Why nail breakers?

[KnifeHead]

I like spring load to be just right

 

[tomcrx]

Heavy vs light....it is all personal preference. Is one really better ?...not really. I have knives with both and have used both. They all do the same thing. Knock on virtual wood, have not cut myself once since the age of 15. My favorites have always had heavy springs. They just feel more substantial. All the old knives I have from my Dad and grandfather's carried are thumb busters. My grandfather was one of those guys that always wore a vest. He always had this old stag Boker half-congress in his vest pocket that he used for small jobs. I think that thing has a pull of "11" and he used it all the time. I don't think I could open it until I was about 12 y.o. . Maybe it's genetic and I inherited the trait.

 

[sgbeskin]

I have several older Case knives from 1950 up to the 70's. I also have a mint condition Camillus jacknife from the early part of the 1900's. Several, if not most, of those knives are harder to open than my GEC 73. Must be a Mississippi thing!!!

 

[Seals]

I like a good tight snap,but if its actually hard to open,its just no good.Sometimes a good workout under hot water and dawn (wear gloves)and then your favorite premium lube,(or a shot of Canola oil) will ease them up quite a bit.A light pull means it closes up easily on you if used slightly incorrectly which is real bad too.Personally,id rather deal with the tight pull.

 

[KnifeHead]

I have several older Case knives from 1950 up to the 70's. I also have a mint condition Camillus jacknife from the early part of the 1900's. Several, if not most, of those knives are harder to open than my GEC 73. Must be a Mississippi thing!!!

Many (I'd say a high percentage of them) old knives had a manly lockup. There's plenty of knives out there with girly spring loads though.

 

[NirreBosse]

Many (I'd say a high percentage of them) old knives had a manly lockup. There's plenty of knives out there with girly spring loads though.

OR

The ones with good but lighter snap got all used up by their owners and only the nailbreakers that people didnt use that much got left for the afterworld? And the realy hard ones got put into the sockdrawer and therefore is mint even though they can be 50 or 100 years old.

Bosse

 

[KnifeHead]

OR

The ones with good but lighter snap got all used up by their owners and only the nailbreakers that people didnt use that much got left for the afterworld? And the realy hard ones got put into the sockdrawer and therefore is mint even though they can be 50 or 100 years old.

Bosse

That's actually a pretty good theory. I like it. :thumbup:

 

[hoopster]

That vicious half-stop is what caused me to take a trip to Med7 to get the end of my finger glued back together. This was due to my Queen/Burke Barlow after I had just reprofiled the main blade.

I probably carried my Queen/DB small barlow for close to a month with no issues, then I got careless and the half stop got me upon closing twice in the same spot on consecutive days. Man that hurt. I've got the band aids tripled up to stop the blood seepage.
Still think it's half stops and pull are about perfect.

 

[JAlexander]

Jeff I agree totally and the geometry to alleviate that issue is not that difficult to achieve. As you can see from this picture, the spring contact point, in the Half to Open position (Arrow A) is nearly a 90 degree... SHARP corner. Compare that to the Closed to Half position (Arrow B) and you can see it's more of a radius.

This helps make the knife smooth to open to half and slows the blade to close alleviating spring wrap. Moving the contact point closer to the pivots center creates less tension in the spring.

That's a great explanation, Brent. Thank you for posting the pictures to illustrate.

I've been thinking about the issue a bit more, and I realized that the strong springs that I like best are all on knives that I can pluck open, like my Hampton BP and my first Ray Kirk Scagel folder. But as I said before, I have really stout thumbnails, so anything up to an 8 is easy for me.

I like spring load to be just right

If you're Goldilocks, Kerry, who are the three bears? Never mind. Don't answer that. Please.

James

 

[oldrifleman]

Some of my favorite looking knives, never got carried, because they were unbelievably hard to open. Its really a shame.

My new Buck 301 is very smooth, and easy to open. Almost a little to easy, but after carrying it, and using it, I really appreciate it when I go to open it, and I've never felt like it was unsafe

Same here. I bought one AG Russels BG42 Stag stockman knives. It looks really great, but the smaller blades are all but impossible to open. I have flushed the joints and even left it open in my desk for 6 months, I even spent a few hours opening and closing the blades (after wrapping the blades of course), still no luck, so now it just sits. Steven

 

[tomsch]

Sounds like me. I carried mine for some time with no problems. I just happened to slip and take a slice right after I reprofiled the edge so it was very sharp. Didn't hurt much because it went through the top of my finger without even slowing down.

I probably carried my Queen/DB small barlow for close to a month with no issues, then I got careless and the half stop got me upon closing twice in the same spot on consecutive days. Man that hurt. I've got the band aids tripled up to stop the blood seepage.
Still think it's half stops and pull are about perfect.

 

[Will Power]

All this has got me feeling the collection

One knife in particular gets it just right, it's a Chambriard Le Compagnon, a contemporary Traditional French knife in Ebony and stainless. Around 4.25" closed it has a long and quite broad Skinner type blade with the nail nick far down the blade towards the tip. It's solid but quite easy to open due to the nail nick. But it's HELL to close, really hard and you must get those fingers well away or like that other French knife, the guillotine, they'll be chopped Good arrangement though but only likely to work on a single blade and with a broadish large blade.

 

[RKH]

This is an excellent topic. I have often wondered why a knife must be so hard to open that it nearly broke a thumb nail. My SAKs and Case SWB Jacks are just about right. And when my hands are wet or it is very cold a very strong back spring could be dangerous. This from my younger days of hunting. This may be the reason lockbacks became popular as most well made lockbacks have a light to medium strength back spring.

RKH

 

[KnifeHead]

This is an excellent topic. I have often wondered why a knife must be so hard to open that it nearly broke a thumb nail. My SAKs and Case SWB Jacks are just about right. And when my hands are wet or it is very cold a very strong back spring could be dangerous. This from my younger days of hunting. This may be the reason lockbacks became popular as most well made lockbacks have a light to medium strength back spring.

RKH

Maybe so, and the blades will often fall open when pressing the lock release. They are way easier to open and have cam-ended or round tangs.

 

[joe-bob]

Same here. I bought one AG Russels BG42 Stag stockman knives. It looks really great, but the smaller blades are all but impossible to open. I have flushed the joints and even left it open in my desk for 6 months, I even spent a few hours opening and closing the blades (after wrapping the blades of course), still no luck, so now it just sits. Steven

Send it back to AG, they will take care of you.

 

[sgbeskin]

I like the ol' nail breakers myself!!! Gives a good feeling hearing pop open and then snap shut!!!!

 

[tomcrx]

I like the ol' nail breakers myself!!! Gives a good feeling hearing pop open and then snap shut!!!!

QFT...they feel more suited to use as a working knife...dependable.

As kids we had to clean the ducks after the hunt. On one occasion my cousin and I had about 30+ scoters and mergansers to clean. We always filleted these right away because they did not hang well. A strong springed knife was more forgiving when your hands were cold and you occasionally got the tip caught up under the breastbones. Worth it though, pan fried fresh without the skin they were very tasty

 

[Peregrin]

I like a firm back spring myself but have no use for nail breakers. I've got a few and they are buried somewhere in my storage cabinets.

I've got one custom that I bought on the secondary market, that I feel is dangerous to try to open and close. Most of you would recognize the makers name. It's a beautiful knife but I can't carry something I don't like to use.

 

[Peter Parker]

I think GEC is the exception and they have pushed the envelope to the max if my #73 is an example! I wouldn't want a lot of these types but once they're broke in, at least on mine it isn't that bad. To me Victorinox is right on the mark!

 

[Raymond1000]

Once upon a time a fellow who seemed to know his stuff told me “A Puma folder is twice the knife Buck ever thought of being.” So I bought a Puma folding hunter. It’s patterned after the Buck 110, with a clip blade and a wood saw. I bought it decades ago, for woods roaming.

It’s been a drawer queen ever since because it’s a nail breaker. It does looks shiny new, I’ll say that for it.