Tip down/Military epiphany

[Evil D]

Been trying out tip down on the Yo2. I like it. Gives me a little faster draw.

He can correct me if I'm wrong but I believe Mr. Janich carries his tip down too.

[Bloke]

I’m right handed and find tip down is the most convenient and natural way for me to clip a knife. Particularly from my right back pocket where I prefer to carry the blade against the outside seam (as advised when I first joined the forum and bought my first Military). :)

I reach for the knife thumb and fore finger and it swings into my palm correctly orientated to open. :cool:

[vilePossum]

carrying my new native tip down as an experiment now thanks to this thread :D

[mad german]

Hey D, when you carry your millie in your front pocket do you clip towards front of the pocket (closer to your center line) or towards the rear of the pocket (closer to your hip)?

Outer seam towards my hip/rear pocket.

No worries of the blade opening since it's not against the seam of your pocket? I guess, when you slide your hand in your pocket, it glides along the spine of the blade, yes? My only concern would be the tip poking out of the handle a bit due to the motion of walking and sitting up & down, possibly jostling it 'just enough'. Are these valid concerns?

[Evil D]

No worries of the blade opening since it's not against the seam of your pocket? I guess, when you slide your hand in your pocket, it glides along the spine of the blade, yes? My only concern would be the tip poking out of the handle a bit due to the motion of walking and sitting up & down, possibly jostling it 'just enough'. Are these valid concerns?

Well, I can't say it's not a concern just because it hasn't happened to me, but I can only be sure about my own experiences and I can tell you mine have never opened on me and I crawl around under cars all day and have a pretty physical job, I climb/crawl/roll/stand/sit pretty much everything short of running and none of my Militaries have ever come open even just a little. If they do, the fact that my hand is against the spine of the blade when going into my pocket should suggest I'll push the blade closed before I come into contact with the edge. Worst case scenario would be if the blade came open far enough to stab you in the leg, but I'm just skeptical that it'll happen because my work pants are very loose so my knife definitely flops around while I'm doing all those activities and yet it has never come open so while it's possible it seems so unlikely that I just don't worry about it.

I EDC a Military probably 9 out of 10 days and have been for a couple years now so if it were prone to happen I don't see why it hasn't happened to me yet. I also use my knife a lot less these days so it's not like I'm drawing and closing it a lot and making sure it's closed. There are days I put it in my pocket at 7am and don't pull it out until 10pm.

[Evil D]

Ya know, all this debate about tip down being unsafe, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say those who feel that way probably wouldn't carry tip down even if it were 100% guaranteed never to open, because there are knives out there that just aren't going to open in your pocket, that have strong enough close bias to not open but those knives are never brought up in these discussions so I think some of this is blown out of proportion only to justify not liking tip down. It's not like anyone is gonna beat you up and take your lunch money if you don't like something but I feel like some of this "concern" is being over stated just to have a stronger argument against tip down.

[mad german]

Very well worded response. Thx so much for taking the time to say all of that. I appreciate it.

[ZrowsN1s]

I should also mention, at least in the case of the Yojimbo, tip down carry seems to take up less space in the pocket :D

[vilePossum]

Ya know, all this debate about tip down being unsafe, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say those who feel that way probably wouldn't carry tip down even if it were 100% guaranteed never to open, because there are knives out there that just aren't going to open in your pocket, that have strong enough close bias to not open but those knives are never brought up in these discussions so I think some of this is blown out of proportion only to justify not liking tip down. It's not like anyone is gonna beat you up and take your lunch money if you don't like something but I feel like some of this "concern" is being over stated just to have a stronger argument against tip down.

I would also like to add to This that maybe, just maybe, the first concern about a knife / lock should not be about how easy it is to flick open.
Actually most knife lock mechanism aren't just there to keep the blade from closing on your finger unintentionally, but also to keep the blade from deploying unintentionally. It has only been recently with the, let's call it trend, of using knives as play things similar to fidget spinners etc that this has been contradicted.
Take for example a slip joint... would you consider a slip joint that you can grab by the blade and just shake/flip it open a good execution of a knife? No? Then why is that way with a PM2 or other blades? Because you can still have a solid lock despite being able to flick it?

Mind you there's nothing wrong with a knife being easy to open, that is actually one of the biggest feats accomplished by Spyderco, but there is a difference between easy to open and unsafe...

So rant off...

I enjoy carrying my native tip down, and the back lock will ensure that it will never just open in my pocket.