- Joined
- Oct 16, 1998
- Messages
- 2,395
I consider liner lock knives, as a class, to be unreliable. They work great one day when they are clean and lubed, and slip the next when they are gritty and dry. I have not found the expense of the knife to be any indicator of reliability. Still loving and needing folding knives has left me looking for alternatives, and luckily a couple of outstanding folders with new locks have recently become available, the Benchmade model 710 Axis Lock and the Round Eye Knife and Tool Pioneer.
I just recieved a practically new REKAT Pioneer, so I took it and my G-10 Axis lock folder out to the garage for some impromptu testing. The locks are the thing, so lets start with them. Folder locks only need to be so strong. The knives themselves have weaknesses that are inherent in their design. Under extreme stress, the handle sides can deform, the stop pin can become unseated, they are usually small to mid-sized knives and the blades themselves can break. So a locking folder doesn't need to hold 2,000 in the closing direction. So what does it need?
I think folding knives need to stay locked open under moderate impact, as might occur if you were holding your knife and turned quickly, bumping the blade spine against a door jam. If it is a folder with defensive aspirations, as I think both the 710 and Pioneer are, it should stay locked after a sharp blow on the spine by something like a baton. With this in mind, I tested the locks by holding the knives in my left hand and whacking them briskly on the spine with a rattan stick in my right (if you try this at home boys and girls, keep your fingers out of the blade slot!). To my utter surprise, based on Warren Thomas' account of the punishment he inflicted on the Pioneer, the Rolling Lock held the first half dozen whacks, and then let go. I opened the blade and tried again. This time the lock held for a dozen whacks and let go again. This patter repeated itself a couple more times.
When it was the 710's turn, I whacked, and whacked, and whacked, and the lock held. This result was just the opposite of what I had anticipated. I may have a lemon Rolling lock here, but if I can get one, so can anyone else. If a lock depends on careful fine tuning, it won't be reliable.
In defense of the Pioneer, I was whacking it pretty hard, with the idea in mind of finding out if the blade would fold if I was unable to get the knife out of the way of a full power swing, and it held a lot more than it failed. On the other side of the coin, the 710 Axis never folded no matter how hard I punished it. I couldn't get it to fold while held in my hand, so I set it, edge down on top of some crates and hit it. It still held even though some of the shock was no longer being absorbed by my arm.
There are a lot of things I really like about the Pioneer. The handle shape is very close to the Alan Elishewitz designed Benchmade Stryker. Suffice it to say that the knife is very comfortable and very efficiently couples force from the hand to the target (see The Stryker Gets the Treatment on www.benchmade.com for more details). The stainless steel liners are the same thickness as those on the 710, and the G-10 is about one third thicker, resulting in a thick, comfortable, and very solid handle. The handle of the Pioneer, the Benchmade Stryker, and the Mad Dog Lab Rat are the three best utility knife handles I have ever held. The impact on fatigue during hard cutting is significant.
The blade of the Pioneer looks very strong, and the cutting geometry is very good. The edge is efficiently thin, about the same as the 710 which cut a little bit better on hard wood thanks to its wider, flat grind and thinner blade. The Pioneer is tricky to close with one hand without pushing on the side of your leg. Also, when opening with the thumb stud, my thumb interfered with the motion of the lock release lever. This never resulted in a false lock-up. The pivot pin of the Pioneer is below the tip, resulting in a good double base with the stop pin to absorb thrusting force. This means the blade is as likely to be pushed open by a thrust into armor as it is to be forced closed.
There is a nifty ball detent built into one of the liners of the Pioneer. It didn't work very well on mine. About the same as on most liner locks.
So, the 710 and the REKAT Pioneer are two excellent alternatives to the current herd of liner lock folders. Both locks are a quantum step forward in reliability from the liner lock. The 710 is a much more sophisticated knife with features like ambidextrous thumb studs vs. a reversible thumb stud on the Pioneer, a reversible, butt-end mounted clip, vs. a removable right-side only, pivot mounted clip on the Pioneer. The Axis lock gets the nod for reliability. The Pioneer has the edge in over-all strength with the shorter, thicker blade and thicker handle. I love them both, and would not hesitate to recommend them over any custom or production liner lock out there.
I just recieved a practically new REKAT Pioneer, so I took it and my G-10 Axis lock folder out to the garage for some impromptu testing. The locks are the thing, so lets start with them. Folder locks only need to be so strong. The knives themselves have weaknesses that are inherent in their design. Under extreme stress, the handle sides can deform, the stop pin can become unseated, they are usually small to mid-sized knives and the blades themselves can break. So a locking folder doesn't need to hold 2,000 in the closing direction. So what does it need?
I think folding knives need to stay locked open under moderate impact, as might occur if you were holding your knife and turned quickly, bumping the blade spine against a door jam. If it is a folder with defensive aspirations, as I think both the 710 and Pioneer are, it should stay locked after a sharp blow on the spine by something like a baton. With this in mind, I tested the locks by holding the knives in my left hand and whacking them briskly on the spine with a rattan stick in my right (if you try this at home boys and girls, keep your fingers out of the blade slot!). To my utter surprise, based on Warren Thomas' account of the punishment he inflicted on the Pioneer, the Rolling Lock held the first half dozen whacks, and then let go. I opened the blade and tried again. This time the lock held for a dozen whacks and let go again. This patter repeated itself a couple more times.
When it was the 710's turn, I whacked, and whacked, and whacked, and the lock held. This result was just the opposite of what I had anticipated. I may have a lemon Rolling lock here, but if I can get one, so can anyone else. If a lock depends on careful fine tuning, it won't be reliable.
In defense of the Pioneer, I was whacking it pretty hard, with the idea in mind of finding out if the blade would fold if I was unable to get the knife out of the way of a full power swing, and it held a lot more than it failed. On the other side of the coin, the 710 Axis never folded no matter how hard I punished it. I couldn't get it to fold while held in my hand, so I set it, edge down on top of some crates and hit it. It still held even though some of the shock was no longer being absorbed by my arm.
There are a lot of things I really like about the Pioneer. The handle shape is very close to the Alan Elishewitz designed Benchmade Stryker. Suffice it to say that the knife is very comfortable and very efficiently couples force from the hand to the target (see The Stryker Gets the Treatment on www.benchmade.com for more details). The stainless steel liners are the same thickness as those on the 710, and the G-10 is about one third thicker, resulting in a thick, comfortable, and very solid handle. The handle of the Pioneer, the Benchmade Stryker, and the Mad Dog Lab Rat are the three best utility knife handles I have ever held. The impact on fatigue during hard cutting is significant.
The blade of the Pioneer looks very strong, and the cutting geometry is very good. The edge is efficiently thin, about the same as the 710 which cut a little bit better on hard wood thanks to its wider, flat grind and thinner blade. The Pioneer is tricky to close with one hand without pushing on the side of your leg. Also, when opening with the thumb stud, my thumb interfered with the motion of the lock release lever. This never resulted in a false lock-up. The pivot pin of the Pioneer is below the tip, resulting in a good double base with the stop pin to absorb thrusting force. This means the blade is as likely to be pushed open by a thrust into armor as it is to be forced closed.
There is a nifty ball detent built into one of the liners of the Pioneer. It didn't work very well on mine. About the same as on most liner locks.
So, the 710 and the REKAT Pioneer are two excellent alternatives to the current herd of liner lock folders. Both locks are a quantum step forward in reliability from the liner lock. The 710 is a much more sophisticated knife with features like ambidextrous thumb studs vs. a reversible thumb stud on the Pioneer, a reversible, butt-end mounted clip, vs. a removable right-side only, pivot mounted clip on the Pioneer. The Axis lock gets the nod for reliability. The Pioneer has the edge in over-all strength with the shorter, thicker blade and thicker handle. I love them both, and would not hesitate to recommend them over any custom or production liner lock out there.
