On a related note, in that same issue of Blade there's an article by RJ Martin: "MARTINS KEYS TO FLIPPER FOLDERS PART I: Learn to build a Precision Flipper Folder the RJ Martin way".
There's a part where he talks about how a well-built manual flipper uses the trigger finger as a "spring" and the "uninitiated" think the folder is really assisted opening:
"The first time it happened was at the East Coast Custom Knife Show a couple of years after I started making flippers. I had finally developed a thorough understanding of flipper design and function, and had incorporated it into a knife I named Zing, a name I think best describes how fast the knife opens. I put the knives on the table and a customer came by, picked one up and opened it. The blade fired out and he smiled a big smile. He said RJ, I didn't know you made assisted openers. I told him I didn't make A/Os, that the Zing was a flipper, and that he was the spring. We had a brief conversation, during which time he must have flipped that little knife 50 times. He was still smiling when he paid me for it. I sold almost 40 of them in the next hour. I have seen it many times since. When a person opens a precision flipper for the first time, he is almost dumbfounded. He smiles and then opens it over and over. Its almost as if his brain cant accept the fact that a little pressure from his finger can produce a blur of motion followed by the solid thwack of the lock-up. When he closes the knife he doesn't feel a spring being compressed, he just feels the blade swing into the handle."
