Axis locks are a poor design

I found the ball to be too slippery. The Axis is much easier to close consistently with one hand, even in wet slippery gloves.
 
I have both and use my ball locks, my axis lock sits in my safe. After it broke and was repaired I have no confidence in it and think of it a flimsey. The ball lock on my P'kal is not slippery.
 
The ball lock on the D'Allara that I tried was awkward to close when compared to an Axis. Too slippery.
Why has the ball lock been modified on the P'kal, with the ball bearing component now housed within a ribbed plastic cover?
 
IMO, The Axis design is an excellent folding knife lock design.

IMO, most contemporary folding knife lock designs are excellent. If you are going to slam a lock "design" or "invention", it would be more helpful to use design concepts to demonstrate your criticism, rather than an odd example of piece that failed.

sal
 
I finally finished reading myself in on the last year and a half of some of you guys arguing about the axis lock. I own a few benchmades and a couple of SOG's, and neither of them has failed me yet. In case some of you are unfamiliar with sog's arc lock, it is just about the same thing, except instead of the lock bar coming straight toward the lock position, the arc lock (you guessed it!) comes in at an arc. Both of these are tested out at 1000 lbs and I was just wondering if any of you have come across anything about sog's arc lock messing up while you were searching for benchmades axis lock. Let me know if anything comes up, J.
 
Personally, I like the axis lock. I believe it's a strong lock & I know it's quick to open/close. However, for my hands (They are XL+), I find that sometimes my finger/hand gets in the way while opening it with my thumb. This doesn't happen all the time, but enough to realize that I can't depend on it 100%. So, unfortunately, I won't use the axis lock.

I have owned a Spyderco D'allara & currently own the P'Kal. Since the ball lock mechanism doesn't stick out on the handle of the D'allara, there was no problem. On the P'kal, I haven't tried opening it with the thumb hole, so I don't know if the plastic covering will get in the way. Obviously when I use the P'Kal with the wave feature, there's no problem.

I have no experience with the SOG arc lock.
 
Maybe I look at folding knife locks in a different way than most? Because I like them all...I don't think that any of them will ever fail for me because when I use my folders I use them as if they are slipjoints, and the locking mechanism is just a backup safety precaution...I have not gotten cut in about 4 years because of this mentality, and all of my various locks perfrom very well...If I need to use a knife hard I go right to a fixed blade, big or small depending on the cutting task at hand, that way I dont have to worry about anything failing...I use to think I needed the BEST lock ever on my folders that could really really take a beating...well my opinions have changed...If the lock on a quality folder is failing on you, it might not be the knife? You need to ask yourself what your doing with the knife for it to fail? Is it being used situation where another tool is called for? Anyway just my thoughts about locks these days...Don't forget about the guys who didn't have the axis lock or any lock for that matter back in the day...they still used their knives just as hard as alot of you guys today...Just something to think about guys...not saying its the right way to look at it, just saying its my way....
 
I agree with a lot of what you said cutlerylover, if we used our knives the way they were meant, like cutting away from ourselves and not using them as chisels or 2X4 hole makers, we wouldn't need to worry about lock strength at all. Nevertheless, there are those extreme situations where we all want the strongest lock known to man for unknown situations. There is a thread going on about the quality of emerson knives in the emerson forum, and it mentions a situation that I will describe: Two guys went on a fishing trip in Louisiana, out of nowhere an alligator pops out of the water and almost takes a guys arm when his buddy pulls out his emerson commander (liner lock) and attempts to attack the alligator. The alligator goes away, but the guys still have to go to the hospitol because of lock failure. The knife did more damage than the alligator. If he would have had a more sophistocated lock, aka axis lock, the knife wouldn't have failed, maybe not 100%, but at least 99.99999% . It's situations like this where you don't have time to think about where your fixed blade is, but when you grab the closest and most common knife that you always have, your edc. That is why I continue to go for the strongest locks out there, I edc my benchmade rukus, it's a little big to some people, but it does everything I put it to.
 
batosai117 said:
I agree with a lot of what you said cutlerylover, if we used our knives the way they were meant, like cutting away from ourselves and not using them as chisels or 2X4 hole makers, we wouldn't need to worry about lock strength at all. Nevertheless, there are those extreme situations where we all want the strongest lock known to man for unknown situations. There is a thread going on about the quality of emerson knives in the emerson forum, and it mentions a situation that I will describe: Two guys went on a fishing trip in Louisiana, out of nowhere an alligator pops out of the water and almost takes a guys arm when his buddy pulls out his emerson commander (liner lock) and attempts to attack the alligator. The alligator goes away, but the guys still have to go to the hospitol because of lock failure. The knife did more damage than the alligator. If he would have had a more sophistocated lock, aka axis lock, the knife wouldn't have failed, maybe not 100%, but at least 99.99999% . It's situations like this where you don't have time to think about where your fixed blade is, but when you grab the closest and most common knife that you always have, your edc. That is why I continue to go for the strongest locks out there, I edc my benchmade rukus, it's a little big to some people, but it does everything I put it to.
Click to expand...

I read over in the Emerson forum section that some guys are upgrading their liner lock Emersons with lock back mods. I've never heard of anyone doing that to a Benchmade.
 
Cut, Bat, Sal,
YEAH YEAH YEAH!!! Good solid words. The good knives work. If if not, you're abusing them. Respect your knife.
Lycosa
 
Grey Mullet said:
I read over in the Emerson forum section that some guys are upgrading their liner lock Emersons with lock back mods. I've never heard of anyone doing that to a Benchmade.
Click to expand...

I've actually been trying to find someone who can modify my emerson commander to a thick .16" titanium frame lock, but I figure I might as well just carry around my rukus and leave my emerson at home. The benchmade rukus is like a big ass fixed blade that happens to fold with the axis lock.
 
Oh, thanks. I've seen STR around, but I had no idea that he did that kind of work on emersons. I'll try to find him, thanks again, J.
 
"I suppose the main reason I like to pick on this design, is because I feel they could have easily used a different spring design that was far less prone to breaking. Instead of spreading the force over such a short piece of wire, if they had used coil springs, the force would be spread over a much longer piece of wire."
this is incorrect. a longer spring does'nt preclude failure .springs break due to metal fatigue.
i have not had any problems with the axis lock, so far.
my .02$ .
it is a brilliantly simple design
 
Sal Glesser said:
IMO, The Axis design is an excellent folding knife lock design.

IMO, most contemporary folding knife lock designs are excellent. If you are going to slam a lock "design" or "invention", it would be more helpful to use design concepts to demonstrate your criticism, rather than an odd example of piece that failed.

sal
Click to expand...

Amen to that. All locks fail sometimes.
 
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