Check your liner lock on production knives, please.

Joined
Mar 19, 1999
Messages
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I was looking at the lock up of my production Emerson's and noticed that the very top part of the liner was the only thing engaging the blade. As I looked closer, I noticed there was a noticable gap betwen the lower part of the liner and where it should engage the blade. To verify even further, I put marker on the engagement surface of the blade and opened the knife a few times. The only wear mark was about an 1/8 of an inch or less at the top.

Does anyone elses look like this? Or did I get a couple of mistakes that got through?

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If you can't dazzle them with your brilliance,
baffle them with your BS.
 
Their customer service is the up there with the very best! If you have any question call them and I am sure that you will be satisified with thier service. You have to call and talk to them or e-mail Derek the moderator and you will get the answers and any help you may require. It is hard to visualize a lock problem like yours. You may have to send it back to them for inspection?

[This message has been edited by KNIFE THROWER (edited 07-06-2000).]
 
Send the knife back to us poste haste. Please include a detailed description of the problem so Ernie or Shaun has a clue what they are dealing with.

Take care,
Derek

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Okay, I'll give you a differing opinion. I hate liner locks -- but partial engagement is usually not a reason I'd send the knife back, at least not until I try to work things in myself.

The thing about titanium liner locks is, there's often a very fast break-in period, where the liner wears very quickly and it moves inwards towards the tang center. If the liner comes out of the box already fully engaging the blade tang, it will march across the blade pretty quick during break-in. If it's not quite engaging the entire blade tang, I find that after a quick break-in, it's engaging perfectly.

How do you break in the lock? Open it 50 times, somewhat hard. YOu don't have to slam the thing open as hard as you can, just get some good force to get some wear on the locking leaf. If the lock was executed really badly, even after break-in it still won't be engaging the tang -- in that case, send it back. But it many many cases, breaking it in is all you need to do. Plus, the lock sometimes seems to get more secure after a break-in, so your liner lock could end up more reliable than someone whose lock engaged perfectly out of the box and who subsequently didn't break the lock in!

The other concern people sometimes have is that they feel that if the liner lock is engaging in the exact center of the tang, it will be more reliable than one that engages left. This isn't my experience at all. The reliability often has to do with the angle cut into the back of the tang, and if that angle was well-chosen, the lock will be absolutely solid even if it's engaging way left. Whereas if that angle was chosen badly, the liner will be unsafe no matter where it engages. Besides, the liner moves across the tang naturally as it wears, so it'd better be solid across the whole range!

Joe
 
Joe, thanks for the advice. When I first got the knife, lock up seemed great. It was tight and solid. Then after I opened the knife a dozen to two dozen times, the liner moved to the middle of the tang and began to slip. That's when I began loking at how it locked up. I tried sveral more openings and it seemed to tightend up some, but it would still slip a little. I will give a little more attention and if I don't see an improvement, I will send it back to Emerson.
I understand your feelings on liners locks, but this is the first problem I have had with them. My daily carry Benchmade AFCK, started with a rock solid, fully engaging the tang (thanks for reminding me of name) lock up out of the box and has remained so after a year of daily openings. I now this is not the right forum, but since we are on the topic, I am not a fan of REKATS rolling lock. Not so much the lock, but the position of the button on the side. While I was practicing with it, I had the knife close on my hand. I apparently touched the button. i couldn't reproduce it, but that is not some freak thing i want to happen while I am using a knife. If it happens once, it could happen again.

Sorry, to get a little off topic.

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If you can't dazzle them with your brilliance,
baffle them with your BS.
 
Dirk --

If the lock is slipping, that's bad mojo. I'd get my money back on it, or send it back to Emerson. That's one thing you won't be able to fix yourself. My experience is, if the lock is slipping, it will someday disengage under tang pressure. Sometimes, a whack to the spine "sets" the lock, and it stops slipping permanently. I got that advice from A.T. Barr, and sure enough, he's right -- but other times, it doesn't work, and hoses things more.

Interesting about you accidently disengaging the rolling lock. You're the first first-hand report I've heard of someone hitting the button by accident. Food for thought, thanks!

Joe

[This message has been edited by Joe Talmadge (edited 07-07-2000).]
 
If the locking liner on your knife is slipping off the blade tang, the face of the lock is probably at the wrong angle. Also, a properly made locking liner will not have full contact with the blade's lock face; I.E. the rear portion of the locking liner's face will not contact the rear most portion of the blade's lock face. There should be a minute gap between them in the rear sections.

--dan

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pint1.gif
 
Dirk,

The question of the rolling-lock button location and accidental release has come up before. I think the thread was in the REKAT forum or Knife review forum last year. Several people suggested the location of the release might lead to accidental unlocking. I know two people, Axel and SB, who tried to get the lock to accidently release during their testing, without success. Bob Taylor also stated he has spent many many hours of training and has not had the knife unlock accidentally.

Even so, I have ordered a custom Carnivour and one of the features I requested was to have the release button recessed below the level of the scale. I hope this will be enough to prevent accidental release.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Cheers,
Damon
 
Damon, I agree with you. I think a recessed button would eliminate this from happening again. I may go that route, or I may just do some creative Dremeling.

Joe, I gave the Commander a good whack on the spine. The lock failed, however it seems to have fixed the problem. An interesting contradiction, make the lock fail to keep the lock from failing. Lock up is nice and tight and I gave the spine a few more solid whacks, no evidence of slipping. Thanks.

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If you can't dazzle them with your brilliance,
baffle them with your BS.
 
Joe, I gave the Commander a good whack on the spine. The lock failed, however it seems to have fixed the problem. An interesting contradiction, make the lock fail to keep the lock from failing. Lock up is nice and tight and I gave the spine a few more solid whacks, no evidence of slipping. Thanks.

I don't get it myself, but it works often enough to be worth a try. Glad it worked for you! I'd keep an eye on things, give it a moderate spine whack from time to time, just to make sure it stays set, but it probably will.

Joe
 
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