I would love to see Spyderco come up with a non locking flipper. Flippers have a great fidget factor and aren’t typically seem in a slipjoint. I know it’s silly but the fidget factor is the biggest thing missing from slipjoints (aside from a lock ).
Seems a flipper slipjoint can be achieved through ball detents. Elijah Isham has a new model coming out that does this. Seems like a really neat step forward for modern pocket knives.
I’d be in for something like that. The PITS folder is almost there. If only the finger guard were just a tad longer it could be used as a flipper. So we might be pretty close already. Just tweak that design a little tiny bit.
I like both designs. I didn’t mean to detract from the Isham knife. I was only pointing out the pits because i always wished it was a flipper. And it just seems so close.
Anyhow, there seems to be a growing number of changes in knife laws everywhere. Some more lenient(Illinois legalized autos for foid card holders), And some stricter(Canada, uk). It’s hard to keep up with everything.
So an non locker is already on a lot of peoples watch list for a new edc. Then toss in ambidextrous and a flipper! I think the list for people NOT interested would be shorter!
I was under the impression that the knife has to lock in the open position for them to consider it prohibited.
This is from their ruling (note the part about locking)
2. In accordance with subsection 84(1) of the Criminal Code and the CITT's recent decision in T. LaPlante, the CBSA resolves that centrifugal knives will be classified as prohibited weapons if the following conditions are met:
A: a knife has a blade that opens by centrifugal force, when the blade is released from the handle into the fully ejected and locked position with a simple and brisk outwardly flick of the wrist;
B: and it includes knives that require some preliminary or simultaneous minimal manipulation of either a flipper or other non-edged parts of the blade.
Yes, I think that’s correct. Here’s a description from Knifenews:
Isham opted for a detent-style slipjoint mechanism on the Blackstar. “There is a spring bar cut into one of the steel liners, yet it doesn’t have a lock face,” he explains. “Just a detent ball that drops into a hole in both the closed and open positions.” Isham acknowledges that similar mechanisms have been in use for years, most famously by Serge Panchenko.
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We made a Slip-joint some time ago designed by Bob Terzuola that had two ball bearing detents to hold it open.
I think if I were to design one, it would have to have a finger choil for safety and I think I would opt for a stronger "keep open" mechanism. But I think that if one were in production, they would quickly change the law, because it's the "flick" they're trying to get rid of?
I guess they’re trying to get rid of the flick but a knife that doesn’t lock would not fit their current interpretation. They would have to revise their interpretation to include knives that don’t lock. That would truly be a ban on all folding knives.
At any rate, it’s important to remember that the actual law hasn’t changed. Perhaps a change in government next year will set things right again.
Thanks as always for having a look Sal.
Most recently acquired: Military 2, Paramilitary 2 Tanto x2, YoJUMBO, Swayback, Siren, DLC Yojimbo 2, Native Chief, Shaman S90V, Para 3 LW, Ikuchi, UKPK, Smock, SUBVERT, Amalgam, Para 3 CTS-XHP, Kapara, Paramilitary 2 M390 Grail Paramilitary 2 M390 X 2! ACHIEVED!!
For more of my pictures see my Instagram account. @liquid_cobra
They purposely leave a lot of gray area in these laws so it's up for interpretation. You could loosen the pivot on a Svord Peasant enough that you an open it with inertia and suddenly you have a gravity knife.
I actually don’t think that’s entirely true. I think there’s just such an enormous lack of understanding of how these things work, and the large variety of designs available, lawmakers don’t even realize how much ambiguity they’ve built in. I honestly think they see a SAK, and bali song, and an old timey stilleto switchblade and think that everything falls more or less neatly into one of those forms. Admittedly it is quite difficult to articulate the difference between a true Bali, and a pm2 that you can swing out with the lock depressed, and the janisong.
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