Mr Blonde said:
However, liners will make it more acceptable to a larger crowd, who maybe think of purely utility uses for this knife.
Lost Jaguar said:
If Mr. Glesser, Mr. Rinaldi, and Snarc okay this new design, I don't care what it's made of, or what it's called. I only care about when I can get one.
I admit I'm just playing devil's advocate here, but keep in mind that this is a defensive piece. God forbid it has to be used for its designed purpose, it needs to be able to put up with pretty awesome forces. In the adrenaline-induced haze of a life-threatening defensive situation, your accuracy will suffer, and you may find yourself torquing this thing out hard. So, to address Mr Blonde's point, I don't think it's only utility guys who will ask about liners. Defensive-use guys do want speed, but they also know the knife could end up being torqued pretty good.
For Lost Jaguar, without even seeing the knife, I have a strong feeling that Trace's and Snarc's design will be very sound. But having a good overall design isn't the same thing as knowing the breaking point of a particular executed piece. Unless Trace and Southnarc have been given prototypes by Sal, and told "test these to the limits of what you think is reasonable, and don't worry if you destroy them", then they really don't know what the breaking point is. Don't know if that's happened yet -- right now, it might be that Sal is the only one who knows the breaking point. Sal knows his stuff cold, but more eyes are better.
That said, I have no doubt that it's possible to construct a linerless 3.25" defensive knife that can do the job. And if anyone can do it, it's these guys. But some of the replies are looking a little too much like blind faith. For my part, I plan to get one of these things as early as I can, and I will test it hard
to within reasonable limits of this type of piece, and so will many other folks. Asking Sal, Trace, and Southnarc to go back, and make doubley sure the thing isn't going to crack apart in reasonable-but-hard testing isn't an insult to any of them; it's just making sure we're not sacrificing too much robustness.
Trace and Southnarc, have you hard-tested -- torquing a knife that's wedged in something, say -- any of the prototypes you've examined? If you say "yes", I'm happy.
Joe