Front flipper

Gary W. Graley

Gary W. Graley

“Imagination is more important than knowledge"
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Mar 2, 1999
Messages
27,249
Morning folks! Unlike most of the world, I've never been very good with a front flipper on a folder, just not that coordinated I think, but, I was reminded by an old western where the guy fires his pistol with his left hand while holding it in his right, rapid fire kinda thing ;) so, that got me to try and wow, the blade fires open quite fast, probably not something I'd do much of but thought it was 'different' ...just like me lol


G2
 
Thanks Dave, I also just tried it by catching the end of the flipper against one of my right side belt loops, works just as fast there too :) Probably along the same lines as using the emerson wave feature.
G2
 
Is that the mini version? I'd be curious to hear your thoughts about the knife in general.

I'm not great with front flippers but some are better than others. Some of that is me having long and slightly arthritic fingers. For whatever reason, lots of front flippers seem to be small or slender knives where I don't get great leverage and a firm grip at the same time. Pulling my trigger finger over seems better than rolling my thumb over in some cases.

Probably the best front-flipping action I've had is on the TwoSun TS262. I really like the handle and blade shape on that knife but I did end up doing a little rounding on the scale edges. (The scales are thick slabs of carbon fiber without liners. A basic emery board, coarse then fine, was a very quick fix to those crisp edges.)
 
I bought a front flipper once, just for the sake of trying it. I dropped the first time I opened it. :rolleyes:
Tried it maybe a dozen more times, then put it back in the box. Didn't take it out again until got around to posting it for sale.
 
I recently acquired an Arkona Nettle F from the knifenutspodcast guys. I've always enjoyed front flippers but this one is exceptionally good. Perfect flipper tab length with perfect detent strength with perfect action on the ceramic bearings pivot. If you can find one, I highly recommend.

Gary W. Graley Gary W. Graley that beluga is very nice looking. Who makes it?
 
I have made the comparison to the tip of a katana, like it was cut off and put on a handle
:)
G2
 
I like front flippers, the problem is that the designs vary greatly. Detent and leverage have a lot to do with it as well. My first front flipper was a Civivi Mckenna. Fantastic design, very easy to use. Second was a Viper Novis. Much less intuitive, took a lot of practice. Don't carry it much due to no clip, but when I don't want a knife with a clip (very rare occasion) its great. Third is the Civivi Exarch. The detent is a little too light, so it takes a bit more conscious effort to flip it perfectly.

I may try one of the Pena top flippers.
 
I find front flippers to be very awkward too. The advantage (imo) is having a flipper knife that doesn't have a tab extending below the blade/handle in the open position, but there are other solutions to that, like the Cecchini folding flipper, the Smock, or this new knife that looks very promising:


Nice job "fanning" that knife, btw. :thumbsup:
 
After many times trying to flip a front flipper, I'm open to different methods that work, cheating or not lol but, this one actually does flip fairly easily with the 'normal' method, so that's good for it and yep, not sure where they came up with the name of their brand, but it's easy to remember.

Which reminded me of a time my dad took my brother and I out night fishing, young kids around 5 or 6 years old. At some lake in West Virginia and I caught a dead fish, I mean REALLY dead as in just the skeleton of the fish remained !!! I guess it had been hooked a long time ago and the line was caught on a branch, I hooked the branch it was tied to and I reeled it in. My dad and his buddies all got a chuckle, 'boy you sure took your time reeling that in!' myself I thought it was a bad omen and never really wanted to go fishing any more, never took to liking it much.

;)
G2
 
I am categorically not a fan of front flippers. I don't like anything about them, and definitely don't like how you have to change the attitude of the knife in your hand in order to actuate the mechanism. I'm just too used to thumb studs, disks, holes, and flipper tabs and don't see any way in which a front flipper beats any of those.

That said, I'm glad they exist for those who enjoy them, because it's ok for people to like different things! I admit Gary, I got a chuckle outta the "Quick Draw McGraw" opening method!
 
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