Who made the first flipper ?

L

lonestag

Joined
Nov 13, 2011
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162
Good morning all you fellow knife nuts! While looking at a couple of my new flipper opening folders I began to wonder who was the first to factory produce the flipper open,liner or frame locking knife,And when/where? All the years I've been in this hobby and I have no idea. It also occurred to me that one doesn't see "vintage " examples mentioned at all.I guess it had to have come after the original Walker liner lock,but I am blank as to it's origin. I'm also curious as to who who first put bearings in a folder pivot. Thanks for any history .
 
Good questions. I can’t confirm this 100%, but I think I remember people saying it was Chris Reeve who invented the frame lock, which was called the RIL, or Reeves Integral lock. Someone correct me if I’m wrong. Curious about the flipper/bearing ? Tho….
 
Way back around 96-97 my friend showed me a Mel Purdue folder with bearings in the action. Slicked lightning is the only way to describe the movement on that knife! As the story goes, Mel found out about tolerances of bearings on that one and had to individually measure each bearing to get all of the ball bearings exactly the same size.
 
I believe Kit Carson "patented" the flipper. Its been a long, long time, but I remember something in a catalog about CRKT and the "patented" Kit Carson flipper. I believe it was for the M16 series. Obviously that patent has long expired.

I always found it laughable because those M16's had terrible action and required serious wrist flick in addition to using the flipper or thumbstud.
 
K.O.D. said:
I believe Kit Carson "patented" the flipper. Its been a long, long time, but I remember something in a catalog about CRKT and the "patented" Kit Carson flipper. I believe it was for the M16 series. Obviously that patent has long expired.

I always found it laughable because those M16's had terrible action and required serious wrist flick in addition to using the flipper or thumbstud.
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Oh yeah I had a crkt m16z years ago! Didn't know they were the first factory flippers. I carried and used it a lot. Also sharpened it a lot too. The soft aus8 steel would dull if you looked at it . Had the titanium one too,same butter knife blade,but titanium handle,figure that combo out. Thought they were so cool high tech tactical and they were in their day.
 
Bill Siegle said:
Way back around 96-97 my friend showed me a Mel Purdue folder with bearings in the action. Slicked lightning is the only way to describe the movement on that knife! As the story goes, Mel found out about tolerances of bearings on that one and had to individually measure each bearing to get all of the ball bearings exactly the same size.
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I'll have to look that model up. Imagine the precision work that went into it. Pricey and rare now I'd think.
 
ferider said:
If I remember right, Mel Pardue invented the back flipper in the 50s, and Kit Carson brought it to the masses.

Now, the front flipper is older, invented in the early 1900s.

Roland.
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Now that is intriguing I seem to recall that after infamously silly switchblade ban in 1958 an Italian knife called the Rapid was a manual one handed stiletto with a sort of flipper that also locked/unlocked the blade. Years later Sarco made a version of this. Not very fast or practical as it was an upside down flipper meaning the tab was on the top of the handle when open and would unlock the blade when your thumb touched it.
 
pretty sure romans could flip open their folding knives over 2k years ago ... and really, even pre roman there were iberian and hallstatt folders dating to 500-600 bce

actual find from hallstatt cemetery (austria region)... notice the little folder in the middle, lower half... (and other great fixed blades of course: )
Fouilles_n%C3%A9cropole_Hallstatt.jpg
 
Sorry, I don't see a flipper tab on any of those Roman knives. At best I'm guessing it would be classified as a slipjoint now, more than likely just a friction folder.
 
you don't need a flipper tab when there is no friction or spring involved, right?

you're trying to invent something (a flipper tab) which was not needed back then... at least that seems pretty straightforward
maybe I'm missing something, but this seems really simple
 
There was a guy Paul Fox who made custom knives in the 80s with a flipper tab on the spine for a front flipper, before Carson switched the tab to under the edge, which I think was in the mid-2000s?
 
I'm pretty certain that the first production knife with bearings was the CRKT Ripple back around probably like 2008-2010. That's the first one that I ever saw and I remember it making waves in the community. It used the IKBS bearing system. A Ken Onion design.
 
fishface5 said:
There was a guy Paul Fox who made custom knives in the 80s with a flipper tab on the spine for a front flipper, before Carson switched the tab to under the edge, which I think was in the mid-2000s?
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I think I remember meeting Mr.Fox at a knife show in the 1970s (?) Now I'm showing my age😊. Sort of like Emerson's wave but stuck straight out meant for finger use rather than pocket catching if I remember right. It may have been Mr Fox who had a one handed opening electric powered knife at that show as well.no kidding,it had a tiny watch battery powdered motor that slowly opened the blade upon pressing a button.it locked/unlocked with a thumb bar attached to the lockback bar too. About 400-500 bucks ,way too much for a poor young guy then,, but wow!
 
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