Stolen from someone else:
You have a blade that slides within a track and it is not connected to anything.
On top of the knife, you have a rectangular bar, a spring that runs the length of that bar, and two L shaped pieces of metal connected to the ends of the spring.
The button on the outside of the handle is connected to the rectangular bar.
When you slide the button, the rectangular bar moves.
At the bottom left and upper right side of the blade track are two pieces that are constantly pushed forward towards the center of the handle by springs.
When you slide the buttom; the rectangular bar moves and does two things at the same time:
1. With the blade in its rear and locked position, the bottom left locking clip is held forward by the small spring and obstructs the knife from moving up the track.
2. The rectangular bar moves upward with the button. There is a slanted section of the bar that touches the rear locking clip pushing it out of the way of the blade.
3. The rear L-shape piece of metal at the base of the spring touches the bottom of the blade. When the button slides forward, the L-Shape piece pushed upwards on the blade. Since the locking clip does not get moved out of the way right away, the spring tension increases.
4. Once the rectangular bar finishes pushing the locking clip out of the way; there is nothing that will keep the blade in place and with the L-shaped piece pushing on the blade with the spring at full tension, the blade will fire forward until it reaches the end of the track.
5. The upper locking clip is identical to the lower locking clip. Since it is always pushed forward; once the blade is at its apex, the locking clip will move under the bottom of the blade and prevent the blade from moving back into the handle.
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