Am I playing with it too much? Too hard?

Interesting replies. Funny, I keep reading about how wonderful the Axis lock is but I still have little confidence in it. I read a great article yesterday by a well known knife maker extolling the virtues of it. I guess it's just perception vs. reality: A frame lock 'looks' much more solid and secure to me than the Axis but everything I read says differently.

I'm not doing anything crazy with the Contego, it just begs to be flipped open hard because the blade is super heavy and can snap out and lock without even touching the Axis mechanism. If you have one, you'll know what I mean.
 
I have a bit-o-ocd when it comes to doing something with my hands while sitting (watching tv, etc). And my knives tend to get the brunt of it. My ZT's (about 6) and my one Benchmade (HK) or whichever I may have on me at the time, have between 1,000-3,000 firings on each of them. I know I'm adding possible wear to some of them, but so far, all still have perfect lockups. Yeah, I know....I'm going blind quickly. ;) I guess my knives tend to be 25% tool and 75% toy. :)
 
SmedleyButler said:
Interesting replies. Funny, I keep reading about how wonderful the Axis lock is but I still have little confidence in it. I read a great article yesterday by a well known knife maker extolling the virtues of it. I guess it's just perception vs. reality: A frame lock 'looks' much more solid and secure to me than the Axis but everything I read says differently.

I'm not doing anything crazy with the Contego, it just begs to be flipped open hard because the blade is super heavy and can snap out and lock without even touching the Axis mechanism. If you have one, you'll know what I mean.
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It's your knife and all, and live and let live but... if you have so little confidence in the lock on this heavy-bladed knife, why are you not only flipping it open but "flipping it open violently with a hard flick of the wrist" because it just "begs for it" as you put it? I wouldn't be doing that if I didn't have confidence in its ability to lock up.
 
RedLynx said:
It's your knife and all, and live and let live but... if you have so little confidence in the lock on this heavy-bladed knife, why are you not only flipping it open but "flipping it open violently with a hard flick of the wrist" because it just "begs for it" as you put it? I wouldn't be doing that if I didn't have confidence in its ability to lock up.
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Because it's just a toy for me, I have lots of others. I won't ever be depending on the Contego's lock up for anything important (because I don't trust it). However I did want to know, from people more knowledgeable than myself, if what I was doing was actually harming the knife or if they thought it could 'take it'. Forums like these serve many functions one of which is for people to learn from others. The consensus here seems to be that yes, I am putting a lot of unnecessary wear and tear on parts of the knife, but it isn't likely to fall apart in my hands or have the blade fly off. The way I treat it isn't the way one would treat a valued collectible but it seems like the consensus here is that the way I treat it would be acceptable for a tool/toy that I don't place a high value on and that I am not doing anything potentially dangerous. That's what I wanted to know and I appreciate the answers I got.

I love knives and have a few that I baby. I also have a few that I beat the crap out of 'cause it's fun.
 
SmedleyButler said:
Because it's just a toy for me, I have lots of others. I won't ever be depending on the Contego's lock up for anything important (because I don't trust it). However I did want to know, from people more knowledgeable than myself, if what I was doing was actually harming the knife or if they thought it could 'take it'. Forums like these serve many functions one of which is for people to learn from others. The consensus here seems to be that yes, I am putting a lot of unnecessary wear and tear on parts of the knife, but it isn't likely to fall apart in my hands or have the blade fly off. The way I treat it isn't the way one would treat a valued collectible but it seems like the consensus here is that the way I treat it would be acceptable for a tool/toy that I don't place a high value on and that I am not doing anything potentially dangerous. That's what I wanted to know and I appreciate the answers I got.

I love knives and have a few that I baby. I also have a few that I beat the crap out of 'cause it's fun.
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True, it just seemed odd to me that if you're not confident in the lock, you'd do something that could, potentially cause some kind of lock failure that would, at the very least, send the blade back down onto your fingers.

I flip knives too, sometimes even with a wrist flick (just not in public as it is rather laughable to watch) the way you described for flicking experience just seemed oddly hardcore. But like I said, live and let live, go for it if you've got it.
 
stabman said:
So you don't trust a lock that has tested to be just about the strongest out there?
Odd.
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Kind of what I'm wondering.... I'd say the Triad rivals it, but I don't know. I just know they're both some of the best out there. Smedley, out of curiosity, is there ANY lock you'd depend on for anything you consider important?
 
flipping open? probably wont be that bad. Flipping open with enough more force than need to successfully deploy the blade and ensure proper lockup? Not that good. The actual stop pin on a knife can usually take this force. But its the handle and the lockface that suffer the most. No energy can be created nor destroyed so it needs to go somewhere. When you flick your blade open super hard the blade travels to the stop pin and richochets. The lock prevents it from closing back on your fingers. So in reality you are doing double damage. Again the stop bar usually can handle the impact as it is short solid (and usually hardened) metal. But the frame might not. Aluminum cups can deform, carbon fiber and other sythetics can crack and even titanium can deform if the stop pin is small enough that it isnt properly supported.

But wait folks, thats not all. After slamming into your stop pin the blade wants to go back into the handle. But it cant because your lock is in the way. If you have a hardened steel lockbar you are probably ok. Even carburized Titanium is better than no protection. But many titanium lockbars arent treated and the end can deform. Sometimes horribly. Chris reeve has shown some extreme cases of his folders exhibiting this but sometimes I question if 1. the knife wasnt grossly abused or 2. a poor fake that cant stand up to the same abuse. Either way I think most well knives can sustain a bit of abuse but as the saying gos, if you find yourself having to ask? You probably should ease up a bit.
 
PURPLEDC, I hear you and agree, thanks.

RedLynx, I'm not looking to debate Axis locks especially since it's been discussed to death. I already acknowledged that the experts all seem to agree that the Axis lock is excellent and I am not arguing that. I'm just saying that I personally just don't like the looks or feel of it. I have a few. I dislike that it depends on 2 small springs. I understand that they are redundant and again, have read quite a bit about it and realize that people who know more than I agree that it is perhaps the best lock. I personally like heavy duty frame locks and a few of the compression locks. That being said, I have no interest in debating frame vs. Axis because I don't know enough about it and never claimed to. I don't like bringing a knife to a gunfight :)

Out of my modest collection of 50 or so knives, if I had to depend on one of them I'd want a fixed blade. If I had to choose a folder, my DPx's all seem to be built like tanks, have solid and early lock up and are difficult to dull/scratch/damage. Again, not debating the Axis - I just don't like it.
 
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SmedleyButler said:
PURPLEDC, I hear you and agree, thanks.

RedLynx, I'm not looking to debate Axis locks especially since it's been discussed to death. I already acknowledged that the experts all seem to agree that the Axis lock is excellent and I am not arguing that. I'm just saying that I personally just don't like the looks or feel of it. I have a few. I dislike that it depends on 2 small springs. I understand that they are redundant and again, have read quite a bit about it and realize that people who know more than I agree that it is perhaps the best lock. I personally like heavy duty frame locks and a few of the compression locks. That being said, I have no interest in debating frame vs. Axis because I don't know enough about it and never claimed to. I don't like bringing a knife to a gunfight :)

Out of my modest collection of 50 or so knives, if I had to depend on one of them I'd want a fixed blade. If I had to choose a folder, my DPx's all seem to be built like tanks, have solid and early lock up and are difficult to dull/scratch/damage. Again, not debating the Axis - I just don't like it.
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That's fair enough. I'm not even an Axis fanboy, I have one knife that has it, and not because it's an Axis, but because it's a cool knife that happens to have Axis lock. I just think everyone who likes knives should be able to use their folders for important stuff (that folding knives can do).

Personally I like good old fashioned lockback knives the best, regardless of strength of lock.
 
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