Dubious Tenacity of the Stud Lock

M

missin_hobo

Joined
Aug 9, 2007
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The Kershaw Spec Bump caught my eye some time ago, and it remains the most beautiful knife I've ever seen. My only problem was with the thumb stud locking mechanism; I never really trusted it.
I asked a few questions of the Kershaw people, and while they tried hard to address my concern they failed to give me any practical knowledge.
Does anyone out there have a stud lock knife? How tough are they? Has anyone ever had a stud lock fail, or performed any torture tests?
I desperately want to buy this knife, but unless the lock is rated for hard use I'd probably be best to stick with a SOG or something.
 
missin hobo,

I have tested the Studlock against all of our other locks and it is near the top of the list.We have built a custom lock breaking machine to test locks and every one of our knives goes through this test. The Spec Bump will out preform any liner lock on the market.
 
Tim Galyean said:
missin hobo,

I have tested the Studlock against all of our other locks and it is near the top of the list.We have built a custom lock breaking machine to test locks and every one of our knives goes through this test. The Spec Bump will out preform any liner lock on the market.
Click to expand...

thats good to know. could you make/post a video of it doing its work, so we can see what sorta crap the stud lock can take?
 
missin_hobo said:
The Kershaw Spec Bump caught my eye some time ago, and it remains the most beautiful knife I've ever seen. My only problem was with the thumb stud locking mechanism; I never really trusted it.
I asked a few questions of the Kershaw people, and while they tried hard to address my concern they failed to give me any practical knowledge.
Does anyone out there have a stud lock knife? How tough are they? Has anyone ever had a stud lock fail, or performed any torture tests?
I desperately want to buy this knife, but unless the lock is rated for hard use I'd probably be best to stick with a SOG or something.
Click to expand...

What sort of indications would you need beyond those given to you by Kershaw and Tim Galyean?

Buy one and beat the sh>t out it. Then you'll "really know".

I feel extremely confident about the Spec Bump lockup.
It is, in my view, is a truly extraordinary knife.
 
Thanks for the input. I have a few resulting contentions.
I don't want to buy a knife just so I can beat the sh!t out of it. I want to buy a Spec Bump because it may be a potential workhorse knife; something I can use when I feel like leaving the Sebenza at home.
The Spec Bump is a beautiful knife, true enough, but I'm skeptical as to how it performs under duress. The folks at Kershaw told me nothing more than how well it performs in their lock-breaking hydraulic machine, which to me sounds alot less than practical. (Even in such circumstances, I imagine that a good titanium framelock will outperform it) I want to know how the Stud-Lock fares against other locks, and (most importantly) whether or not it is rated for hard use like the CRK Sebenza, Emerson Commander, or SOG Arc-Lock models. It's a hard-use knife that I'm looking for, and (in spite of the knife's beauty) I am skeptical as to how well the Spec-Bump in particular lives up to that task. How well does it handle batoning, or repeated whacks to the spine of the blade? Can you drive it through a car hood like you can with any one of Cold Steel's knives? How well does the edge last after repeated heavy cutting tasks? Would it suffice as a utility as well as a weapon, like the Sebenza would?
I've played with the lock, and it isn't the ergonomics that worry me. It's the tenacity. To me, it seems like a lock that was designed more for ease of use than it was for strength and resilience, hence my question; What kind of stressful situations can it endure? Does anyone have any realword experience to support it?
The more I think about it, the more I imagine I wouldn't bother with a stud lock knife unless it could match a Sebenza or a Commander for tenacity. Thanks again for any insight you can offer.
 
missin_hobo said:
The more I think about it, the more I imagine I wouldn't bother with a stud lock knife unless it could match a Sebenza or a Commander for tenacity.
Click to expand...

From your earlier posts, it sounds like what you mean, in fact, is that you wouldn't bother with a stud lock unless
it could be proven to you that it could match the locking system of a Sebenza or Commander (or an Arc-Lock SOG) for "tenacity".

So again, what kind of proof would suffice for your purposes?
 
I had EDC'd a Spec-Bump and a Mini Mojo (called the Mini Mojito now) for the last year (trying out the ZT-0301 instead of the Spec-Bump this month). Both are stud-locks. I have never had the lock disengage on either one, unless I disengaged it. Generally though, I have stuck with cutting things with either knife.
Admittedly I have been fortunate to have not been attacked by any car hoods (or bricks/cinder blocks for that matter) in the last year. I do feel fairly confident that should I be called upon to dispatch a car hood my Spec-Bump won't let me down.

I know that batoning is a popular thing around here, but in five years living in the heart of the Big Cypress N.P. I never had call to baton anything. I keep a small hand ax around for that kind of stuff. And please no flames, I understand the practical reasons for batoning, I've just been lucky enough to not need to do it.
 
when you think about how the stud lock is designed (a octagon shape i do believe) and how it sits on its shelf on the knife's frame, the more pressure you apply to the stud lock (pressing it down onto the shelf) the more the lock will grip.

obviously if you apply the right amount of force and leverage you will disengage the lock. thats true for any lock though, enough of something (be it force, leverage, ect.) and it will break.

the only improvement i could think of for the stud lock would be to make it a bit farther back on its shelf, just so it had a lil more to grip when pressed. I wouldn't hesitate to get the spec bump. or the speed bump, or offset (obviously i didn't :D) or any other stud lock knife (well i only left out the mini mojo/mojito, but oh well).

GO FOR IT! It'll work.
 
I found the post below written by GRFX_GUY to the same question posed by missin hobo in the SOG forums. I think this is the type of info he's looking for. Whether or not Kershaw divulges these figures (internal data only) is up to them, and if they choose not
to disclose it, I understand completely:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

08-10-2007, 04:08 PM
GRFX_GUY
Registered User Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 10

Arc-Lock strength

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Full disclosure- I'm a Marketing Assistant for SOG Knives, so I leave real world experience and testimonials to other members.

Before the Arc-Lock's introduction, an outside laboratory conducted testing of lock strength. The lock was tested with pressure applied 1/2” back from the tip on the spine of the knife, and failed only after 338 pounds of pressure was applied. (That equals 1,183 pounds of pressure directly to the lock before it failed)

Hope that helps!

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In my experience with my Spec Bump, I've never had a failure. And as offsetlover points out, it would seem the more pressure applied would cause a tighter lock up to a point... Even SOG mentions that theirs will fail at 338 pounds of pressure.

To missin hobo: go ahead and get one - you will not be disappointed!

SPX
 
missin_hobo said:
I am skeptical as to how well the Spec-Bump in particular lives up to that task. How well does it handle batoning, or repeated whacks to the spine of the blade? Can you drive it through a car hood like you can with any one of Cold Steel's knives? ....... What kind of stressful situations can it endure? ........ I imagine I wouldn't bother with a stud lock knife unless it could match a Sebenza or a Commander for tenacity. Thanks again for any insight you can offer.
Click to expand...

Well that just sound ridiculous. Drive it through a car hood? Plain dumb. Endure stressful situation... like..... a bad day at work or caught cheating?

Sebenza.... Commander? I am sure it can match them but you are comparing knives in very different price ranges.

and......

Do you trash car hoods with your Sebbie?!?!?!
 
offsetlover said:
the only improvement i could think of for the stud lock would be to make it a bit farther back on its shelf, just so it had a lil more to grip when pressed. I wouldn't hesitate to get the spec bump. or the speed bump, or offset (obviously i didn't :D) or any other stud lock knife (well i only left out the mini mojo/mojito, but oh well).

GO FOR IT! It'll work.
Click to expand...

I agree with you in a way, and wonder why the stud lock doesn't sit a bit farther back on its shelf. But the knives lock up super tight, and in this case I trust Ken, KAI, and Kershaw that this is the right place for the lock to be.

Perhaps Thomas W will come in and address the issue at some point.
 
Thanks for the contributions, folks. It's been helpful in trying to trust the lock.
In response to robertmegar, you probably know I do not trash car-hoods with my Sebenza. The act itself is surely ludricous; I simply see it as an impressive (albeit impractical) feat that can prove a knife's mightiness. (I confess to being a fan of Cold Steel's 'Solid Proof' videos - a sin for which I hope you can forgive me) That aside I have few ways of gauging a lock's endurance. Any lock can hold a blade open, but which are best at it, and is the stud lock among them?
 
missin_hobo said:
Thanks for the contributions, folks. It's been helpful in trying to trust the lock.

Any lock can hold a blade open, but which are best at it, and is the stud lock among them?
Click to expand...

i think that we have been telling you that it does its job superbly. the lock is very solid. we have told you such. it ranks up there with the Axis lock and arc lock and frame lock. is that what you are looking for? to be told that it is on par with the axis lock and company? if so, consider yourself told.

also, have you searched the foums about the stud lock? from what i can see, you dont have to many, if any, knocks on the stud lock. if there are any, its because the user did something stupid or it was a defective knife. in the case of the defective knife, kershaw delt with it and there have been no problems sense.
 
missin_hobo said:
...you probably know I do not trash car-hoods with my Sebenza. The act itself is surely ludricous...
Click to expand...

Thanks for clearing that up, it's a lot easier to take your question seriously now. :D

I cannot imagine that puncturing a car hood would challenge the lock on a Spec-Bump. The only thing that might give me pause would be the very fine tip of the blade. On the other hand there aren't any signs of chipping or wear on mine's tip from the last year of use, and the tip is the part that got used the most. I guess a lot would depend on the car hood, to be honest I tend to think I could put a good ball-point pen through the average car hood nowadays.
 
I had an offset, which didn't really appeal to me for a number of reasons.
The lock wasn't really one of them, although I have to say that downsizing the locking mechanism to fit into in a tiny cut out in the blade seems less durable than an omega spring tensioned locking bar or liner/mono lock.
I can't help but wonder if the studlock was invented in order to deal with the issue of dual speedsafe torsion bars. Not a big fan of studlock here, but it is neat regardless.
 
With this talk about these knives, and liking my Spec Bump so much, I just went out and bought a Speed Bump. :)
 
I like the stud lock system enough, that I have eight stud lock knives (hmmm, never counted them before).

If you don't like the stud lock, but like the shape of the Spec Bump, there's always the Titanium Bumps. S30V blade with a Titanium frame lock handle. They came in gray, green, or blue. There should be a few pictures of them in the Unofficial Picture threads.
 
Yes, a ti bump. That looks to be a nice knife.
 
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