Buck/Strider folder - lock disengages under sideways torque

Cliff Stamp · Feb 9, 2001

I have been using the folder for some time and was impressed in may ways with it. However one problem that I had was that if I exerted even a small amount of force sideways on the blade it could cause the liner to shift and then it would be very unstable and even a moderate amount of force down (or up) on the handle would cause the liner to pop off the tang. In regards to how much force was necessary, I could do it just by torquing my wrist, it was not necessary to lean into it at all. Is this the expected behavior of the lock?

Full details :

http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/002589.html

One other thing, what is the liner made out of and how hard is it?

-Cliff

Mick Strider · Feb 9, 2001

Hey there Cliff,
Obviously not. Are you applying lateral force or radial force?
I can see that if you were to apply lateral force, you would be able to flex the blade away from the locking bar. Did you have the thing in a vice or handheld? Did you destroy the thing? Contact me if you did, I'll send you some replacement parts to play with.

Talk to you soon

Mick

Cliff Stamp · Feb 12, 2001

Mick Strider:

I can see that if you were to apply lateral force, you would be able to flex the blade away from the locking bar.

Yes, this is exactly it. And of course as the liner moves off the tang, the blade becomes unstable under up/down forces. What surprised me was the amount of force required. It did not seem excessive to me .

Did you have the thing in a vice or handheld?

It popped off when I had the knife stuck in a piece of wood. I was flexing it side to side and up and down to work it loose and the lock disengaged. I then spent some time with it in a vice examing just how it behaved. I would estimate about 50-75 lbs of force was applied sideways sideways at max, and about 150-175 max lbs up/down.

Note that these relatively large up/down forces were not needed to disengage the lock if it was bent sideways. It would then disengage under moderate force, about 25-75 lbs depending on how far it was bent sideways. I just tried a couple of hard straight up/down thrusts to see how stable the lock was without sideways forces - it was rock solid.

Did you destroy the thing?

I snapped a pieces off of the end of the liner. I contacted Buck and Joe Houser wants to have a look at it so I am sending it off to him. If you want you can have a look at it as well. I don't mind the wait and would appreciate your thoughts on it.

-Cliff

[This message has been edited by Cliff Stamp (edited 02-12-2001).]

Mick Strider · Feb 12, 2001

Hey there Cliff,
I would like to see the knife. Ill go over to Buck and see it while they have it.
I think this is something we don't see in many blades. It is probably because of the relative blade strength of the Strider/Buck. Most knives would lose the tip over the liner. Ill have to play around with it.

Thanks Cliff

Mick