The Swindle

I want to say a bit more about the Onion designed CRKT (Colombia River Knife and Tool) Swindle. I've been using it for about everything from kitchen cutting and slicing chores, opening boxes, cutting plants, etc. for a few days. Today I noticed that the blade has an interesting and useful characteristic that one normally associates with assisted-opening knives. Closed, the blade does not move inside the bolsters. Putting a small amount of pressure on the flipper is necessary to get it moving, then it springs open like an assisted opening knife. Then, when one closes the knife, it swings closed smoothly on its ball bearing pivot until it is almost completely enclosed within the bolsters at which point it springs tightly close over the last eighth of an inch of blade travel.

How is this done without springs or torsion bars?

A close look reveals that the liner lock piece of the bolster has on the end of it's inner edge a small protrusion. When the blade is fully closed, this protrusion fits neatly into a mating indent in the rear side of the blade, locking the blade into place. The indent and protrusion are small enough, and the liner lock flexible enough so that when a small but meaningful force is applied to the flipper, the protrusion is forced out of the indent by blade movement. Once clear, the finger force applied to the flipper is enough to carry the blade swiftly out on its ball bearing races to lock solidly open by the liner lock.

The reverse happens when the blade is closed. The liner lock is pushed outward, moving the blade along the liner lock protrusion, which keeps the liner lock away, until at the very end of travel the liner lock is released to press inward, putting the protrusion back in the indent, holding the closed blade in place.

Neat. Simple with no extra moving parts.

Difficult to get photos of, but if you get to see a Swindle, take a close look and you'll see easily how it works.