JC, I have an few Emerson products and even own a few other knives as well. Included in this is my daily carry Commander. Like Don, mine has been carried religiously since purchase (It's off being customized right now and I feel it's absence constantly). During a common day, I will open it 5 or 6 times using the wave. During a demo, I will open it 15 - 20 times.
Occasionally I help out friends at gun or knife shows. During a show I may demo the wave quit a few times. Needless to say, I would imagine I am well into the tens of thousands of waved openings on this Commander.
Add to this my support side SARK. My second user Commander, the CQC7Bs, ect. and I have a fair amount of use with Emerson knives. I also own liner locks by Elishewitz, Reeve, MY, BM, Ect, ect. Never once have I had one "fail".
Now, not knife is perfect, not is any lock. I have seen a liner lock fail. I snapped a liner locked knife open with a snap of my wrist and the liner ran all the way across the blade and off the other side. The knife still would have cut. I did purposefully close the knife hard on the lock to see what would happen. The liner crumpled and jammed the blade. I might have gotten a boo-boo on my index finger if it had been there, but I keep my fingers out of the way when closing a knife.
The KIQ (Knife in Question) was a cheap, $3 Chinese made folder.
Note: I never really understood the whole "spine whack" thing. If I'm going to use a knife, I'll be "edge whacking". What logical purpose is there for whacking the spine of the knife during usage? Reminds me of the "Throw the Glock out of a Helicopter at 500 ft" test. So F'n what! The pistol survived . . . the guy carrying it was turned to Jello, but the pistol still works.
John
