- Joined
- Oct 3, 1998
- Messages
- 4,842
When I first saw pictures of the compression lock, it looked to me like Spyderco had just made a liner lock, with the locking leaf on the opposite side of the split from a typical liner lock. But the picture at http://www.chaicutlery.com/spyderco/Vesuvius-CompressionLockDetail.jpg shows there's more going on.
Liner locks often fail because spine pressure can force the tip of the locking leaf to travel down the ramped blade tang. Is the idea behind the compression lock that the tip of the lock itself is pinned between the stop pin and the finger jutting out of the blade tang, which keeps the lock from failing when subjected to spine pressure? I'm hoping Spyderco has tested this extensively (I know I'll be, as soon as I get my grubby hands on one
)
If so, what happens over time as that piece of the lock (which is presumeably relatively soft) gets constantly pinched and stressed between the hard lock pin and hard blade tang? Does it start to wobble? Is there any self-correction feature for wear? Actually, thinking about it a bit more, maybe it's just the face of the lock (the vertical part) that keeps the blade from wobbling, and that can be kept solid by using a liner-lock style ramp on the blade tang. The compression feature would only be needed when responding to spine pressure, perhaps, so a tiny bit of slop there won't affect lock-up.
Joe
Liner locks often fail because spine pressure can force the tip of the locking leaf to travel down the ramped blade tang. Is the idea behind the compression lock that the tip of the lock itself is pinned between the stop pin and the finger jutting out of the blade tang, which keeps the lock from failing when subjected to spine pressure? I'm hoping Spyderco has tested this extensively (I know I'll be, as soon as I get my grubby hands on one
If so, what happens over time as that piece of the lock (which is presumeably relatively soft) gets constantly pinched and stressed between the hard lock pin and hard blade tang? Does it start to wobble? Is there any self-correction feature for wear? Actually, thinking about it a bit more, maybe it's just the face of the lock (the vertical part) that keeps the blade from wobbling, and that can be kept solid by using a liner-lock style ramp on the blade tang. The compression feature would only be needed when responding to spine pressure, perhaps, so a tiny bit of slop there won't affect lock-up.
Joe
