Knife Styles — Blog Contest Entry

            In my opinion, the best three types of knives are automatic, spring assisted, and folding knives. These three types of knives are the most common and most popular. Even though these knives are really popular, they have differences in their performances and may not be legal in every state.

The automatic knife is my all-time favorite. This knife is opened by simply a push of a button. They open very quickly with very few force required to open it. Sometimes these knives get stuck or don’t go all the way up. This shouldn’t discourage you from owning one. You just simply need to put some WD40© on the knife and they work perfectly after this.  In some states these knife are illegal. It just depends on the state but in most cases you are allowed to have an automatic knife that has a blade of two inches long. If you are allowed to have any size automatic knife in your state then I strongly encourage you to carry one for everyday use. Just make sure that you are able to carry it before you actually start caring it. If you can’t carry any type of automatic knife then you might consider getting a spring assisted knife.

Spring assisted knives are knives that require  some force from the user and then once its twenty five percent open, a spring kicks in that helps it open. Spring assisted knives have a little lever in the side that you push down with your finger. Once you push it down and the knife opens twenty five percent, then the spring kicks in and helps it open faster. These knives open pretty fast but not as fast as the automatic knives open. What I like about these knives is that they usually don’t mess up very easily. If they do mess up, you just need to buy a little spring or you can just send it to a place to get it fixed. These knives are usually legal in every state. I would still encourage you to check your state before carrying on of these knives just in case. If they are not legal then you can try a different type of knife such as a regular folding knife.

A regular folding knife is legal in just about every single state as long as you are at least eighteen years old. These knives don’t have any type of spring and requires one hundred percent of force from the user to open it. Some of these knives can still be opened pretty fast if you know the right techniques. What I like about this knives is that they almost never mess up. Since they don’t have any type of button or spring, you usually have no trouble with them. In some states they require the blade to be four inches or less for you to be able to carry it. If you want to carry a bigger size knife you need to carry it in a pouch in your belt that is visibly seen. Other than this, the folding knife is a great tool to have.

Over all, automatic, spring assisted, and folding knives are great tools to own. Just make sure you meet your state requirements before carrying any of these knives. Enjoy your knives and make good decisions.

–Gerardo