Which Spydercos feature buttery-smooth opening?

[vito72]

between mines i say D'Allara para D2 and Military

[Leatherneck]

Both my original Paras are silky smooth as was my T-Mag, but there is an obvious reason for that.

[Donut]

Almost any Spyderco, either I have a little warming up to do or the knife has a little loosening to do. I don't know of anything that operated perfectly right out of the box.

Almost any liner/frame lock will operate the smoothest after a little use. Manix 2's are very very smooth. Most Stretch 2's work wonderful to me. Next would be the Delica line.

[Piet.S]

My P'kal is unbelievable.
I reckon, all ball bearing locks are super smooth by nature.

[bh49]

Dodo, Chokwe, ATR, Para2, Lums

[bada61265]

the manix2 has always been the smoothest imo. due to its lock style. my sage 2 and gayle bradley are very smooth also and are pretty close to a tie. that said even my endura frn and stretch frn are no slouches.

[JLS]

I'm going to have to say that the old C40 Khalsa's were the smoothest. Not a hard use knife, but it was very smooth and refined. The blade seems to glide out.

[smikesmith3]

The Lum by far is the best opening knife. Consistent on every variant.

[Javascript]

...Consistent on every variant.

Now that is amusing.

My GB runs a close second to my pink M2(both feel like Kansas farmland), followed by my two Natives and orange and black M2's(rolling hills of Ohio). All blow away my new Caly 3 and two Delicas(all three feel like the mountains of West Virginia--very disappointed in the Caly...).

This thread's lovely exercise brought to you by ambiguous and subjective test criteria.
Shall we open the knife slowly or quickly. Include or exclude the force required to overcome closure bias. Are we feeling for constant resistance throughout travel or are we looking for how smoothly the locking mechanism rides along the tang as the blade rotates, which leads back to what you can feel when opening slowly or quickly.

All of my knives feel 'smooth' if I open them quickly. Some require more force yet still feel smooth. Those are not mutually exclusive attributes.
But if I open them slowly so I can feel the lock ride the tang then I get the subjective results above.

Finally, was that salted or unsalted buttery-smoothness? Land-O-Lakes or Danish Creamery? :D

[Diesel55]

All the Sage models are very smooth. So is the Para. My Caly 3 flies open as well after working the mechanism for a little while.
Unfortunately, my Chinook opens rather stiffly and slowly, even after working the mechanism about 100 times and applying lubricant. A bit regrettable for a folder meant primarily for martial applications.

[Blerv]

Liner locks/Frame locks seem to have the smoothest transition from close-detent-open. Heavier blades seem to smooth this further.

The Captain was my smoothest in this regard. After you get past the detent pressure some like the Phoenix are contenders.

[redhawk44357]

My Wayne Goddard has you all beat :P

[bohica1998]

I only have 58-1/2 Spydies, but the smoothest, 'slickest', easiest opening one is my factory-second Tenacious! I don't know what it is about it, but it just 'glides' open with a soft 'snick' sound.

[duvaldrummer]

My Milli is the smoothest I have by far, but the Sage 1 is a great flicker with some use and oil.

[5.56]

I have opened many many Spyderco's. I can tell you the smoothest is the T-Mag. There is very little detent to overcome and no lockbar to create resistance.

T-Mag by far.

[Blades]

I was handling a buddies Para2 S90v, and it was smooth. It felt like a high end custom knife. I was impressed.

[quattrokid73]

Chokwe and Zulu...anything from Taiwan!

[Evil D]

I have to say my Manix 2 was the smoothest opening knife i've owned. My Para is extremely smooth when the lock is pressed all the way in, but when it presses on the blade while opening and closing it's not near as smooth or resistance free as the Manix 2 was. The Sage is also crazy smooth.

[O,just,O]

...anything from Taiwan!

That about sums it up.
O.

[Rev. Chuck]

Military here also!