Quick Flick Series, assited opening knives, by Denis Prisbrey, field tester for Tactical Knives magazine

These Colonial Knife Corp. ` –fast one–handers are appropriately named.

One of the lessons my grandfather learned early, and passed on down to me, was the necessity for a man to have a knife on board during daily life. The knife Grandpa took with him everywhere, every day, whether in bib overalls or church suit, wasn’t fancy. No super steel, no exotic handle materials, no tactical leg harness, no trendy brand name and certainly no 12–inch blade. It was a very simple and basic three–blade stockman folder with jigged bone slabs, and if he paid more the $1.00 for it at the hardware store 14 miles from his home, I’d be astounded.

Even in this modern era with better steels, bigger blades, prettier handles and wider choice of locks than were ever dreamed of not all that long ago, the primary purpose of a knife is to cut. For 90 percent (and probably more) of the personal knife uses today, the buyer just needs a nice little folder he or she can tote along in a pocket or purse, and one that only has to get its owner through the trials and tribulations of everyday life. For the vast majority, this isn’t for hacking through the jungles of Borneo, felling trees to build emergency log cabins along the trail, skinning a dozen buffalo, splintering ammunition crates, reducing logs to firewood, repelling a charging grizzly, or defending against a masked guy with a bloody chainsaw in the woods. It’s the much more mundane things like farm or ranch chores, warehouse work, office activities, and so on. Nothing glamorous–just every–day applications where a sharp edge beats teeth, and scissors are not practical to carry in a pocket.

Given the basic idea, does a decent working knife have to have a designer’s name on the blade and a $300. Tag on the box? No. Taking inflation and other factors into consideration, $25.00 today would be roughly the equivalent of $1 knife 50 years ago, and I’d argue that there is a place in this day and age for a $25 knife. It’s even possible to get a bonus feature included for the money. The Colonial Knife™ Corp.’s Quick Flick™ line may interest you if you should happen to be on the lookout for a working folder. Besides some of the familiar and popular features found through mid–sized folder knifedom in general, such as open construction, flat scales, pocket clip and thumb–studded blades, all three of the Quick Flick models also use an assisted opening “action”.

Neither a side–swinging switchblade nor a front popper, an assisted–action blade requires the user to get things moving by starting the blade out manually on opening, not by pushing a button or sliding “switch”, after which the spring takes over and “flicks” the blade the rest of the way open top its locking position. While this can be a fun and showy way to impress people at family get–togethers, it’s actually a useful feature when you either have only one hand available to get the blade into use or need it in a hurry. ALL three Quick Flicks™ operate the same general way and all are priced at $25.00.

$25 well spent–looking at the broad picture, these knives are a good buy for the hard–earned $25 layout. No, 440A isn’t ATS–34, but it’s still stainless. You won’t feel any sticker shock or buyer’s remorse, and you’re not going to worry about making it less “pretty” if you have to use it hard. Will it hold an edge? Sure. How long? That depends entirely on you and what you do with it. Use it a little, indefinitely; use it a lot, and you should learn how to sharpen a blade if you don’t know how already. I didn’t do any testing–to–destruction on any of the three, but I can tell you the 7005 cuts stiff hemp rope just fine, the 7002 slices up packaged beef strips quite well for my quick and easy Ramen trail spaghetti recipe, and the 7001 opened up a couple deliveries of strapped cardboard ammunition boxes every bit as well as 154CM would have.

Quality levels are nothing short of excellent, equal to many folders priced four or five times as high. The fit and finish between scales and liners is first class, the actions open smoothly, the blades are centered when closed, they show no wobble or play either closed or open, and the handles can be tightened by user if they start to loosen a bit over time. The grinds are clean, even and consistent, and all three clearly illustrate that the originating company’s specs and quality control expectations on cutting tools are at least as important in considering a purchase as the country of origin on imported models.

Many of us have high–dollar knives that we’re proud of. No matter how proud we maybe of a $400 work of cutlery art, it’s not the one that goes to work in the corral, on the dock, in the shipping/receiving room, up the cliff face or along the hiking trail. What does get the job done, every day, all across America, is the equivalent of Grandpa’s $1 pocketknife. Ding it up–who cares? Dull it–sharpen it. Lose it–you can afford to replace it. This is Colonial knife’s market for these Quick Flick™, and assisted opening feature is a bonus.