anyone NOT like the BM Axis lock?

Lemme see if I can get this video back up. Shows me playing around with a couple AXIS locks.

http://home.comcast.net/~wadef/bf/axislocks.wmv

I'd like to add I may look a little akward in this video the way I'm holding the knives, etc, but I was forced to keep them in the frame of the camera. So I'm trying to watch a little LCD screen on my digital camera while demonstrating. So you see me positioning my hands and the knives to get them in frame, etc. :) It looks a bit silly, but that's what's going on.
 
gajinoz said:
Pretty lousy video, there was no blood at all! ;) :)
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I'll try harder to cut a finger off next time.:) BTW, some of you might try turning up the brightness in your video player if it's dark. I know it looks a lot better on my player if I brigthen it up.

BTW, someone imitated my draw and slice the paper video and cut himself pretty good. :rolleyes: Start slow if you're going to attempt this if you don't have any prior practice. Make sure your fingers are in the clear!
 
I'm gonna get the 722S - where did you get yours and what's a good price? I had a SOG mini-X-ray and that thing was weak. Maybe that's also why I had the bad taste in my mouth re: axis locks - I know it's not an AXIS but it's the same basically. Did you see any other tantos out there like the 722?
 
Damn dude, you are fast!!! :eek: Thanks for taking the time to explain it to me and attaching those files. Now I'm really having a hard time waiting for my Axis Lock! :grumpy:

I'd like to PM you but I don't have that feature available to me. Is it because I'm a new member?
 
ChaserAlpha said:
Damn dude, you are fast!!! :eek: Thanks for taking the time to explain it to me and attaching those files. Now I'm really having a hard time waiting for my Axis Lock! :grumpy:

I'd like to PM you but I don't have that feature available to me. Is it because I'm a new member?
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I have PM enabled, but you might have to be a subscriber to use it, not sure.

Which Axis lock did you get? The larger bladed models are easier to flip open and closed. Take your time with it. Your thumb may get sore, but that goes away if you keep practicing each day. Just watch those fingers! You don't want to snap that blade shut on them.

To flip open you want to pull back on the lock, and just before the blade reaches the fully open position let go off the lock so it snaps to the locked position and it should catch the blade. The same for closing, let go right before the blade is fully closed. Just make sure you have plenty of room around you. I've seen people try and copy what I do, friends, family, and they end up throwing a knife across the room. When learning to flick open a knife, don't do it around other people. :)
 
I've toughened my thumb with repeated openings of my Buck Strider 880 Tanto Point. The blister has dried up and awaiting more use. For the meantime I'm snapping open my Benchmade CQC7. I understand what you mean about releasing the Axis Lock just prior to full open and closed because I tried a 940 Osborne at the retailer's last Saturday and the blade kinda popped back like there was no catch at either end. I'll just have to keep practising. The model I've ordered is the 520 Presidio Pardue. I hope to reach your level of competency! :D
 
From a young guy with RA, I really appreciate all my BM Axis locks.
I have stiffness on some of my fingers on my right hand.
 
WadeF said:
Maybe this isn't a concern for some people, but when you get proficient with the AXIS lock and you can open your knife with one hand, make your cut, and close it again with one hand and put it away, it's pretty slick. With frame locks, lock backs, liners, etc, it takes more effort and concentration to close the knife.
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I can't say that I agree about the speed. Maybe I'm jaded by all the experience I've had with various locking mechanisms over the years, but I can close a liner lock and a frame lock as fast as an AXIS. Granted, the AXIS is a quick close, and it's fun as hell to flip it closed like that.

Don't take that to mean that I dislike the AXIS lock, I actually really like it. I don't own a BM with the AXIS, but I've fondled a few. A friend has a plain old Grippy that I've sharpened for him, and in the time it was in my hands I never felt like the lock was going to fail. There was no blade play at all... overall a very solid knife, with a very solid lock up.

If I had the choice between an AXIS or a liner lock, I'd probably take the AXIS. But in all honesty, as long as the knife locks up solidly and doesn't feel like it'll disengage at random, I don't really care what locking method it uses. I've owned or handled knives with just about every locking mechanism possible and I've seen good and bad examples of them all. I've seen such poor frame locks that I'd rather have a mid level Chinese liner locker. I've seen lockbacks with so much blade play that it was really just a slipjoint in drag.

I don't think you can really compare one lock to another, only the quality of one knife to another. All locks will fail, it's just a fact of life. A BM AXIS is no more immune to failure as a Maxam liner lock knock off.

All that matters in my book is quality.
 
WadeF One thing I forgot to ask you...When you say to release the lock, are you holding the lock with both your thumb and forefinger or just with your thumb? Does the lock pivot in it's recess? By this I mean, can the lock be pulled back with just the thumb alone or just the forefinger alone?
 
those of you worried about accidently disengaging the axis lock, i'd be more worried about something hitting the spine of the handle or my palm pushing too hard and disengaging the lockback.

i go

framelock #1, axis #2
 
ChaserAlpha said:
... can the lock be pulled back with just the thumb alone or just the forefinger alone?
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You can pull the lock back with one finger. I would find the forefinge clumsy but the thumb is instinctive. The axis bar will not shift from its right-angle to the tang.
 
Psychopomp said:
but I can close a liner lock and a frame lock as fast as an AXIS.
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Did you watch my videos? I find it hard to believe you can close a liner lock or frame lock as quickly as an Axis. For starters you'd have to move your finger down to release the lock and then get it out of the way as you used another finger to push the blade closed. I've seen people do this pretty quick, but I don't see how it could be as fast as the Axis. However, closing a knife a fraction of the time slower or faster isn't that big of a deal as long as it can easily be closed with one hand. My point was with the Axis lock you don't have to get your fingers in the path of the blade and it takes less effort and skill to flip it closed.
 
After I bought my first (of many) BM Axis locks, I knew I'd never go back to liner locks. I did buy a framelock Spydie Ti ATR, but that's another story. Now, it's either an axis lock or a fixed blade for me. I know I'm missing out on some great knives, but I absolutely love the axis system.
 
WadeF said:
You'd have to be a major idiot to accidentally disengage the AXIS lock.
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Hold your horses cowboy. One of my mechanics at work, just last week, was cutting a hydralic line with his 710sbk. His hand did slip back and disengage the lock causing the blade to close on the forward movement. Luckily the blade was still lodged in the hose so that it didn't cut his fingers.
It doesn't matter what kind of folding lock you have, they can still be accidentally closed.
Personally, I prefer liner locks. I like the ergonomics of opening and closing the liner lock, even more so than the frame lock. I had two axis lock knives (520 and 5000) but didn't care for the large handle to small blade ratio.
I think that if I were to own another axis lock it would have to be a bigger model like the 710. That way I could learn how to flip it open and closed real fast like the way Wade does in his video. Many of my autos will open that fast, but none will close that quickly.
#1 Liner lock
#2 Auto
#3 Axis lock
 
Wunderbar said:
One of my mechanics at work, just last week, was cutting a hydralic line with his 710sbk.
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Sorry that happened to your mechanic, but was he wearing gloves? Was he holding the kninfe properly? Sounds like a grip issue to me. If you don't grip the knife properly I suppose if you're yanking back and forth on it to cut through a hydralic line it you might yank on the Axis lock. This could have also happened with a lock back if someone was using an improper grip and squeezed down on the back of the handle, rather than on the sides of it.
 
I'm a hardcore Sebenzanista, but I have to give credit where credit is due: the Axis lock is excellent. I have often stated my opinion that the BM 710 is one of the absolute best buys in the production knife field. My only nit - picky complaint about the Axis lock is that it can be a pain to clean if it gunks up. The Axis lock knives are not as easy to field strip as, say, a Sebenza. Of course, no other folder on earth is as easy to field strip as a Sebenza ... ;)

With regard to accidental closure, well, that can happen to any folder. The Axis lock is probably safer than most, but it can still fail if the right (or maybe the wrong) conditions all come into play. :)
 
dulaboy said:
I'm gonna get the 722S - where did you get yours and what's a good price? I had a SOG mini-X-ray and that thing was weak. Maybe that's also why I had the bad taste in my mouth re: axis locks - I know it's not an AXIS but it's the same basically. Did you see any other tantos out there like the 722?
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Hey man. I got mine via a thread I saw over at the Benchmade forums. A guy was getting rid of his and it was still NIB and I jumped on it. I had been looking for a 722BT for a long time as I love black blades. I had never seen a BT however without a Serated edge. I paid one crisp Benjamin Franklin and an Abe Lincoln for shipping. To me that's a good price because I could not find a plain edge black blade anywhere.

As far as any other Tanto's like the 722....not really. Maybe the Griptilian Tanto but that's about it. I just liked the fact that the 722 is G10. I know that after they ran out of G10 for that model they started putting on Aluminum handles (which I don't like really). So the 722 that I got has G10 handles. Dang I love G10. :)

Hope this helps...
 
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