2019, Year Of The Fixed Blade!

Will You Be Looking At A Fixed Blade Due To Reported Lock Failures?

  • YES

    Votes: 9 10.3%

  • NO

    Votes: 78 89.7%
  • Total voters
    87
  • Poll closed .
Lock failure is a non issue for me. I've got slip joints that I've learned to use. I look at frame/liner locks as a middle ground between my slip joints and fixed blades. I try not to have a false sense of security using a lock blade knife, they're treated like slip joints. I don't do anything with a lock blade that I wouldn't do with a slip joint.
I don't recall reading anything about slip joints or fixed blades failing a spine whack test.
I'm more concerned about a weak detent and a knife opening in my pocket than a spine whack test causing the lock to fail.
So, no, I don't think the market is going to be swayed from spine whack failures any time soon. I highly doubt other people not on a knife forum are too worried about it either. There's been no break room discussion about lock failure where I work at.
 
Lately I’ve been carrying a small fixed blade (FF Runt or EDK) and a small multi-tool (LM PS4).

I do love my framelock, but it started bothering me when people around me recoiled at the “click@ everytime I opened it.
 
I've bought more fixed blades this year than I've owned in my entire life. It doesn't really have anything to do with lock failures, I've just discovered a whole new world of knives. This year alone I bought a Kershaw Diskin Hunter, (the one that started the obsession), a Benchmade 375 (returned to Amazon but seriously considering buying another) a Spartan blades Phrike (a little too tacticool for me, but still a nice blade) and most recently the Benchmade Altitude. The Altitude is pretty much perfect, but part of me wants something a little bigger while still being ultralight. That being said, I haven't carried a folder except for at work since getting the Diskin. Fixed blades are just faster to deploy, sturdier and with a good sheath/mounting system, more comfortable than their folding brethren.
 
Rule # 1 for any folding knife, no matter how bombproof of lock it may have.
NEVER TRUST THE LOCK.
If you don't do something stupid, where you depend on the lock not failing to protect you hand, then lock failure will not be an issue.

O.B.
 
I’m actually shocked that as many as 13% * of our members would be swayed to buy fixed blades because of the over-reported lock failures of folders.

*per the poll at the time I typed my post.
 
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I thought most young boys (and cool girls) were raised using small Swiss Army knives, which basically trains you how to properly use a folding knife. You either paid attention or you learned the hard way. I feel like that carefulness never goes away.

I only chose knives based on lock style when it makes the knife open or close easier.
 
I like a fixed blade for big jobs outdoors (cutting thick wood for a long period of time) because the handles are so much more comfortable than handles of folders -- not because I have any worries about the locks failing on my folders.
 
marcinek said:
We have? I have seen some, and have always seem some. It hardly seems like locks are failing all over the place.

Are fixed blades less prone to lock failure? Of course.

Are more people going to be carrying around fixed blades in 2019 since we had a lock failure thread this week? No.
Click to expand...

I always question the use of the phrase "lock failure" as well. If you're twisting the knife through a cut and inadvertently disengage a liner or framelock with the pad of your knuckle, did the lock fail or did you fail as a user. I'd bet that a large portion of so-called lock failures are actually user errors.

EDC knives tend to spend more time in carry than they do use, making folders the more practical option. They're not going anywhere.
 
The only lock failure I have experienced has been on trying to open an Opinel that is “locked” closed. In the worst case, the lock ring is launched, possibly never to be found again. In that event, the knife defaults to a friction folder. No more lock failures.

I have a small Anza that I often drop into a pocket, most likely after a freezing rain where I will have to pop open a frozen car door. If I think I am going to want a larger fixed blade, I might drop a Mora into a pocket. It is light enough to carry comfortably, even though it sticks out of some pockets. A Companion in its sheath is 9” OAL, and disappears completely in the baggy worsted poly/wool pants I usually wear.

P.S. This poll allowed me to vote three times, which goes a long way toward assuaging any shame or humiliation I might have felt for allowing myself to be reeled in by the OP’s troll.
 
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