SAKs and Safety

[The Lone Wanderer]

I thought this thread could be interesting. As a 28-year-old I grew up with locking blade knives, my Dad and Grandfathers only carried slipjoints and I always wondered how they didn't slice their hands up too much. My point is we could start this thread as maybe a primer for younger folks who want to carry a non locking SAK and tips and tricks from the more "seasoned" veterans on do's and don'ts.

Go ahead and start this train rolling!

[Steinar]

This is a good idea, so I hope somebody (else) can chime in with specific advice. To me, this is muscle memory and "Don't do stupid stuff," which works very well for me, but is pretty useless in a thread.

[Wspeed]

Don’t put your hands in the way of the blade 

[theonew]

+1 to whatever the AimlessWanderer will inevitably post when he finds this thread

[kottskrapa]

I grew up with slip joints and my father told me how to handle a knife properly and showed me. I didn't listen and cut myself once or twice and he showed me again and told me that I had only my self to blame. I guess that's it pretty much it. Of course I have cut myself a couple of times after that too but that's on me too and accidents do happens. I still use slip joints and if I feel the need to have a locking blade then I just use a fixed blade instead..

[It's not failure if you learn something from it]

[nate j]

• At the risk of stating the obvious, the main thing is never to apply back pressure (i.e. pressure that would tend to push the blade toward the closed position) to the blade.  This also means that cutting with your thumb on the back of the blade is a no-no.
• Never stab with the knife, as this can easily result in the situation described in #1.
• If you're tempted to do #2, ask yourself if there is another tool (such as the awl) that would be better for making a hole.
• If you absolutely must use the tip of the knife blade to penetrate something, mitigate the danger by one or more of the following techniques:
  - angle the knife so the sharp edge of the blade is toward the surface to be penetrated
  - choke up on the knife, i.e. hold it by pinching the blade rather than holding it by the handle
  - adjust your grip on the handle so that none of your fingers will be in the path of the blade if it snaps closed unexpectedly

Really, I think all of the above is good advice for any folding knife, not just slip joints.  If anything is unclear, I can post some pics later.

[Rich S]

I love SAKs. Have about 50 of them ( V and W). I also love/make/craft puukko. The Finns have a saying "if you need a guard, you shouldn't be using a knife". I guess the same could be said about lockblades. (Yes, I have a couple of those also)
Rich

[microbe]

Treat all your knives like they don't have a lock, even if they do.

[AndyTiedye]

There are plenty of SAKs with locking blades, if that is your preference.


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[AlephZero]

Within five minutes I laid my hands on my first Alox SAK (an Electrician) it bit me...

I learnt to handle my SAKs more carefully after that 

[AlephZero]

Have not been bitten ever since... 

[AimlessWanderer]

+1 to whatever the AimlessWanderer will inevitably post when he finds this thread

 

Thanks for the vote of confidence  I have thought about doing a slippie technique thing, not specifically Swiss knife oriented though. Nate J did a good summary though, specifically....

If you absolutely must use the tip of the knife blade to penetrate something, mitigate the danger by one or more of the following techniques:
- angle the knife so the sharp edge of the blade is toward the surface to be penetrated
- choke up on the knife, i.e. hold it by pinching the blade rather than holding it by the handle
- adjust your grip on the handle so that none of your fingers will be in the path of the blade if it snaps closed unexpectedly

...this! 

With spear blades, it can be tricky to angle the forces of a penetrating cut to go behind the pivot, so I often use the blade pinch, while keeping my fingers clear of the closure path of course.

The only thing that sperings to mind that hasn't been mentioned yet, is the work piece grabbing. If the bllade gets jammed up, or there's any resistance to taking the blade back out from what you're cutting, roll it out. If you lift the blade out and try to keep it parallel toits start point, that can overcome spring tension. Instead, lift it out handle first, so you'r rolling the knife around where the tip is. That keeps the forces going the right way until the blade is released.

I still use slip joints and if I feel the need to have a locking blade then I just use a fixed blade instead..

Yes! If you need a fixed blade, don't use a knife that's just pretending to be.

Treat all your knives like they don't have a lock, even if they do.

 

I love SAKs. Have about 50 of them ( V and W). I also love/make/craft puukko. The Finns have a saying "if you need a guard, you shouldn't be using a knife". I guess the same could be said about lockblades. (Yes, I have a couple of those also)
Rich

[VICMAN]

Here are some excerpts from "Pocketknife Safety – What Cub Scouts Need to Know"

    A knife is a tool, not a toy.
    Know how to sharpen a knife. A sharp knife is safer because it is less likely to slip and cut you.
    Keep the blade clean.
    Never carry an open pocketknife.
    When you are not using your knife, close it and put it away.
    Keep your knife dry.
    When you are using the cutting blade, do not try to make big shavings or chips. Easy does it.
     You should always cut away from your body.

                       Establish a Safety Circle

    Make a safety circle: Before you pick up your knife to use it, stretch your arm out and turn in a circle. If you can’t touch anyone else, it is safe to use your knife.
    No one or thing should be in the imaginary circle that you have created. Also, check your overhead clearance as this is part of your safety circle. If someone enters the circle, the knife should be closed up and laid down.

                        To Pass a Pocketknife

    Always close the blade – never pass an open knife.

[cbl51]

I guess I'm the total opposite of the OP.

I grew up with slip joints back when cars had tail fins and James Dean was alive and well. I watched my dad, uncles, older neighborhood men, all use the little two blade slip joints that were the ubiquitous pocket knife of the 1940's and 50's. Nobody cut their fingers off, and they all did what they had to with no incidents. There were some locking blade knives around, like the Italian style switchblades and stilettos the wannabe punks in the leather jackets carried to augment their manhood, but they were looked down on by most the men I tried to emulate growing up.

You just learned how to safely handle a knife. You learned how to cut with a slip joint and not get cut. Once in a while you made a mistake and you got a good reminder not to do that again. When the Buck 110 campout in 1963, I looked at it briefly, and thought 'why on earth would anyone want to carry a knife with only one blade that weighted a ton?'

I've seen two very bad accidents with a folding knife that had locks. One, the kid neatly amputated his right index finger when his trusty Buck knife lock gave way. He'd been doing something stupid, and the older Benin th shop told him to knock it off, but he kept at it, insisting that "It's a Buck knife, it'l takeout."

Well just after lunch the Buck knife didn't, and his right index finger got taken off at the middle joint.

The second one was a kid, mid 20's like the fist kid, who was messing mourned with his tactical knife with the liner lock. The liner lock gave and he sliced his right index and middle finger almost off, did some grievous damage to his tendons or ligaments in those fingers and had a couple surgeries to try to get his numbed dead fingers to operate again.

I'm comfortable with me old slip slip hit SAK. If I need a knife that won't fold on me, thane I use a sheath knife like my old Buck 102 woodsman or Finnish Puuko.

Use it right, no problem. Use it wrong, theres a penalty to pay.

[Cauldronborn]

Hey cbl51

do you by any chance go by the username Jackknife on another knife forum?

[ThundahBeagle]

It was slip joint knives for me when I was a kid. Swiss army knives and knock-off there of. Probably had some scout knives hanging around as my brother was a weeblo and I was an honarary cub. But I recall the swiss more because they were red and stood out from the wood and bone.

I was told to not treat it like a toy, to cut away from myself yet not towards other, and to steady the blade by pinching or forcing it to one side with my thumb.

We never really had any problems with using knives when I was a kid in the 70's. And by 1980 o was out in the woods with an axe and in the yard with a maul. I suppose they wouldnt have trusted a 9 year old with an axe if I couldn't handle a slip knife

[Gath]

A rather obvious thing and something our members probably don't think as much of in terms of safety, but keeping your blades well cleaned and lubricated makes usage easier and minimizes the risk in the situation that probably causes most cuts, if not often serious ones, opening and closing blades.

[pfrsantos]

[pomsbz]

Hey cbl51

do you by any chance go by the username Jackknife on another knife forum?

haha does sound like him but different language and sentence structure I think. 

[Mini]

This is an interesting thread for me, I will watch the video, thanks!

[Frailer]

As others have similarly commented, I grew up with slipjoint knives; when I was born the Buck 110 didn’t exist.

The big three rules that I can remember were: never stab into anything, always cut away from you, and keep your fingers clear of the blade’s path when opening and closing the knife. Obviously there were rare circumstances that required you to break one of these rules in order to get a job done, but you knew to be especially cautious at these times.

That third rule was so deeply engrained in me that I’m still a little uncomfortable whenever I have to disengage a frame- or liner-lock knife. It just feels *wrong*.

[AimlessWanderer]

That third rule was so deeply engrained in me that I’m still a little uncomfortable whenever I have to disengage a frame- or liner-lock knife. It just feels *wrong*.

Me too. Even more so with back locks. I hate back locks with a passion.