A thought about tanto folder's lock

[huh]

I think the tanto blade is for heavy duty. And when I look at the lum tanto folder in knife shops, its blade design looks so tough that I am a little bit worried about its lock. When I put this knife to the very heavy duty its blade deserving, can I trust that thin single piece of linearlock?

IMO, the blade design is an overkill on any folder knife. However, a tanto folder will still make a sweet buddy when I can't carry a fixed tanto in the office. My question is: Has anyone abused this knife had the experience of lock failures? Or will spyderco have the plan to put an integral compression lock or a thicker linear on this knife?

 

[calyth]

Mostly, spyderco's linerlocks may look flimsy, but it's actually quite well built. My friend's Military's liner engages the very left of the tang and it's not oversize like some of my other liners, but it still holds up well.
If there's a reason that you think your Bob Lum Tanto's lock isn't holding up, I think Spyderco is more than willing to check it out.
I sent an Endura in for sharpening (somehow the edge got really screwed up) and they check the lock and they said it could've closed on my hand. I actually personally tested the blade and for what I dished out (withouth wrecking it) it didn't even budge.
I'm pretty confident that a Spyderco folder would handle the task at hand without the lock seriously giving way.
I personally don't like tantos much.... very hard to sharpen and actually I like the regular clip point and drop points more.

 

[huh]

I used to thought Americanized tanto to be some marketing craps. But when I looked at lum's tanto, I realized that the different edge styles provide both cutting power and supreme penetration ability at the same time. And I love it. I've learned that spyderco has very good linear locks. But the point is 1 single failure of the lock may mean several of my fingers. And we all agree that some locks are much more reliable than linear locks. Why doesn't spyderco make its folders more reliable, at least looks more reliable, and I believe most people will like to pay for that.

 

[Sal Glesser]

Thanx for the input.

As we continue to develop the Compression and Ball bearing locks (& one other not yet mentioned), we will more than likely trend away from linerlocks. We feel the newer locks have more to offer.

But we always appreciate your input and opinions.

Lock development is time consuming, but new concepts are always in need of refinement. The lockback has had many years of "evolution" behind it. We've refined the linerlock a great deal over the past 14 years that we've been producing them, but we believe that the linear force direction cannot be as stong as the compression force direction.

sal