How to open and safely close Cold Steel, Demko, Spyderco with one hand

John Phillips

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pocketpriorities pocketpriorities uploaded a great video on that tube site reviewing the Cold Steel AD10 and when closing the knife it swung down and bit him enough to draw blood.

The same thing happened to me when I first got my AD10. Most will already know this little trick but this way of closing a back lock folder opened up a whole bunch of knives for me that I wouldn’t have considered previously. I fish a lot and I find opening and closing a knife quickly and safely with one hand is extremely helpful. I noticed both Lynn and Eric closing their own back locks this way which helped me tremendously.

Great channel by the way!!!

 
Yes, that works great as long as the knife has a choil at the base of the blade. It can still be done without a choil with a little practice. There are several ways to do this and your link is a good one.
 
when closing the knife it swung down and bit him enough to draw blood
I had that issue with a lockback that had a low friction pivot and there was a lot of blood involved, I don't buy lockback knives any more. To be fair though I do use liner lock knives and they can bite you under the wrong conditions because your thumb is in the way of the blade. With a liner lock I can activate it with the knife horizontal and use one of my fingers to start the blade moving. With a lockback I have my thumb on the lock and there is no way for fingers to start the blade, I have to rely on gravity or bump the blade against some other body part, neither of which provides much control and can allow the blade to move too far. Most of my carry knives are PM2 and Manix 2, I can close those without getting any skin in the blade path.
 
With the AD10, the way I find myself usually closing it is by depressing the Triad lock release, then pushing the spine of the blade against my thigh just enough to clear the lock and rolling the handle around with my fingers on the scales and out of the way until the blade is completely closed.
 
Ya I close a lot of knives that way.
Haven’t given it much thought, you don’t need a choil either.
 
I can close my delica or endela very quickly one handed. Not axis lock fast, but fast enough I have no desire for a different knife or lock. Never been bit once. The big deal is the ricasso on the spyderco knives. When I use it and am ready to close it, I hold my fourfingers in their normal position, depress the lock release lever on top, and let the blade fall and hit my index finger tip, the ricasso hits it. Then simply reposition my hand and tap the blade which then snaps shut with authority. All one handed and fast. Even my dragonfly which doesn't drop I just give a quick downward flick as I release the lever and the blade closes halfway against my finger then tap it shut.

Not sure about the other brands. But if no ricasso, you might not want to try my method.
 
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