Why no love for self assist?

I've never owned an assisted knife.

Rightly or wrongly I've always had the concern that an assisted knife might open in my pocket. So for that reason I have avoided them.

Mostly I consider assisted openers to be a bit of a gimmick to sell knives. But I don't mean that in a derogatory way. If people like them, to each their own.

I don't know if people with hand impairment would find them easier to open than a manual, but I could imagine they might.

In my state of California, autos (blades 2"+) are illegal to carry, but it's legal to carry an assisted knife of any size, so perhaps in this state assisted knives fill a niche for people with hand impairment.

But again, if people like them, more power to them. Buy what you like :).
 
Olumin said:
We have a saying in Germany: "Nichts ganzes und nichts halbes", meaning; "nothing whole and nothing half". Give me a manual or an automatic, not this in between nonsense. Assisted knives have gained a negative reputation because many cheap, low quality knives use it as a crutch to cover up an otherwise atrocious action. Like cheap gas station flippers that wouldn't even work if it wasn't for the spring.

Either make a well executed manual, or go automatic. IMO no self respecting maker should manufacture assisted knives, there is just no place for them. I know that not all of them are cheap crap, but I just cant see them any other way.
Click to expand...
Well my Hawk assisted opener, Boker Griplok, is well made in taiwan and the Hawks are rightly proud of it. It has a toggle lock feature just to make it lock open and satisfy German law.
 
I want full control of how my knives open. I’ve never needed an assisted opening and I have only one automatic. I can open fast, slow or in between when I want it that way.

The assisted knives I have tried seemed either to fast for casual use or unexpected thwack drawing attention from near by persons like i was being a show off and received a frown or two. So i steer clear of assisted opening knives. I don’t hate em , I just don’t need em.
 
I have experienced issues with the assist spring in a few knives I've owned. Over time, it tends to break or become dysfunctional. I still have my old assisted Kershaw, but the spring became damaged, so I decided to remove it. While I could have requested a new spring from Kai, I prefer leaving it as is to avoid further disassembly. Although the assisted opening function is convenient, resembling that of an automatic knife, I find that many assisted knives lack long-term durability.

l569wcl.jpg
 
Reswob said:
I get the feeling that most people on this forum hate on assisted openers simply because other people on this forum have said that they're "not cool anymore", and have never personally used one.
Click to expand...
👍👍👏👏👍👍
I call that the “Me Too” syndrome.
Can be applied to many other scenarios also!! 🤨
John 🥾🥾🏔️
 
I've had one AO purchased when just getting into knives and it s#cked, so I was tainted early.
 
I will always have a soft spot for AO knives as a completely viable work around to stupid auto laws. I fully believe that it was the advent of these fast but legal knives that pushed my state to just drop the automatic knives ban. They basically had the choice to sweep up a whole class of knives being sold at Walmart and make them illegal or just realize that automatic knives aren't any more dangerous and just update the laws that have been on the books since Rebel Without a Cause.

I have a few, but I converted most to manual. I typically like manual folders or OTF autos anyway.
 
My first assisted knife was a Kershaw Cyclone. It's still in my collection. Back then, I chose this model because we could turn off the speedsafe feature and turn it into a manual knife. I've never seen a similar knife afterward. I personally don't like assist knives. They don't make me feel solid. That doesn't stop me from getting them though. Some are very aesthetically pleasing.
 
I carry assisted Benchmades all the time.
I work in the woods, mostly at night, and carry a lot of gear. When I want my knife out and deployed it IS. I don't have to look at it and it never fails. Plus I started carrying knives about 20 years before the internet existed and don't really care what's "in style."

Actually I'll go further than that.
Caring about what's in style, or what other people think of your knives, is a problem.
 
Last edited:
20+ years ago i bought a kershaw whirlwind. The first time i opened it, the thing launched out of my hand and cut one of my fingers pretty badly. I liked the knife otherwise so i kept it but that was the last assisted knife i bought.
 
I've got a couple of A.O. Knives, and I like them...
But I usually prefer to carry something that won't upset the ignorant public around us.
It's the "public perception" thing...
 
While I prefer a manual opening knife, assisted open is not enough to disuade me from buying a knife if I like the rest of the design. I have a couple of Leeks and a couple of Blurs which I really enjoy carrying and using.

I feel the same way about flipper action knives. Don't really care for them, but I might buy one anyway if I like the rest of the knife.
 
Another vote for easier one-handed closing. A well designed detent kinda negates the need for spring assist, but also tends to come at a higher price. But the same goes for side opener autos, not my thing either (prefer otfs), but to each their own!
 
In a world of legal autos if you’re going to carry a folder why would you carry anything else :)
 
I think autos are cool and I have a couple assisted opening knives, but it's not a preference, as it's just one more thing to go wrong without enough of a payoff. It's a feature that isn't going to get me to buy a knife, but I still might buy a knife if it has that feature.
 
I've had assisted knives and still have some, but I don't find the benefit to them.
If the goal is to have fast opening I find that it doesn't work out that way in practice. With assisted opening you still need to hit the thumb stud or flipper to activate it and those are not 100% positive. I've had knives with various opening devices and for me the most positive and most reliable, and thus overall the fastest, way to deploy a blade is the large thumb hole in Spyderco models such as PM2 and Military. To some extent this may be because I carry a variety of knives, if I carried only one knife, that was assisted, and I practiced with it only, maybe things would be different. But for me it would be hard to beat something like a PM2 or Military.
But to the original question- I don't hate assisted opening knives, I just don't see the point.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top