Tip Up/Down carry style, deployment options

[tanrichguy]

Hey All,

Curious to know how you guys/gals carry your knives. I seem to prefer tip up carry, utilizing the spydie hole to flick the blade out with thumb.
One of my spydies is tip down only (ayoob) and I would like to hear from y'all about ways to deploy the blade from this type of carry. I've heard "inertial deployment" mentioned-could someone detail this? Also heard of some kind of jerk up then down type of thing.

Cheers!
Aaron

[Evil D]

I won't even bother with a knife if it doesn't have tip-up carrying no matter how awesome the knife is. Simple as that for me. I can't imagine why anyone would want it tip down...just seems backwards to me. I have pretty big hands and i carry the medium sized knives so when i stick my thumb into my pocket i'm almost on the spyderhole anyways so it's simply pull it out and "round out" the blade with my thumb.

[Ski]

Hey All,

Curious to know how you guys/gals carry your knives. I seem to prefer tip up carry, utilizing the spydie hole to flick the blade out with thumb.
One of my spydies is tip down only (ayoob) and I would like to hear from y'all about ways to deploy the blade from this type of carry. I've heard "inertial deployment" mentioned-could someone detail this? Also heard of some kind of jerk up then down type of thing.

Cheers!
Aaron

Extract with the hole with pointer and thumb, and spydie drop the handle into your hand.

[Evil D]

Extract with the hole with pointer and thumb, and spydie drop the handle into your hand.

Hmmm...i'm gonna play around with this and see how it feels. With my Native this really isn't much of an option since the blade tucks into the handle pretty far and partially covers the hole (one of my dislikes of the Native) but the Delica i just got might be a good option for this. I'm skeptical but i'll try it :D

[HistoricalMan]

I carry in the pocket so I don't generally use pocket clips. However, if I do, it's always tip up.

[gbelleh]

I strongly prefer tip-up, and I normally thumb the blade open with the Spydie hole, along with a flick. It's a very fluid and natural movement to me. I tried to get used to the spydie drop thing, and it's just extremely awkward for me. The only knife I carry that is tip-down is the Military. I'd prefer it tip-up, but I can deal with it for a knife that is otherwise awesome.

I still want to try the tip-up via suspension clip carry method for the Millie some day.

[Streamer]

Tip up !

Allows natural speedy deployment.

[THG]

I can't imagine why anyone would want it tip down...

Because it's faster and easier to deploy.

[Ski]

Because it's faster and easier to deploy.

I'd like your explanation. I'm not challenging you, but it is interesting to make an absolute statement with no evidence.

[THG]

I'd like your explanation. I'm not challenging you, but it is interesting to make an absolute statement with no evidence.

I'll add that it depends on the knife. For something small (say Delica or smaller), tip-up can work faster. But for something bigger, you can't really do that "have your thumb on the hole as you take it out" thing, so you end up having to rearrange your grip anyway (worse than tip-down, which only requires a slight rotation in any case.) Also, if you have your thumb on the hole as you're taking the knife out of your pocket, you're putting force against the pocket, so it doesn't come off as easily. And the worst case is the deep-carry clip, like the Caly, where there's nothing to grip onto on the outside of the pocket, and putting the thumb on the hole puts force against the pocket making it a fight to remove.

I've been saying I'm going to make a video to demonstrate this for a while, but I never got around to doing it. Maybe I'll put that on my to-do list for tomorrow.

[Scottie3000]

I'll add that it depends on the knife. For something small (say Delica or smaller), tip-up can work faster. But for something bigger, you can't really do that "have your thumb on the hole as you take it out" thing, so you end up having to rearrange your grip anyway (worse than tip-down, which only requires a slight rotation in any case.)

I agree. The Millie is so big that it wouldn't come out of the pocket ready to deploy tip up, you'd have to shimmy your hand up to the hole. For anything smaller than a Millie, which is everything in my collection, I have a strong preference for tip up. It makes for easier deployment, and one thing that's important to me that I haven't seen mentioned is that you dont have to fight the blade hump, sharp spine corner or jimping when reaching past the knife to other things in your pocket. On my Millies, the first thing I do before carrying one is the soften the edge of the spine from about 1/2" from the tip all the way through the thumb ramp jimping.

[MCM]

"I agree. The Millie is so big that it wouldn't come out of the pocket ready to deploy tip up, you'd have to shimmy your hand up to the hole.

I converted a CF Millie to tip up about two years ago.
Its the same as any other knife. Much better tip up, for me anyway.

[chuck_roxas45]

Tip down for me. I put my thumb and pointer on both sides of the pivot and pull free, the rest of my fingers grab the handle and position the knife for the thumb to push the blade open. Maybe a little slower than other methods but keeps a lot of skin in contact with the handle and makes me fumble less. It's more reliability vs. speed for me.

[npueppke]

It doesn't really matter to me. If it comes with a wire clip, I take the clip off and carry loose in the pocket because I don't like wire clips. If it has 4 way positioning, I carry tip up. If it's tip down only, I carry tip down. I used to carry a tip down right hand only knife in my left pocket as an EDC for a long time as well and didn't have any problems either. I do prefer clipped to not clipped because it makes getting the knife easier, but since I'm not going for speed whether I have to reach across to the other pocket or flip the knife before opening doesn't make much of a difference to me.

[The Deacon]

I rarely use a pocket clip, but when I do I prefer tip down carry. Just seems both safer and more easily deployed that way.

[jezabel]

Real men carry tip down :p

... actually for me it goes more like this:

Dedicated work knives : Tip down only (although occasionally if a tip up knife does manage make it with me to work, it's carried in a sheath or pouch)
General Edc : Tip down preferred but not essential
gents knives : Loose in pocket

Jez

[FIMS]

Tip down if the scales/handles is sculpted with a smaller profile.

[ChrisR]

I don't flick my knives - I just open them smoothly - but tip-up carry helps locate the Spydie hole while in the pocket and just means I don't have to adjust my grip when opening it one-handed :)

[Pneumothorax]

Funny because if anyone reads my early posts, I was a tip down fan - mainly because the thumbhole is always near your thumb when taking out of pocket, but over the course of time and many new Spydies, I've evolved to tip up for 1) blade security, 2) easier hand entry against back of knife vs. blade spine. Live and learn for me.

[Ski]

Another knock against tip-down, tip up keeps the blade spine against the pocket, protecting my poor phone!