As we see spine whacking and the myriad of opinions it brings up, time and again, I thought perhaps a thread detailing and cataloging actual experiences with accidental spine whack--resulting in lock failure and possible injury--in the course of use, might be, well, useful.
Obviously it won't be an exhaustive encyclopedia of spine whack/lock failure stories, but we have those who find it a stupid test and those who feel it is adequate if done lightly, to those who give it some good hard knocks before deeming the folder acceptable for use. I'm in the former camp, though serious users here who do it, do bring up some good points as to why, I respect that.
But how often does it really happen? Certainly, we could say that if a good lock avoids it happening even once, it's better than not. But it is mostly, for me, a solution to a nonexistent problem, exceptions notwithstanding.
I do appreciate the various locks on folders however.
Anyway, given the various debates raging over the test and how useful a knife is or isn't if it does not hold up to this, I thought sharing some actual experiences from users might be great.
I've experienced this long ago on cheap mall ninja stuff, but never since I "wised up," as it were.
ETA: I don't perform spine whack tests just to be clear. When I say I've never experienced such a failure I mean, by accidentally hitting the spine of the knife on something in the course of normal use. I've done this, but thankfully the lock held up each time.
Obviously it won't be an exhaustive encyclopedia of spine whack/lock failure stories, but we have those who find it a stupid test and those who feel it is adequate if done lightly, to those who give it some good hard knocks before deeming the folder acceptable for use. I'm in the former camp, though serious users here who do it, do bring up some good points as to why, I respect that.
But how often does it really happen? Certainly, we could say that if a good lock avoids it happening even once, it's better than not. But it is mostly, for me, a solution to a nonexistent problem, exceptions notwithstanding.
I do appreciate the various locks on folders however.
Anyway, given the various debates raging over the test and how useful a knife is or isn't if it does not hold up to this, I thought sharing some actual experiences from users might be great.
I've experienced this long ago on cheap mall ninja stuff, but never since I "wised up," as it were.
ETA: I don't perform spine whack tests just to be clear. When I say I've never experienced such a failure I mean, by accidentally hitting the spine of the knife on something in the course of normal use. I've done this, but thankfully the lock held up each time.
