Slip Joint Safety

[Philthy]

I've never injured myself putting a slip joint knife away.

That being said I don't trust them as a potential emergency defensive weapon... heck I don't even really trust liner lock knives in emergency defensive situations, only tri-ad locks or axis locks (or their variations).

I do have one edc knife that I carry that is a liner lock but I've trained myself to hold it in such a way that my fingers don't get in front of the path of the blade in case the liner were to fail in an emergency defensive situation.  It's less than ideal.

I should also add I don't trust slip joints or liner locks for heavy field craft such as batoning.  I'll thump on a tri-ad or ram lock but I prefer a fixed blade.

[cbl51]

I've never injured myself putting a slip joint knife away.

That being said I don't trust them as a potential emergency defensive weapon... heck I don't even really trust liner lock knives in emergency defensive situations, only tri-ad locks or axis locks (or their variations).

I do have one edc knife that I carry that is a liner lock but I've trained myself to hold it in such a way that my fingers don't get in front of the path of the blade in case the liner were to fail in an emergency defensive situation.  It's less than ideal.

I should also add I don't trust slip joints or liner locks for heavy field craft such as batoning.  I'll thump on a tri-ad or ram lock but I prefer a fixed blade.

I am always at a loss to understand the role of a pocket knife as a defensive weapon. Any folding knife is about as poor a weapon as you can get. When that mugger pulls a knife and demands your wallet, are you under the misguided idea you will have time to grab for your folding knife, and then get it open before you get knifed???  And if you do by some stroke of luck get your knife open, are you ready to engage in a knife fight with some idiot on drugs? If you need a weapon, some sort of blunt force truma weapon is far superior to the folding knife that you may not have time to open. A club of some sort is easy to have around, a stout walking stick, pool stick, a nice master lock with a bandana through it, bicycle lock, and lots of other items. Stone breaks knife. Not to mention pepper spray. When I went through the police academy, we learned how a blunt force truma weapon is effective immediately when bones are broken, nerves smashed. There's a reason police are issued sticks, they work.

And as far as batoning with a folder, That's a good way to break what may be your only cutting tool. They make unfolding knives for combat use as well as survival, called fixed blades. They work really well for heavy duty use and you don't haver to worry about them folding up on you.

A pocketknife is for those zillion little jobs that come up. Way back when I was growing up, men carried a pocket knife. If they went hunting they carried a sheath knife. When I was in the army and we went to a little fracas in Vietnam, we got issued the Camillus MK2. A nice sturdy 7 inch fixed blade. But I used my SAK at least several times a day for all those little jobs that outnumber the big ones by a 50 to one ratio.

There's two kinds of knives in the world, those that fold and those that don't fold. If you don't want to worry about your knife folding, don't have one of those.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Some great posts here chaps

My thoughts are similar to most here in that any tool is safe when used within its limitations, if you don't go stabbing bricks you shouldn't have to worry about
 a knife folding on you

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Philthy]

I think to an extent you misunderstand.  Certaintly the situation you described is one instance where one might need to defend themself.

Here's another scenario for you, a dog, let's call it a pitbull is attacking you or someone next to you.  While dog attacks can be vicious they are not necessarily instantaneous and it has been my experience that one might have time to react.  I for one would rather have a knife than a stick against a pitbull because in short order I can defend myself with a knife.  It would be weird if I carried a big enough stick to deal with a dog such as pitbull all of the time...if you're wondering yes I have slashed a pitbull in the face as it was lunging at me.  I was on the phone with 911 as a friend of mine and his mom were being attacked, the dog tried to attack me as I was getting the address off of their mailbox when I slashed it the dog turned tail momentarily long enough for me to go back inside.  I was a young teenager at the time and the whole situation was less than ideal.  It wasn't my knife it was the biggest kitchen knife I could find, which wasn't very big (like a 3-4" paring knife).  It was the first time I was over his home and I didn't know his address.

Not all defensive situations are caused by 2 legged predators.  There are plenty of videos online of police officers hitting dogs with batons and essentially nothing happening.  Slash a dog in the face or stab it a few times, the situation may be different...as it was in my case.

As far as people, no one can be prepared for everything and certainly not a situation where someone already has a weapon out ready to use against you.  Situational awareness is by far the most important thing when trying to preempt any kind of defensive situation...but better to have options than not.

I am always at a loss to understand the role of a pocket knife as a defensive weapon. Any folding knife is about as poor a weapon as you can get. When that mugger pulls a knife and demands your wallet, are you under the misguided idea you will have time to grab for your folding knife, and then get it open before you get knifed???  And if you do by some stroke of luck get your knife open, are you ready to engage in a knife fight with some idiot on drugs? If you need a weapon, some sort of blunt force truma weapon is far superior to the folding knife that you may not have time to open. A club of some sort is easy to have around, a stout walking stick, pool stick, a nice master lock with a bandana through it, bicycle lock, and lots of other items. Stone breaks knife. Not to mention pepper spray. When I went through the police academy, we learned how a blunt force truma weapon is effective immediately when bones are broken, nerves smashed. There's a reason police are issued sticks, they work.

And as far as batoning with a folder, That's a good way to break what may be your only cutting tool. They make unfolding knives for combat use as well as survival, called fixed blades. They work really well for heavy duty use and you don't haver to worry about them folding up on you.

A pocketknife is for those zillion little jobs that come up. Way back when I was growing up, men carried a pocket knife. If they went hunting they carried a sheath knife. When I was in the army and we went to a little fracas in Vietnam, we got issued the Camillus MK2. A nice sturdy 7 inch fixed blade. But I used my SAK at least several times a day for all those little jobs that outnumber the big ones by a 50 to one ratio.

There's two kinds of knives in the world, those that fold and those that don't fold. If you don't want to worry about your knife folding, don't have one of those.

[CanadianLMfan]

I am still trying to get over my fear of using SAK knives, even though I know that they won't snap on me.


I have cut myself but that was because I swiped the knife at one of my fingers.

[kirk13]

I am still trying to get over my fear of using SAK knives, even though I know that they won't snap on me.


I have cut myself but that was because I swiped the knife at one of my fingers.

Mate,fear is the beginning of respect. The key thing in using any blade or bladed tool is respect!

[comis]

I am still trying to get over my fear of using SAK knives, even though I know that they won't snap on me.


I have cut myself but that was because I swiped the knife at one of my fingers.

In the light of original topic, I'd like to share a video that I made about SAK opening and closing safety.  It is based on my own personal experience, but the principal should also apply to all slip joint knives:

Safety tips to open and close Victorinox Swiss Army Knife