Axis lock on Benchmade 610 Rukus

C

chrwe

Joined
Jan 10, 2006
Messages
7
First let me start and thank you all for this great source of information.

I am looking forward to buying and importing a big sturdy and nice folder from the U.S.

Of course there's that customs issue. I have learnt from some posts that the 610 in some cases can be opened by a flick of the wrist. German weapon laws prohibits knives that can be opened and locked open by

  1. manipulating a button/switch
  2. AND opening it by a flick of the wrist
  3. AND (it being automatically locked OR it being locked by releasing the button/switch pressed to open it in the first hand)

So I would greatly appreciate a detailed description of the neccessary actions to open the knife.

Is it possible to tighten the screw that holds the blade so it cannot be opened by a flick of the wrist anymore?

Thanks for reading.
 
It's easy to tighten the screw and it will be so tight it would be difficult with two hands. That's the way you'll want to ship it...if you call www.newgraham.com they will be able to do that for you when you order your knife.

Alternatively, I wonder if there's a way we can put a bolt through the remaining gap in the lock that has to be unscrewed. I've been thinking about finding something for this that can be purchased easily, but I was thinking that a folder that doesn't open at all could probably get even more people.

Of course, you take it off when you get home.
 
I'd recommend using the Bladeforums Search feature, you'll find plenty of information about Axis locks and flicking open blades.

Axis locks are not assisted opening devices, and definitely aren't switchblades. The Axis lock doesn't lock the blade closed either. You use the thumbstuds to open the blade.

Some guys here loosen up the tension on the pivot so they can effectively flick open the knife; however it isn't recommended that you flick open a knife that hasn't been designed to do so (as you'll decrease the life of the knive by using the parts abusively).

Quiet Storm is a poster here from Germany, he can tell you about the legality of owning an Axis lock in Germany.
 
Yes, the Rukus can easily be flicked.
Yes, the pivot screw can be tighten to a level to make the folder "non-flickable".

I'm sure Mary Beth @ New Graham can do that for you.

Regards,

Andre Tiba - Brazil

Ps - Great choice... The Rukus is WOW :thumbup: :thumbup:
 
Thank you Artfully Martial, Deadhead Archer and almtiba,

it's great news for me that the screw can be tightened.

Of course I used the search engine before asking this question, however I did not search directly for 'axis lock' but for more specific stuff. Searching for axis lock now with good results.

Thanks again.
 
I have never purchased an axis-lock knife that was "flippable" out of the box. Unless you use it extensively or play with the lock to loosen it it should be fine. You can take a regular old dumb lockback (no offense to lockback lovers like myself) and grind down the lock end to the point where the knife will just flop open.

On another topic, I though Germany, Italy, and France were big on automatics because their gun laws were so restrictive this is the only way a citizen can protect themselves (unless you have one of those big German Shepard type dogs)? Not true? Do different states in Germany have different laws like here in the U.S.?
 
Hi DGG,

I posted a (not comprehensive) summary of knife restrictions in Germany here. Forget about automatics. There is a new weapon law in germany that puts very harsh restrictions on automatics (with the reason most likely being: Hey, they look dangerous in the movies don't they?).

There are different state laws but (AFAIK) the weapon law is a federal law.

On the gun laws (this is the same weapon law that also covers the knives): If you are a hunter it is very unrestrictive towards buying firearms. Carrying a weapon in the public is heavily regulated (you need a very special license that is nearly unobtainable), not that the thugs would care...

On self defense: Pepper spray of all kinds is readily available for defense against animals. It must not be sold for defense against humans. Therefore it is totally unregulated and may (most stores still won't do that) even be sold to children. Now german self defense laws state that you may use any appropriate means to deflect harm from you and others in the case of an illegal attack. So using pepper spray (intended for use against animals) should you ever be attacked by someone with bare fists/knife usually is considered appropriate. You must not be punished then. Therefore most people suggest you use pepper spray for self defense here. However the need for self defense is pretty infrequent :).
 
How's the crime scene there? Is there really effectively no guns, or do only criminals have guns? I've been curious about this for awhile.
 
Well, you are asking for it :) . Here it comes:

There is a differentiation between crimes involving threatening with a gun and crimes involving the firing of a gun. All numbers are for 2004. Total population: ~82,000,000

Crimes involving threatening with a gun. To qualify, a victim has to report feeling being threatened by a gun. That includes replicas.:
  • Armed robbery: 4,990 (I suspect many, many, many replicas here, people will usually not fight back as their finacial loss usually is insured)
  • restricting someones freedom: 3,824 (here will be many replicas, too)
  • battery: 624
  • everything else: 437


Crimes involving the firing of a gun (it was fired, doesn't mean someone had to be hit)
  • damage to property: 1,795 (for some bizarre reason people like to shoot traffic signs... people must be dumb...)
  • severe battery: 1,546
  • armed robbery: 254
  • killings/attempted killings: 233
  • restricting someone's freedom: 324
  • poaching, shooting animals out of season: 996
  • everything else: 351

That's a total of 15,375 registered crimes involving a firearm.

There's a total of 2,480 (attempted) killings (9.2% with gun) in 2004 and a total of 139,748 (attempted) severe battery incidents (1.1% with gun). There were 868 succesfull killings. I do not know how many of them were commited with a gun. Around 2/3 of those 868 victims knew their killer (i.e. relative or acquaintance). Around 40% of the battery victims knew their attacker.

Source: http://www.bka.de/pks/index.html
 
Interesting numbers. I wonder how many of the killings/attempted killings involved illegally owned guns vs. legal guns owned for hunting......
 
Interesting, but I want to hear your opinion on the situation.

I've made it a point not to trust crime figures involving guns....if I read NRA stuff, places that have banned guns turn into third world countries overnight, crime runs rampant, everyone is maimed and raped, the cancer rate goes up, the GNP goes down, Bambi cries.....if I read hardcore liberal reports of the same places, crime disappears entirely, cancer is universally cured, Jesus visits periodically and the give 710HSes away for free to every citizen. Maybe not that last part. And of course, all delivered matter-o-factly with statistics.

Lies, damned lies and statistics...

So it's a ridiculous exaggeration, but you get my point.

What's your take on it?
 
Hi jokrswylde and Artfully Martial,

I do not have a reliable source for that number. www.fwr.de (pro gun lobbyists) say only 0.7% of the killings were commited with legally owned guns in 1999. That number sounds pretty low to me.

The numbers in my post above are published by the police. I do not think they are interested in skewing reality.

They also give numbers on criminals carrying guns for 2004:
  • 278 out of 2860 people who attempted to kill/killed carried a gun
  • 2,731 out of 38,948 robbers carried a gun
  • 3,358 of all robbers robbed residential homes of whom 278 carried a gun (8.3%)
  • 388 out of 633 bank robbers carried a gun (61.3%)

So carrying a gun or not carrying a gun is highly correlated with the nature of the crime commited.

My personal opinion... well, first off I am a statistician :D, however I still have an opinion.

When I was a small child only high profile criminals were supposed to have guns. Guns were somewhat exotic things usually only seen on T.V.. Nowadays not many criminals carry guns, however those who carry them tend to use them more, I guess, and more amateur criminals have them because they are readily available (fall of the GDR and Soviet Union) and of course might be of some use to them. As a personal guess I'd say amateurs are more likely to run into situations where usage of a gun might be an option and I think amateurs more likely chose that option.

Where I roam (small town of ~2,000 inhabitants) violent crime is nearly unheard of.

Let me give you some examples of crimes I have personally heard of:

Worst thing ever happened to me here were two kids (never saw them before) following me at night while I was riding home on my bicycle. One of them caught up with me (I didn't increase my speed) and started insulting me. I stopped. He stopped. He continued insulting me. His friend came along. I usually do not talk that much to people who insult me (that guy was in a pretty bad situation by then, as he was still sitting on the saddle and talking smack to me while I stepped off my bike close him, so I'd have hit that guy pretty bad before he'd have gotten off his bike. Toppling to the ground with a bike between your legs is just bad) so I asked his friend to kindly f off and take the sucker with him as long as he doesn't wan't to talk to the police. He complied immediately.

When I worked in Hamburg for some time (population of ~2,000,000). Two co-workers (of around 120 during 2.5 years) got robbed at knife point. Those were two seperate incidents. One of them got robbed at a remote train station late at night, the other one in broad daylight in the main passage (knife pointed to the kidney while walking besides him, one complice walking behind him another one at the other side). I do not think self defense would have been suitable in the latter situation.
In the first situation it would have been possible as he was approached by some youths (4 or 5) and he saw them coming. So pulling out a USP (the Tactical is my favorite one, darn if i just could spare those EUR 900 right now...) and killing them all would have been an option... HOWEVER everything else (martial arts, knife, mace, threatening them with the gun) would surely have failed for technical reasons, or disbelief (few people have real guns so it's most likely a replica if you see one). You never want to argue with a german judge about killing 4-5 people who wanted only your wallet. Never. Ever. And the wallet is insured, so what? I do not want to argue with me about killing a few kids about my wallet either. However stupid they may be.

I would say crime is pretty low here BUT you still should spot & avoid possibly dangerous areas/situations. I never thought it might be neccessary to carry self defense tools and I don't do so. I do not consider the woods/parks here (near my town) dangerous; I frequently jog after sunset (carrying a Surefire or two, I don't like darkness). Still for taking a jog at night I have to know the place.
 
Hello chrwe,

Your understanding of our Waffengesetz is quite wrong.

Rukus is fully legal here (as well as any other axis-lock knife), there is no problem to import or to buy it from a German onlineshop. Do You know a Messerforum?

These issues were discussed there very detailed many times, I would suggest You to take a look into.
 
Hello logo, thank you very much for your reply.

logo said:
Your understanding of our Waffengesetz is quite wrong.
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Wohoo... my understanding of the WaffG better is not quite wrong ;) I didn't call the Rukus a banned item.

Rukus is fully legal here
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I agree with you on that one now that I know how the axis lock on it works exactly.

(as well as any other axis-lock knife),
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I guess, if you search long enough you will find a knife that uses an axis lock AND is locked in closed position. You will have to manipulate a button/switch to unlock it, then you can flip it open, it's automatically locked open by the axis lock --> banned item (WaffG 2002 Anlage 1 (zu § 1 Abs. 4) Begriffsbestimmungen, Unterabschnitt 2: 2.1.2). Or did I maybe miss something there and this description only applies to knifes with blades coming out of the front of the handle? Has there been a ruling I missed?

there is no problem to import
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I do not agree with you on that one. Can you imagine a customs agent thinking: "Hm, this knife kinda opens automatically and locks automatically..."? I can; and I do not want to have to enforce my right to import it against a customs agency that can only be persuaded by legal actions. That's pretty time consuming.

or to buy it from a German onlineshop.
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Agreed. But it seems they made some mistakes in calculating their prices. I just googled for it, found a german online shop offering it for a fair price but not before march. Could you wait that long :p ?

Do You know a Messerforum? These issues were discussed there very detailed many times, I would suggest You to take a look into.
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Thank you for that pointer.
 
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