Your Favorite EDC Opening Method?

What is your favorite opening method for an EDC?

  • Axis/Crossbar Lock

    Votes: 5 6.3%

  • Button Lock

    Votes: 2 2.5%

  • Emerson Wave

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Front Flipper

    Votes: 3 3.8%

  • Nail Nick

    Votes: 3 3.8%

  • Out the Front/Push Button Auto

    Votes: 2 2.5%

  • Rear Flipper

    Votes: 11 13.8%

  • Thumb Hole/Slot

    Votes: 30 37.5%

  • Thumb Stud

    Votes: 12 15.0%

  • other

    Votes: 12 15.0%
  • Total voters
    80
I chose Thumb Hole/ Slot but it was a tough choice. I prefer to be able to flick the blade open but I also like a nice smooth thumb roll.

On knives that I can’t flick open like some lockbacks for example, I find it easier to roll the blade open if it has a thumb hole. I sometimes get a little nervous doing a thumb roll with a thumb stud.
 
It isn't on the list but the ball cage lock you find on the manix 2 from Spyderco has definitely become one of if not my favorite lock. You can just use the lock itself to flick open the knife.

I think people associate it with being another copy of the axis lock, but it is quite different and significantly better in many aspects, especially in its closed bias.
 
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Balisong ;)

A couple others not on the list are the thumb disc or plate, which can be nice low-profile options that don't require the blade to stick out of the handle when closed. Or you can raise the plate like Demko does so it works like an Emerson wave.

I've also grown to like fullers/grooves positioned to be reverse flicked with the middle or ring finger instead of opened with the thumb. It's lower profile than a hole but has the same advantages (doesn't get in the way of sharpening or snag, nothing to fall off or break, open fast or slow).
 
I think im used to the flipper tab the most, I can get my knife from pocket and blade out very quickly.
The blade hole is the most fun though.

I have a vosteed thunderbeast with the vanchor lock, basically a button on the pivot, it is also very fast to have blade ready. Very fidgety as well. Has flipper, front flipper, thumb hole, and pivot button.
 
I'm simple. I like thumb studs. Easy to get leverage on the blade with a stud, and doesnt really seem to get in my way when cutting. Runner up is rear flipper, which I also really enjoy.
 
Button lock for fun factor. Thumb disks if it's a manual knife. Opener holes and thumb studs both depend on details that I haven't thought much about to give you a list of "do's" and "don'ts" for them to be good.

Any knife with metal scales or liners that makes a satisfying noise when the blade hits the stop pin, as long as the opener isn't just flat-out bad.
 
Usually an automatic of some type. OTFs are super handy for making a cut and then snapping shut without having to reposition your hand or grip.

They tend to get a little funked up on things like tape, so I might go with a side opener with a button lock for that.

But unless I am carrying a thumb stud frame lock, I am probably carrying an auto of one of those flavors.
 
I've found over the years that no matter what glove I was wearing I could always roll open a Spyderco while many thumb studs failed and slots wouldn't catch. But some of the button designs are really winning me over recently with more and more use. Even if it's just a simple addition of a button to a lowly liner lock it suddenly makes a liner lock finger safe when closing. And if designed right you don't need as much ready access to the liner lock since the button should be your focus so in theory it should be far less likely with any twisting motion to accidentally unlock. BUT... You would have to learn to not hold the knife in a way you might release the lock button when holding the blade. Some designs really do a better job with this than others. Civivi so far seems to put the most thought into this. It didn't seem to catch on much but the Button Lock Elementum (not the Elementum II) that locks the blade open and closed and has a rounded button with a fairly stiff spring that looks like it's similar to a compression lock in function really strikes me as the best so far. Very positive and a flip of the wrist to open and close with fingers free of the blade is great. Add to that they do an outstanding hollow grind and come with a great edge and their 14C28N seems well heat treated. Yet another one I should carry more often now that I've yapped it up so much.
 
I'm probably indifferent because I have around-ish-about-ish five different opening mechanisms at hand ... but I think my favorite opening method likely depends on what I think I'll most likely use the knife for on any given day, Mostly that seems to mean thumb studs. Big grabby ones like Cold Steel uses. I seem to like the ones on this one a crazy lot...

 
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