The 2 Different Types of Pocket Knives

Ashley Rosa
3 min readJul 3, 2019

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Pocket knives are the most popular knives among all. They facilitate us in performing our regular tasks with ease and convenience. Moreover, they are very easy to carry and very easy to conceal as well. The best thing about these knives is their compact designs. These knives help us perform lots of tasks and make their execution easier for us.

Some of these tasks are the cutting of fruits and vegetables, removal of dirt from under the nails, cutting of different materials i.e. rope, the opening of packages, etc. There are many different types of folding pocket knives in the market but in terms of mechanism, there are only two types of knives. Let us discuss them in detail.

Spring Assisted Pocket Knives

The spring assisted pocket knife is by far the most common types of pocket knives. These knives are known as spring assisted knives because they open and close with the help of a spring mechanism. Moreover, spring assisted knives open only when the tension in the spring is overcome.

This tension is overcome usually with the help of a force provided to the thumb stud or the flipper of the knife by the thumb of the hand opening it. These knives are comparatively safer than the other types of pocket knives which are known as automatic switchblades. This is why they are illegal to use almost everywhere.

Automatic Folding Pocket Knife

Have you ever seen an automatic pocket knife? Do you know how is it different from spring assisted one? The difference between both of them is that an automatic pocket knife has an automatic button, which when pressed, opens the knife. Whereas, a spring assisted one is the knife which has a thumb stud or a flipper on it which facilitates in the opening and closing of the knife. The use of manual force in order to open and close the knife makes the spring assisted pocket knives safe to use and automatic ones unsafe to use.

For example, you are sitting on a chair with an automatic blade in your pocket and suddenly when you moved your leg unconsciously, you accidentally pressed the button of the knife and the blade came out. Now, just imagine what it would have done to your leg. This is also the reason that automatic knives are illegal almost everywhere because they are dangerous. Carrying them and above all using them against someone is against the law and can cause you immense trouble which may come in the form of some heavy fine or a felony charge.

Pocket knives are highly useful knives and they prove to be good self-defense weapons as well. So, you get to perform many functions with the use of just one knife. Isn’t that awesome? So, when are you getting your very own pocket knife?

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