Your first flipper

T

thebigsalad

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Jul 15, 2020
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When you acquired your first or second spring assisted knife, what did you look for? Did you immediately buy the flipper or start with manual? I have been learning and using manual knives for a few months. Seems like overnight a switch went off and i now desire a spring assisted knife.
Would like to spend under $60.

From my newbie perspective, the Elementum or cryo 2 seem to be the highest YouTube recommended. Does this forum regularly watch or agree with the popular YouTube folks?

hope you are all having a wonderful evening!
 
I think my first “flipper” was a Kershaw Leek. Got it at Wally World one day on a whim on my way to go fishing when I forgot my knife. Still have it. Don’t use it, but it holds a cool memory of a friend and I :thumbsup:
 
Mine was this, was ultra hyped when it was my first ever flipper and a proudly canadian one. My first true knife was a Pm2 then my second was a CRK and this one was my third. Now i ended up with around 30 ish knives.
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Edit (typo): Didn't really read your post, so oops. As for a recommendation, i own 2 elementums and they are both wonderful superb knife for the price. Action is excellent but came with 3 caveats if you can bypass them, personally i don't mind them. One is D2, it has an amazing edge retention but is prone to rust unless you go with Damascus variant but any steel can and will rust if not taking care of. Secondly, is a chinese make knife, in which few people are against about. But Civivi/WE has proven they can be on par or far superior compare to some USA made. Third, their are quite hard to get as they come and go quite fast, imo. I don't own a Cryo 2 so i can say for that one. I tend to avoid AO as for me it is unnecessary. Less parts the better for disassembly. If a maker has enough confident in their detent, an AO is completely unneeded.
 
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My first flipper was a CRKT M16 12z. Absolute garbage. I don't buy assisted, it's manual or automatic for me.

$60 is not going to get you an American made flipper. 99% will be made in China, if that bothers you. I'd save your pennies and buy something a little nicer.

I have 3 Chinese flippers, two by WE, one by Kizer. While they are excellent, I will not be sending anymore money that way if I can help it.
 
I started with cheaper manual knives and then, like you, quickly got the bug for a spring assisted knife. I went with the Leek for my first spring assisted knife. I very quickly grew out of that phase though and started to appreciate really smooth manual flippers instead and have stuck with those for the last couple of years.

If you specifically want an assisted knife and want to keep the price reasonable, I would start off with either a Kershaw Leek or Dividend if you want a smaller flipper. A Kershaw Link or Knockout if you want a larger flipper. Or a Kershaw Blur if you want a spring assisted non-flipper. All can be found in your price range.

The Elementum is a manual flipper but is very smooth and consistent. I wanna say skip the assisted knives and head straight for the Elementum, but I think all knife enthusiast should at least give the SpeedSafe a go at least once.
 
My first flipper. :)

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I know I'm late to the game :oops:
 
ZT 350 was my first spring assisted and I took the assist off. I have no spring assisted or flipper knives in my rotation.

(I sold the 350 awhile ago)
 
thebigsalad said:
From my newbie perspective, the Elementum or cryo 2 seem to be the highest YouTube recommended.
Click to expand...

The Elementum is a great little knife, punches well above its price point, and comes in lots of styles with great fit and finish; it's not assisted. I love mine. :) I owned a Cryo 2, but not for long. It feels cheap and its quite heavy for what you get, blade-wise.

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The Kershaw Leek and Blur should be under your budget and are both excellent assisted knives; the Knockout is a bit more expensive, but also excellent. I've heard only good things about the Natrix and Link, too, but never owned those. My favorite assisted knife -- and the only one I've held onto -- is the ZT 0350. Unfortunately that one is out of your price range.

Kershaw (and ZT, same parent company) tends to do a great job with their assisted knives, and they offer a lot of different models. Some can be de-assisted if you change your mind later, but others cannot.

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My first flipper was (is) my CRKT M16 (like someone else) and my first assisted is a Kershaw Leek. (Like another too).
 
I don’t remember exactly but I had several CRKT Carson flippers back in the day. The Kershaw Blackout came out in 99 and WalMart had them in their knife cases. That was my first assisted opening knife.
 
I think my first flipper was a Kershaw Shallot. (My first assisted opening knife was a Kershaw Blackout.)
I tried the Cryo II - save your money.

I think I only have 2 assisted knives left - a Benchmade Barrage in M390, and a ZT 0770 in CPM-M4 (the ZT still sits in its box - unused, and nearly forgotten)
 
My first flipper was a small Buck Vantage, terrible flipper, but decent "cheap" knife. The large version only slightly better. Next was a Kershaw Camber, but it demonstrated to me two things, one - I don't like AO knives, and second - I don't like flippers.

I did buy two more, an 0450cf and a Positron, both great knives and startlingly good flippers, but they just confirmed my dislike of flippers so they rarely see the light of day.
 
Another vote for a Kershaw Leek. Spend the extra coin and get one in g10 with a better steel. You will thank me.
 
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