I'm fascinated by new mechanisms, especially when they're attached to knives at price points low enough for experimentation, so I had to pick up a CJRB Cutlery Kicker to see what their Recoil-Lock was like. Until I researched this knife, I didn't know CJRB was an Artisan Cutlery offshoot; having heard good things about their knives was enough to nudge me into this one.
I'm impressed!
Fit and finish is about equal to CIVIVI and is excellent for the $40 price point (heck, it'd be excellent at $80-$100), with recessed clip screws, flush parts, nice chamfering. etc.
The Recoil-Lock works well and is a lot of fun to fidget with. It's totally ambidextrous, with a stronger detent than the average Axis lock, and offers lots of open/close options. You can use the flipper, of course, but you can also use the Recoil-Lock least four ways to both open
and close the knife: thumb and forefinger pinch, index finger on top of the spine, index finger on the clip side, thumb on the show side. My only minor grumble about it is that the internal parts mean that it rattles, quietly, at all times.
Overall this is a really cool lock, and genuinely innovative. I'm digging my first contact with CJRB/Artisan.