Tip up or tip down carry?

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Penetration

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Feb 12, 2014
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If you could put a pocket clip anywhere on your knife (lefties or righties) would your carry your knife tip up or tip down and for what reasons? Me personally I carry tip up because you can deploy quickly and it conceals more knife. Opinions?
 
I prefer tip up. The ladies like tip up as well...
 
It's a personal choice that has been discussed ad nausea. Tip up is probably the preferred method by most people but that doesn't mean there aren't tip down knives out there that carry deeper and deploy better/faster than tip up knives.

It is all personal preference and depends on the knife.
 
However it comes from the factory or the maker is the way it goes into my pocket.
 
I can respect that. Their are times where I see someone take their perfect knife and completely change the setup sometimes even the scales or they acid stone wash their blades and I sit there like how can you ruin a perfect knife now I'm not saying you shouldn't customize your knives it's just certain ones I can't stand to see being changed
 
Tip up for me. I just don't like tip down carry, and try not to buy knives that don't have an adjustable pocket clip.
 
Tip up is preferred...but with some kershaw models going tip down and grabbing the knife by the pivot with your pointer and index as you raise your arm it falls into your hand perfectly. All the kershaws I've ever had came tip down as well so that was how I did it for awhile
 
I won't buy a "tip down" knife anymore, regardless of maker, blade steel or how tactical it may look. I carried the original BM Stryker for a year, that was enough for me
 
Whatever suits the knife.

For example, the Skyline. Tip up carry with this is terrible, a huge portion of the handle sticks out. But, switch it to tip down, and the result is quite different.

Other knives, like the 0200, should just stay tip up.
 
The leek I just bought seems to carry deeper tip down. I still think I like it better tip up.
 
Always tip up for me. It puts the knife in the perfect position to be deployed. I also always carry my folders clipped so the blade gets jammed against the inside of the pocket making it impossible to open in my pocket. Years ago I did not carry like that and cut myself 3 or 4 times from just putting my hand in my pocket to grab my keys or whatnot. I would never carry like that anymore.
 
Tip up with everything, even with my skyline. I dislike having the pocket clip in my hand at that position, and I like the blade to be against the back of my right pocket so it has no chance of opening in my pocket.
 
Penetration said:
I carry tip up because you can deploy quickly
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I will challenge this- I have lots of knives with both and I can deploy very much faster with tip down. I've tried tip up and tried to make ti work but no matter what I do it is much slower. There might be something I'm missing. I'll grant that I can make a small knife work tip-up but not a big knife. I'll grant that I wear tight jeans and I can't put my hand deep into the pocket to grab the bottom end of the knife. The guys on youtube that show how fast they can draw a knife tip-up while wearing their pajamas- well I don't wear pajamas and if I did I wouldn't be carrying a knife with them. I have found lots of people with good reasons for why they carry tip-down, but very few people can put in words a defense for carrying tip up. The one that I remember is that the knife is safer because the blade is against the seam of the pocket. Maybe someday someone will show me what I'm missing.


Penetration said:
and it conceals more knife. Opinions?
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I was going to agree with this but then I was thinking about specific knives- my knife that conceals the most is my Benchmade 890 with its factory clip. A knife that comes to mind that conceals the least is the Manix 2 XL which is only tip-up. But in my case concealing a lot is not a priority, and with the way I have to draw a knife it works against me. I draw a knife by using my thumb and first finger to grap the part of the knife that is sticking out of my pocket and pull it out. This is really tough for the 890.

When I started buying recent knives to update my collection I concentrated only on tip-down knives, and my all time favorite is the Benchmade Stryker. But I found a lot of tip-up knives that I can't resist- BM 581, BM Ares, Spyderco Gayle Bradley, ZT 0561, Spyderco Vallotton, Manix 2, Manix 2 XL. So I bought them and carry them and that's how I know that tip-up is so much slower.
 
Well I'm not trying to say tip up is the best period no matter who you are, I agree with you that certain knives carry better tip down and some carry better tip up. For MY personal preference I like tip up simply because when I pull it out all I have to do is wrap my fingers around the knife and flick it open whenever I pull it out with my thumb and index. But if you find it better tip down then by all means carry your knife whatever way is comfortable for you I'm not judging people who carry their knives tip down, I just wanted to know how everyone prefers to carry their knife and share my opinion
 
For me, it depends on the knife... not so much for deployment reasons, but instead for how it rides in the pocket.
For example, I carry a Delica/Endura tip up; but I carry a PM2 tip down.
 
There are endless discussions on tip-up/tip-down carry. A friend of mine that knows about 1000% more about knives than I do prefers tip-down primarily, while I prefer tip-up. It generally comes back to what you're comfortable with.

I guess I wouldn't mind seeing an episode of Mythbusters on tip-up/tip-down carry deployment speed. Kari Byron and a handful of knives? Count me in.
 
It's hard to judge which is better when everyone is different and everyone has different reasons why they like however the way they carry theirs. For example who says lots of the tip exposed is a bad thing? Maybe to some but to another they might prefer lots of exposed knife for more to grab on to or whatever other reason. As everyone has been saying it all comes down to the person and their preference their is no better way
 
Penetration said:
It's hard to judge which is better when everyone is different and everyone has different reasons why they like however the way they carry theirs. For example who says lots of the tip exposed is a bad thing? Maybe to some but to another they might prefer lots of exposed knife for more to grab on to or whatever other reason. As everyone has been saying it all comes down to the person and their preference their is no better way
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Yeah you pretty much nailed it on the head there. Typically I don't want any extra knife poking out of my pocket so I choose to carry my knives that have the clip mounted in a way that provides that. For example: Although I normally carry tip-up, I'll only carry a Kershaw Leek tip-down because I don't like the way it looks when the clip is mounted tip-up. That being said, If I carry tip-up knives for a long time and then carry the Leek, I get all goofed up when I pull it out of my pocket and subsequently look like a moron trying to open the knife from the wrong end.

So yeah, it's a person by person basis for what is better. And sometimes, for each person, it's knife by knife.
 
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