XM-18 non-flipper opening technique?

C

CWI79

Joined
Sep 13, 2023
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I purchased a new Hinderer XM-18 3.5 non-flipper slicer. Beautiful knife, but I couldn’t operate it to save my life. After an evening with nothing to show but sore fingers, I repositioned the clip to tip up. Still not much luck. Maybe success on one out of a dozen opening attempts. I have fairly large hands, and suspected my problems were due to putting pressure on the lock, but I was unable to get a good grip on the knife without having a finger end up where it shouldn’t be. After a couple more nights of frustration, I ended up ordering a milled Titanium deep carry clip from Lynch Northwest. Installed it tonight (tip up) and after some trial and error, found that if I put my little, ring, and middle fingers on the clip and squeezed the knife into the palm of my hand, I can flip it open every time. Wonderful results, but I feel pretty damn dumb that I needed a sturdy aftermarket clip to be able to operate my knife. Anyone else have problems opening their non-flipper? Am I missing something really obvious?
 
Are you pushing the thumbstud out from handle? I've found that every thumbstud knife I've tried opens faster and more easily if you push the stud directly forward, in a motion parallel to the handle.
 
It does sound like you are pressing on the lock bar. They generally have very good action. If you can open it 2 handed with ease then it is you. If not, it may need a bit of pivot adjustment.
 
Tsujigiri said:
Are you pushing the thumbstud out from handle? I've found that every thumbstud knife I've tried opens faster and more easily if you push the stud directly forward, in a motion parallel to the handle.
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I tried that, but it didn't really get me anywhere. The studs are really blade stops, and the knife was designed to be a flipper - so the studs aren't at the optimum position to start with. The only way I've found that works is to wedge my thumb under the stud, and flip it up. As in upward force only. If I try pushing forward and up, all I seem to get for my efforts is a sore thumb.
 
Not pressing forward and up, only pressing forward. Your thumb should pretty much only be following the contour of the handle, and it should take a minimum of force. If you're getting a sore thumb you're doing something different. I used to have an xm18 and that was far easier and more reliable than using the flipper.
 
Peter Hartwig said:
It does sound like you are pressing on the lock bar. They generally have very good action. If you can open it 2 handed with ease then it is you. If not, it may need a bit of pivot adjustment.
Click to expand...
I'm convinced it's me as well. I put in a set of Skiff bearings (for the extra support/more balls) and it falls shut easily when I release the lock bar. Kind of scary without the flipper tab to help avoid skin contact. Like I said, I can get it to open 100% of the time, but my fingers all have to be properly aligned and I have to have my thumb in just the right position. It's just not very intuitive. I could probably open it in the dark, but a flipper would be much faster to deploy.
 
Tsujigiri said:
Not pressing forward and up, only pressing forward. Your thumb should pretty much only be following the contour of the handle, and it should take a minimum of force. If you're getting a sore thumb you're doing something different. I used to have an xm18 and that was far easier and more reliable than using the flipper.
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I just can't break the detent pushing straight forward. I just tried it on a flipper version XM-18, and it was much easier to open. They supposedly increased the force required to open the non-flipper, but not sure why.
 
CWI79 said:
I'm convinced it's me as well. I put in a set of Skiff bearings (for the extra support/more balls) and it falls shut easily when I release the lock bar. Kind of scary without the flipper tab to help avoid skin contact. Like I said, I can get it to open 100% of the time, but my fingers all have to be properly aligned and I have to have my thumb in just the right position. It's just not very intuitive. I could probably open it in the dark, but a flipper would be much faster to deploy.
Click to expand...
I would fool with it for a bit, and see if it improoves for you. I have had this problem with other knives, but not the xm-18. If it remains awkward, maybe it will be best to sell or trade it. At least that is what I did with the other brand knives.
 
CWI79 said:
I just can't break the detent pushing straight forward. I just tried it on a flipper version XM-18, and it was much easier to open. They supposedly increased the force required to open the non-flipper, but not sure why.
Click to expand...

I think you're pushing down into the blade instead of just straight forward. You shouldn't be pinching your fingers together at all. If you do that, you'll put pressure on the lockbar and the detent goes way up. If you get the hang of doing it correctly, it doesn't matter if your fingers are on the lockbar because it doesn't have any force on it besides the weight of the knife.
 
Peter Hartwig said:
I would fool with it for a bit, and see if it improoves for you. I have had this problem with other knives, but not the xm-18. If it remains awkward, maybe it will be best to sell or trade it. At least that is what I did with the other brand knives.
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I've had the same thought multiple times. Maybe I need to get a trigger scale or something that would allow me to measure the point at which the detent breaks, and find out if it's excessive. I have noticed that it seems to take more force to open after it sits overnight, but while I had it apart for bearings today I cleaned it good with alcohol and put Nano-Oil on the detent. Maybe I just got one that's hard to open.
 
Tsujigiri said:
I think you're pushing down into the blade instead of just straight forward. You shouldn't be pinching your fingers together at all. If you do that, you'll put pressure on the lockbar and the detent goes way up. If you get the hang of doing it correctly, it doesn't matter if your fingers are on the lockbar because it doesn't have any force on it besides the weight of the knife.
Click to expand...
Nailed it! I suspected I may have been doing something wrong, and it looks like this was it. Forward vs in and forward makes a huge difference. Thanks so much.
 
Tsujigiri said:
Are you pushing the thumbstud out from handle? I've found that every thumbstud knife I've tried opens faster and more easily if you push the stud directly forward, in a motion parallel to the handle.
Click to expand...
You had this one early one. Guess my comprehension skills just aren't as good as the used to be. Haha.
 
For my non-flipper framelocks, I just push a little bit on the thumbstud and flick my wrist. Never had an issue opening any of them.
 
Hinderer thumbstuds are tricky. Lot of detent strength, especially new. It’ll get easier over time as the knife breaks in tho, and you’ll get more used to it. I couldn’t use the thumbstuds to save my life when I first got mine. Now it’s 10x easier, tho I prefer a flipper.
Index finger over the pivot, (not the lock bar) and the other 3 fingers on the clip (tip up)
 
Peter Hartwig said:
I would fool with it for a bit, and see if it improoves for you. I have had this problem with other knives, but not the xm-18. If it remains awkward, maybe it will be best to sell or trade it. At least that is what I did with the other brand knives.
Click to expand...
I recently got the kyzer swag button and legitimately thought it locked closed for a while there. And therefore was doing this horrible button push flick thing.

But it loosened up and was fine after a while.
 
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