The Okapi Ratchet Knife - Question

[dart]

Here's a picture of my Kudu knife.

[79spitfire]

WOO-HOO! 6 pages!!

[dart]

I spent all day searching for my Kudus. I found two of them (I have 4 but cannot find the other two but they are all identical). Both have a spring that is too strong for me to open one handed in any manner at all. I had to use both hands to get them open and closed. They also have "ratchet" notches on the tang. They are ok to open and close with both hands. I couldn't do the thumb and index finger closing at all. I almost cut myself fooling around with them. So...I don't know how anyone could open one of mine using just one hand? They are nice tho. Light in weight and the stainless steel is pretty sharp right out of the box. For me, they are just a bit too long for edc.

[scrungy_doolittle]

O.K. Way back in college, 1976 I had a Jamaican roommate. He kept telling me about these ratchet knives, so I asked him to get me one when he went home for Christmas. He brought me a nice Okapi. Sharper than hell. Nice orange wood. With the letters
WEBA carved on the side. Apparently that was carved in by the prior owner. Anyrate he taught me to open it. I can open mine faster than any lockblade knife. I don't have a picture, but I'll try to describe it. First of all you hook your index finger into the ring such that it is curled back toward the butt end of the knife. Your index fingernail will be resting on the back of the backstrap. Grip the knife on the side about half way back, with you thumb on one side, and your middle finger on the other side. With the bade side UP, swing your arm sharply down and to the right for right handed people. Just at the end of the vigorous swing, allow your wrist to continue flexing backward, and use your finger to pull BACK on the ring. This will move the backstrap away from the blade. Snap your hand to the left (in the direction opposite to the way you swung the arm.) This will cause the blade to riiiip open. The ratchets on my knife are there, but the edges are rounded so that they resemble a small half circle. With practice, you can reduce the arm swing. I can open mine in about a 1 foot swing. SHARP movement, with instant HARD reversal like you would snap a towel, and bingo, the blade pops right open.
Hope this helps.

[Cryptomecanic]

Thanks Scrungy!!! I kept trying to stick my middle finger all the way through the ring,I finally got where I could whip it open by pinching it behind the nail nick on the blade,but the tendonitis took about two months to get over

[Cryptomecanic]

has anybody been able to whip one open ?
I don't think I have fat enough fingers !

[Cryptomecanic]

[fashionable_man]

[Cryptomecanic]

:?:

I was just bringing the topic back to the top with the (so Catavengercaptain could read about the Okapi's)

[dem0nfox]

6 pages and still no answer:

HERE IS THE ANSWER: DUN DUN DUN

the problem is not your hand, or your technique, its the knife. brand new the knifes locking mechanism is much too stiff.

and as my jamaican friend who gave me the okapi told me: "you gotta take the blade and bend it back to your likin"

esentially meaning you unfold the knife so its locked in the open position, you pull back on the ring so it is no longer locked onto the last tooth on the ratchet gear.

then u press the blade against a table or a bumbaclot, and push forward, gently but firmly, and you will feel the locking mechanism bend (GO SLOW, IF YOU BEND IT TOO MUCH ULL RUIN IT!)

go very slowly and proceed to warp the steel that is like the spine of the locking mechanism, keep doing this a few times, that locking mechanism will really feel a little looser. (when your done, locking mechanism should not look bent out of shape the knife should lock firmly when open)

next OPENING the knife:

do NOT jam your finger in the key ring to the wrist and try flick the knife in a arching motion over your head.

you put your index finger into the keyring so that you finger is in there 1/2 way between the 1st knuckle and the 2nd knuckle, hold the knife squarely on the sides, and while pulling the key ring straight down parallel to the spine of the knife open it with a flick of you arm down and wrist..and the knife should whip out if you loosened the locking mechanism enough, if not loosen more.

[fashionable_man]

AWESOME! Thanks man, I'm going to go try it now.

[fashionable_man]

It works great!

[steelbowie]

ohhhh.... i like your kudu knife. How was the quality of that knife?

[TJGladeRaider]

I have enjoyed this thread - it reminds me of my misspent youth, and the Bob Marley days . . . not that those days are over. BTW, BM would have been 65 yesterday.

I grew up in the Islands Mon, and mastered that ratchet you guys are discussing before I had my learners permit, mentored by Rude Boys long before that became fashionable. I was just thinking about getting another one - kind of like the Harley . . . there are some things that happen in your head when you get that AARP card!

The "how to" advice is dead on, but it's a bit like telling someone how to do that finger snap where you hold your thumb against your middle finger and snap your hand downward with an upward jerk that makes the snapping noise. With that description, you could spend weeks/months/years depending upon your perserverance and convince yourself that it was actually impossible - until you saw someone do it.

The Keith Richards video will give you an idea how fast that lightweight knife can be.

I would add this - DO NOT get crazy bending that mechanism. Just as others have commented, a little tension release is OK, but a guy with a lot of expperience can snap a new one open just fine. I would recommend the Rasta method. Use up a good bit of Brasso, which is a fine polish that works great breaking in ratchet knife mechanisms, and polishing scratches out of old (pre-sapphire) watch crystals. I have a couple of vintage Rollies from that same time period and a little time with Brasso on a cotton ball will make those watch crystals look like new.

Anyway, I am getting off point. For the ratchet, I would suggest you take the new knife, and a can of Brasso, and sit down to watch football. Put a little brazzo on the ratchet mehcanism and start working it. Don't wipe off the residue, just keep adding a couple of drops of Brasso and working the mechanism thru the full range of motion. Be patient, you are going to watch a lot of football to properly break in a new knife. When you finally get it broken in, clean it up, re oil it and you will be good to go.

To learn the technique, I think you might do well to buy a throw away knife since that is what most of us did by accident. You bend the back strap spring to relieve the tension on the mechanism until you can flick the knife open/closed as others have described. There is no use wasting a bunch of time working that mechanism down with Brasso because, once you have mastered that wrist snap, you will find that your back strap spring is too loose - go back to your other new knife, with the pain stakingly polished mechanism and practice.

I don't know if I explained that very well, but my point is, most of us ruined a knife getting it loose enough to learn the technique. I don't think you are likely to learn it with a nice, tight knife. Once you do learn it, you will want a nicely broken in, tight knife.

TJ

[Cryptomecanic]

that was a lot of fun solving the Knife Mystery, (and they were cheap enough everyone could order a couple and try to figuare it out)