wonder how Albert King or Jimi might've opened a pocket knife...

 

[JohnDF]

I am so glad to have learned the proper way

Me too, I was starting to think the whole world had gone crazy.

 

[Just Tom.]

 

[Tyson A Wright]

I open slipjoint knives one of three ways, depending on circumstances:

• One-handed, in dominant hand, pinched between thumb and middle finger to halfstop, then pinched between thumb and first finger to fully open. (This only works on some knives, but it sure is handy when it works.)
• Two-handed, handle in dominant hand, off-hand grasps blade and rotates it open and away from body. (Probably my most common way of opening a knife.)
• Two-handed, handle in dominant hand, off-hand grasps blade and stays stationary, dominant hand rotates away from body to open. (This is useful on nailbreaker pulls. I was taught this when I was young, and told it was the 'old-man method'. It's the only way my wife can get some heavier pull knives open.)

For the second two, 'grasps' can be pinched, or nail nick or long pull or whatever.

Here's the first method in action:

-Tyson

 

[mbkr]

If its pinchable, I pinch it open. If its not, then I use my right thumbnail. If the secondary blades have nicks on the pile side like some stockmans, whittlers, Case jacks etc., then I use my left thumb.

 

[Jack Black]

I can't believe what I'm reading!!! OF COURSE you open the blade with you right thumbnail!

Surprisingly, I have a video too! Sent this to a gentleman a couple of years back. He said the knife had a fault and couldn't be opened. I suggested oiling, and blowing out the joint, but he insisted it had a mechanical fault, and it was impossible to open. Here it is straight out of the envelope it was returned in, opened with thumbnail, and pinched

 

[EngrSorenson]

I fret with my left hand, pick with my right hand. I wonder how Albert King or Jimi might've opened a pocket knife...

Upside down and backwards, but with a whole lot of soul and feeling, probably based around a minor pentatonic, b5 for effect.

 

[PirateSeulb]

Pinch grip any that I can else which ever nail I can get a good grip and leverage with.

 

[5K Qs]

I'm right-handed. My "natural" method is that I hold knife in right hand, blade(s) up, and use LEFT thumbnail in nick (with left index finger pressing parallel to length of blade on other side from nick) to pull the blade open.

But more and more frequently (especially with a split in my left thumbnail that won't grow out) I've been using my right hand to pull the frame away from the blade.

And I often check first to see if I can pinch a knife open (pinching with my left thumb and index finger).

For more data from an old thread, follow this link:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/how-many-ways-do-you-open-a-slipjoint.1245274/

- GT

 

[Just Tom.]

For me... I was shown how to open a slip-joint knife "properly" by my Scout Leader.
Use the dominant hand on the blade for the most control and swing the blade away from all fleshy parts (blood zone).
He had to break my bad habit of using my left hand to open the knife and I've been doing it "correctly" ever since.

I don’t think there is a right way or wrong way, I’m just not coordinated enough to do it with my left thumb.