Okay, first off, i have no problems with switchblades, i actually wouldn’t mind owning one (or more) as they’re cool, illegal in most states, yes, but that’s more due to the stupid sheeple and nanny-government combo…
a knife is simply a tool used to cut, nothing more, an inanimate object, there’s nothing “evil” or “bad” about a knife, it’s the person behind the blade you need to be worried about…
heck, anything can become a weapon if one puts their mind to it, even a toaster could be a weapon…
so, anyway, back on subject, switchblades (a.k.a. “Automatic” knives) deploy the blade at high speed by using a spring or torsion bar assist, the actual opening of the knife is initiated by pressing a button, these knives are illegal in many North American states…
an “Assisted Opening” knife deploys the blade at high speed using a spring or torsion bar assist, the opening of the knife is initiated by either pushing on an index finger “flipper” (an extension of the blade tang (mmmm…tang…) that sticks out thru the base of the knife) or a thumbstud, applying outward pressure to the blade to overcome the resistance of the torsion bar/spring, after the blade has been pushed out past a certain point, the spring/bar assist takes over and snaps open the blade, these knives are legal in most states
the end result is the same, rapid deployment of the blade, one uses a button, one uses a flipper/thumbstud, either way, the end result is the same, the knife is actually opened by a spring/torsion bar
so, why is one legal and the other one not? they both have a spring assist to open the blade at a rate faster than most knife users are capable of doing manually
the reason i ask, is i just picked up a Kershaw Scallion AO knife, and it’s a great little blade, snapping it open and closing it is oddly…addictive, there’s spomething just plain cool to seeing a razor-sharp blade spring out and lock into place with a satisfying “thwack” in the blink of an eye…
what’s cool about the Kershaw “SpeedSafe” AO technology is that it’s inherently safe in either the closed or open position, and it also has a tip-restrainer safety catch that you can turn on to lock the knife closed so it will not deploy, even if you push on the flipper or thumbstuds
when the knife is closed, the torsion bar actually works to keep the knife closed, it won’t open if you drop it on the floor when it’s closed, you actually have to move the blade out almost 30 degrees before it springs open, the torsion bar that opens the blade sits in a halfmoon shaped track with depressions on either end, when the blade is closed, the bar sits in the closed depression. once the user has pushed the blade past the closed depression, the bar travels along the track, opening the knife, and ends up in the open depression, as a liner-lock blocks the blade from closing, until the user pushes the linerlock out of the way
to the non-knife user, there would appear to be little difference between an AO and an Auto knife, both pop open rapidly with nothing more than finger pressure, whether that finger pressure is on a thumbstud, a flipper, or a switch seems to be irrelavent, they’re all spring-loaded knives, so why are switchblades illegal and AO’s not?