ADVICE: Non Auto safety lock on folding knives

R

ratzie

Joined
Feb 17, 2014
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ADVICE

Does Anyone in their great wide wisdom know of any custom folding knife makers who employ a safety locking device on their knives so that if my son gets a hold of my knife he can't accidentally flip it open?

Thanks!
 
Sorry man, the only two knives I know with a lock are the Kershaw Boa and Protech TR4 but they're both "assisted". Good luck on your search.

Depending on how old your son is, best safety prevention is educating them on proper knife handling and safety. That way they'll have knowledge of how to handle a knife properly and with respect. It also takes away that "mysterious" and "taboo" curiosity factor of a forbidden item. Just my $0.02.
 
Not custom but the kershaw chive scallion and leek (not sure on the shallot) offer tip locks which prevent the blade from being deployed. Also the benchmade barrage series also offers a lock to keep the blade from being opened its even "harder" to disengage that lock than kershaw tip lock, you pretty much need to want to open it and know what you're doing, as opposed to say a child messing around with stuff they find. Also as stog said if age permits introduce the child to knives in a safe educational manner just as stog suggested.
 
Never a custom, but all Paul locks (old Gerbers and Lone Wolf knives) all lock both open and closed.

Best bet with any child is to forget about locks and watch them all the time removing problem things out of their reach. They progress so quickly, that many kids will learn to defeat a lock as soon as they see it done twice and have the manual strength.
 
Not customs either; Sog has a number of folders with safety locks, Benchmade has em on knives like the Barrage (assisted).

My daughter grabbed my sng off the table when she was two and flipped it open cutting one of her fingers (minor, thank goodness).

Knives are kept out of reach for the most part now but she's four now and is really interested in them so the teaching begins! :thumbup:
 
Hogue folders have a small safety on the side ( aside from the button lock), but I don't recall if they lock it closed or open.
 
jstrange said:
Hogue folders have a small safety on the side ( aside from the button lock), but I don't recall if they lock it closed or open.
Click to expand...

Those only lock open. You would think it would work to lock it closed, but yeah...
 
The trouble with safety locks is that kids are so quick to learn. Even if you find one that locks closed he may figure out how to open it quicker than expected. Or he might unlock it by chance. Think about the consequences of the worst case scenario and be ready for that.

The one knife I have that I'd feel safe leaving in my toddler's reach is an early gec73. He won't have the physical strength to budge the blades for years. (I don't even think my wife could open it.)

I tend toward overly cautious though so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
 
An option may be to consider purchasing one of small type gun lockers with either a finger pad combo lock or key. They're pretty reasonable.

Then when you're not around you can keep them secured. As well as other items too of course.

But as others posted, kids learn so quickly by watching that they'll figure it out so fast it's amazing. Learned that with the kids and grandkids. I think it helps as soon as they are old enough to understand, explain that anytime they want to see it, just ask and you'll show it to them. And explain why it's not a toy. It takes away some of the mystery curiosity. After awhile, they really didn't pay much attention to them once they learned they could see them whenever they wanted. It was boring after that. Lol.
 
spketch said:
The trouble with safety locks is that kids are so quick to learn. Even if you find one that locks closed he may figure out how to open it quicker than expected. Or he might unlock it by chance. Think about the consequences of the worst case scenario and be ready for that.

I tend toward overly cautious though so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
Click to expand...

Based on my own experience and a very sad experience of a friend, I agree with your assessment if it means anything. When there are children in my house, I generally put my folders into a MiniVault which is small, digital, quick-access safe designed primarily to keep younger children around, or inside my jeweler's safe.

Kershaw has numerous safety designs on their Ken Onion Assisted models, but these aren't technically locking; they just lock the blade closed until the safety is manually disengaged. Many Spydercos would work well with certain cable locks, but IMO just throwing them all in a MiniVault is a lot less time-consuming. Probably the most difficult knife for a younger child to engage would be an OTF, but if they managed to successfully fire it, it would probably also have the worst outcome.
 
Fox SpecWOG is a manual lockback folder, and has a safety that locks it open and closed. Extrema Ratio RAO has a screw on bolt that locks it open and closed as well.
 
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