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Your most difficult knife to learn how to open

My DpX HEST/F was tricky to get the hang of, it's got a stiff detent and I didn't realize until someone here pointed it out that I was naturally pressing the frame lock when I tried to open it. It's wave opener, which is actually a bottle opener, I never got the hang of.

My Delica wave took a little bit to get use to as well, but once I did it's really slick.
 
For me my Boos smoke (now sold, sadly) and my Vouking G-02.. Front flippers confound me, yet I still love them.. Smells like stockholm syndrome.
 
I probably struggled the most with a 0561 back in 2013 or so. Couldn’t get it to flip well for the life of me.

That said, it was one of my first flippers aside from a Skyline, and experience with handing knives to girlfriends has taught me that even the smoothest, most fluid, perfectly-dialed-in-detent flipper can be half-flipped in the hands of a novice.
 
I have a Jarosz K2-A framelock that essentially HAS to be "spydie-flicked" open. The prominence of the scales and the placement of the thumb-hole in the blade are such that it's very difficult to get a thumb-pad into it to open. However, it flicks open perfectly. I never bothered with the flick on any of my actual Spydercos, but I've gotten good with it on the K2-A.
 
WValtakis said:
I still need one of those for the "weird mechanism" part of the collection...like a puzzle knife;)
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I carried one off and on for years up until we could carry real autos here in Colorado. I swapped it at a gun show for a Spyderco Lum Tanto.
 
Personally, I would never spend as much as one dollar on a folder with a fiddly opening mechanism.
I have my Spydercos, which opens flawlessly.
I would consider it a designflaw, if you have to adapt and overcome, when opening your folder.
 
Officer's Match said:
If you don't know the technique (shove straight forward) to a Umnumzaan, they can be tough. Same with a Praetorian - must start at the back of the fuller groove and slide up on the way open.
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I have to say, my Umnumzaan is my easiest opening knife. It was also my first CRK. Once I nailed the technique I have no issue with it ever.
 
Now that I think about it, these two were a bit fiddly to figure out;)

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~Chip
 
Kershaw Bareknuckle bc they decided it would be hilarious to put as hard a decent as they possible could and still let it open
 
I had a GEC pioneer that was produced very early after they set up shop. I think it was their first SFO. The thing was like a bear trap. On the 1-10 pull scale it was a 12+.

I had one knife that cut me every single time I tried to close it. It was a Chinese copy of a weird CRKT folder that I think was named the E.T. My brother bought it for me in China at a tourist trap place and it made me so mad I damn near threw it in the trash.
 
HappyDaddy said:
ZT 0450. The cause is obvious and well known (any pressure on the lockbar). For whatever reason this knife is way more sensitive than others that have the same issue. I'm still mystified as to why some frame locks are hypersensitive to lockbar pressure and on some it makes no difference at all.
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Yup. Mine is so sensitive to ANY kind of pressure on the lock bar I stopped carrying it.
 
Alox Pioneer and Pioneer X.
Wasn't the knife so much as my brittle nails and arthritic fingers.
No problems with SAKs at all. Just Alox I guess.
I gifted them to younger people.
 
Quiet said:
I have a Jarosz K2-A framelock that essentially HAS to be "spydie-flicked" open. The prominence of the scales and the placement of the thumb-hole in the blade are such that it's very difficult to get a thumb-pad into it to open. However, it flicks open perfectly. I never bothered with the flick on any of my actual Spydercos, but I've gotten good with it on the K2-A.
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Interestingly, that Chinese made Ferrum Forge Archbishop 2.0 that you talked me into buying :D is the same way. It “Spydieflicks” like a champ, but can’t be opened with a thumb.
 
My immediate thought was the Sebenza. It’s been years now, but when I got my first Sebbie rotating it open with the thumb studs was a two phase process because my hand naturally settled too far back for my thumb to reach all the way. I’d thumb it open part way, and then either wrist flick it or shift my hand to complete the open. And forget flipping it. I had to read descriptions on how to do that.
 
I never had any trouble with my Umnumzaan at opening it, but I did have some issues in unlocking it without consistently killing my thumb. My Umnumzaan is an old model, if that matters.

The knife that gave me the most difficulty in learning to open it happened to be my very first quality one-hand opening knife ck in the '90s; a medium-sized Kershaw Liner Action. It required you to push down/in and then forward. Once you got the trick of it, it flew open like an automatic. That model has been long-discontinued.

Jim
 
The Mnandi took me a while to get used to opening one handed. The easiest method is using the nail nick–on the S35VN version–but it is not fail proof and then slow rolling it open as a front flipper.

The Mini CQC7 with the new detent (and it feels as though the washers are different than on my older Mini A100 which also has the older detent. It opens a lot more quickly which makes it possible to flick open but more difficult to slowly open, my preferred method. It's up for sale, but I suppose I could have taken the time to dial in the pivot and get used to it.
 
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