Schrade Viper

[button_man]

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Got this at the flea yesterday for $20. I have never before seen an OTF that has the button at the wrong end of the knife, so I was intrigued.
After owning it for two minutes, I hope to never see one again. It's one of the very stupidest knife designs I've ever seen, which is saying a lot.

To open it, you must hold it with the blade opening facing down and/or towards you, for your thumb to be on the button. Arguably worse is the fact that it's a single-action; if a finger strays into the path of the deployment button (which slides down the entire length of the handle after being pressed) it will catch a bit of your skin under the button as it zooms forward, and pinch it, and it will hurt like blazes for a few minutes. Immediately after buying it, I started fooling around with it to figure out if there was actually a good way to hold/deploy the knife (there isn't) and I got pinched FIVE times in about two minutes.... and this despite actively trying to keep my fingers out of the way!

The knife seems fairly solid and well-built (for the money -- retail $45) and mine has this cool scalloped blade that probably added a few bucks to the price (although I couldn't find this exact version listed while viewing 3 or 4 ads online). But using it is phenomenally awkward; there is no way that you could pull this out of your pocket in an emergency and have it ready to use quickly and easily. Whomever designed this knife is an idiot.

The first photo shows how the knife must be held in the ready position -- and believe me, you have to be very precise here; and because you are unable to grip the knife firmly, it's easy to drop it. After deployment, the little tab that projects below the button is pressed down to unlock the blade; and then the button is drawn back manually to the rear of the knife again.

No origin marked on the knife; the box is marked "Taiwan". Model = SCHOTF3CB -- UPC = 0 44356 22247 1

If anyone else has a better opinion of this knife than I do, I am very keen to learn why.
I cannot fathom why anyone would design a knife to be so astonishingly difficult to use.
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[button_man]

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Here is the instruction sheet. The very first sentence is: "Grasp your Schrade Viper in the position shown".
Note the immensely helpful illustration depicting exactly how to grasp the knife.
.....which is, on top of all the other lapses, shown already open.

The reverse of this vital document is blank. This is all you get.
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[Tom19176]

This was done to sell it as a assisted opener and not a true switchblade OTF. Since the tab is part of the blade and you have to over come resistance it was deemed a assisted opener. They have a line of these based on that idea. The idea sucks.....

[sammy the blade]

I had one similar, don't remember if it was schrade or some other brand but I gave it away. Guy wanted to give me something for it but I told him just taking it was payment enough. Feel about the same as you do about them.

[Mario]

These were early variations of the assisted opening OTFs Schrade came out with. They later came out with versions that had a switch on the handle which put the knife in a grey area between automatic and assisted, but they technically get by with being assisted since the switch is part of an inner panel that engages and starts moving the blade itself before the spring kicks in and launches the blade. You have to retract the blade manually.

[JPD1998]

It's definitely a gimmick, and I'm probably in the minority, but I like mine.

I have most of the different generations , the latest one is best with the switch button that doesn't move with the opening action.
It has a separate slider to reset the blade.

I don't have any advice about which is the best way to open it , I just hold it the way you have it ( up or down) and flick the slider with my thumb.
I've got small hands , so that probably helps me not getting pinched.
I can open and close it with one hand.... maybe I'm double jointed.

One thing I can say, it has almost no play for an OTF.

[JPD1998]

I got my knife out and can see I open it a little differently.

I rest the knife in the base of my three fingers, with the glass breaker touching the base of my pinky, the blade pointed up.
My thumb is furthest from the actuator and then I just flick it up with my thumb.

To close , I release the lock with my index finger until the blade drops and then slide the actuator back down with my thumb until locked.

[button_man]

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I rest the knife in the base of my three fingers, with the glass breaker touching the base of my pinky, the blade pointed up.
My thumb is furthest from the actuator and then I just flick it up with my thumb.

Either your thumbs are a heck of a lot stronger than mine, or the resistance on my button is much greater than on yours.
I tried holding the knife as you describe -- it's still very awkward and I could not get the button to budge due to the angle.
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[JPD1998]

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I rest the knife in the base of my three fingers, with the glass breaker touching the base of my pinky, the blade pointed up.
My thumb is furthest from the actuator and then I just flick it up with my thumb.

Either your thumbs are a heck of a lot stronger than mine, or the resistance on my button is much greater than on yours.
I tried holding the knife as you describe -- it's still very awkward and I could not get the button to budge due to the angle.
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I just lay the knife inside my hand with the slider closer to my pinky and facing my thumb.
And I flick up with my thumb.
But as you said the slider might be stronger on yours.