Do you think liner locks are safe?

Even if you stab into something with a liner lock, the pivot absorbs most the impact. I threw everything I had into an Emerson Commander before, rock solid.
 
The worst cut I've ever gotten was with a lockback knife. The design of lockback knives forces you have have some part of your hand completely in the way of the blade while closing it. I switched to liner locks many years ago upon seeing my first one and I have not used a lockback since. I have also not cut myself with a linerlock knife either until recently when I bought a new Spyderco. The Spyderco designs usually have a very wide blade and this means that the cutting edge reaches your thumb much sooner than it does for designs such as Benchmade that have thinner blades so you have to get your thumb out of the way quicker. I didn't do that and got a small cut. Liner locks do have the potential to cut you depending on how you do it so you have to do it carefully, don't try to close the knife too fast and don't fool with it if you have been drinking a lot. I find in my own use that the Axis lock is the safest and easiest to operate. Compression locks also have the potential to be safe but they force you to have a contorted grip on the knife to operate them and thus you run the risk of dropping the knife. A Paramilitary 2 stuck in the top of your foot is not a good thing.

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I'm going to keep beating this horse....

I trust any lock as much as I trust the lock on a slipjoint.
 
I think any tool used safely and properly can be safe. Safety is the responibility of the component with the brain.
 
I prefer liner locks to back locks. Then again, I use my knives solely for cutting things and not stabbing, batoning or whatever you kids do these days.
 
Safe enough. They do not have the best closed blade retention, static load handling, resistance to deformation from impact, resistance to release from torquing, and are quite sensitive to geometry at the mating surface. You should have no problems with a well made liner lock, but you also will have no problems with a well made lockback, compression, axis, etc etc, for no weight penalty and with some better 'numbers'.

FRN is also a perfectly suitable handle material, but carbon fiber is out there. Opening mail can be done with AUS8, but S90V is also on the market. You can have a liner lock, or you can have something that holds ten times the weight. Well-engineered, over-engineered, just make sure you got something built right.
 
GMAHN said:
1. What liner locks have you used?
2. Why don't you think that you can't ever depress a back-lock with your palm and cut yourself?
3. I find that the sticky locks on the Emerson knives that I have used lends an extra feeling of security.
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I'm not sure anymore, but they weren't Emersons.
 
KBamhi said:
The only concern I have had with liner locks is closing it on your finger, thumb, or whatever and at that point it is mostly due to operator error. Of all the knives I am apt to carry, all are liner locks.
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I don't personally feel that they will FAIL if used them, I feels that it would be my own fault for it closing on my fingers if it were to happen.
 
Plasmio said:
I don't personally feel that they will FAIL if used them, I feels that it would be my own fault for it closing on my fingers if it were to happen.
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Wait. You are feeling the "unsafe" part of linerlocks is the closing process? Then ALL linerlocks (and framelocks) would be equally unsafe.

Or are you saying that the "unsafe" part is the way you use knives (stabbing?)? If it is, then you can't really blame the lock.
 
Plasmio said:
I don't personally feel that they will FAIL if used them, I feels that it would be my own fault for it closing on my fingers if it were to happen.
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I would then humbly suggest that you don't know c*** about good liner locks then. Take a look at the Spyderco Gayle Bradley.
 
marcinek said:
Wait. You are feeling the "unsafe" part of linerlocks is the closing process? Then ALL linerlocks (and framelocks) would be equally unsafe.

Or are you saying that the "unsafe" part is the way you use knives (stabbing?)? If it is, then you can't really blame the lock.
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Not the closing process, the fact that your fingers are hovering so close to the lock itself. TO ME it just feels like if I were to give the knife a good grip and if I readjusted my fingers while giving it that grip, I would release it. Lots of you are saying that GOOD liner locks are safe, so evidently I have yet to see one in person and need to.
 
I feel that liner locks are much quicker to close since your fingers are already where they need to be
 
I think, that if there is any seed of doubt in your mind about the safety of linerlocks...then don't use them! :thumbup: There are plenty of other choices out there.
 
No, there's just no way you can prove to me that a good liner lock is just that, while speaking over the internet. If more people suggested knives with good liner locks, I'd look into them and probably purchase one.
 
marcinek said:
That's a good point, but I often question if over-engineered guarantees well-engineered.
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Some guys lament about how 'they don't build them like they used to' when looking at equipment with thinner metal sections, metal replaced by composites, skeletonization where parts used to be solid, using industrial adhesives instead of mechanical fasteners, weight savings across the board for a minor or non-existent reduction in durability against the most extreme circumstance. They're harkening back to a day of more solid construction with less engineering and care for efficient material application. Give some of them a modern tactical folder with a thousand pound lock, and they'll tell you how back in the day you didn't need so much metal and strength in your cutting tools. I dunno.

I trust knife locks as much as I trust ratchet handle mechanisms, jack stands, parking brakes, deadbolts, elevators, nuts, bolts, screws, and anything else where my life and safety relies on two separate pieces of metal contacting across a relatively small bearing surface. I couldn't leave my house if I treated everything that locks like it was a slipjoint. My knives just aren't built that poorly, I guess.

What is the GB an example of? The guy said it would be operator error if he cut himself, its like you're saying the GB is an example of a liner lock that will cut you without it being your fault.
 
Plasmio said:
Not the closing process, the fact that your fingers are hovering so close to the lock itself. TO ME it just feels like if I were to give the knife a good grip and if I readjusted my fingers while giving it that grip, I would release it. Lots of you are saying that GOOD liner locks are safe, so evidently I have yet to see one in person and need to.
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It seems like people are out there strangling their poor linerlocks! Use a thinner blade that actually cuts stuff. Cutting should be easy, not a wrestling match.
 
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