New EDC Knife

I treated myself to a new EDC knife in the form of the Benchmade / HK 14460BT Nitrous Blitz.

The 14460BT uses the Benchmade Nitrous assist mechanism. The ‘Nitrous’ is Benchmade’s spring-assisted mechanism that uses torsion arms to propel the blade to the locked and open position, after the operator uses the thumbstud on the blade to move the blade to the 30 degree open position. It gets the knife open at a very fast speed, while still being legal (not a switchblade). This is not a switchblade because it requires the operator to use physical force (using the thumb or other finger) in order to get the blade moving towards the open position before the action in the knife’s mechanism is activated to propel the blade the rest of the way through to the locked and open position.

Thanks to former CA State Senator (and current CA State Assemblywoman) Betty Karnette who authored SB 271 in 2001 (which passed), the CA Penal Code 653k was clarified to distinguish between a switchblade and a spring-assited knife. As of 01/01/2002, CA PC 653k reads (note bold text):

For the purposes of this section, “switchblade knife” means a knife having the appearance of a pocketknife and includes a spring-blade knife, snap-blade knife, gravity knife or any other similar type knife, the blade or blades of which are two or more inches in length and which can be released automatically by a flick of a button, pressure on the handle, flip of the wrist or other mechanical device, or is released by the weight of the blade or by any type of mechanism whatsoever.  “Switchblade knife” does not include a knife that opens with one hand utilizing thumb pressure applied solely to the blade of the knife or a thumb stud attached to the blade, provided that the knife has a detent or other mechanism that provides resistance that must be overcome in opening the blade, or that biases the blade back toward its closed position.

Anyway, that’s my new knife. Here’s a Youtube video demonstrating the spring-assisted mechanism versus the fully-automatic ‘switchblade’ mechanism: