Finding the limits of my Skyline

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Franciscomv

Joined
Feb 7, 2005
Messages
2,892
Let me begin this thread by making it clear that this is not an atempt at Kai bashing, I really like their products and own quite a few of their folders (and I'll be buying more, especially ZTs). I just wanted tp share my experience with fellow knife enthusiasts.

I was doing some heavy cutting with my Skyline while fixing a few things around a gym I train and teach at, very thick rubber floor tiles, thick rope and a few more things. While going through the rubber tiles I held the knife in a tight grip, put my thumb on the spine of the blade and almost immediately felt the lock disengage. The blade didn't fold on my hand because it was stuck in the rubber, I was cutting slowly and noticed what happened and, finally, because of the flipper (good safety feature).

Being the knife knut I am, I tried to reproduce the failure and it was quickly obvious that when I held the knife in a very tight grip the meat of my index finger moved the lock a bit and the pressure of my thumb on the spine did the rest. Lesson learned: if the job calls for a gorilla grip on the knife, don't use a lightweight folder, get a fixed blade. I could feel the whole handle flexing.

I don't consider this a design fault, if the linerlock wasn't exposed it would be very hard to close the Skyline since there isn't much room in there to get your finger in.

Just to see what happened I tried to close the locked blade pushing on the spine with my hand while keeping my other hand away from the blade's path and not touching the linerlock in anyway. It closed. I didn't hit it or spine whack it, just pushed.

I've got to say I wasn't disappointed in the Skyline, since I don't think it failed while being put to the kind of use it was designed for. I kept using the knife for the rest of the day with zero issues (in fact, I just used it to help make dinner).

This is just a reminder that all knives are compromises, the Skyline is slim, lightweight, affordable. Of course it's not as well suited to hard use as one of its ZT cousins.

I am curious about whether other Skyline owners have found that they are able to close the blade without disengaging the lock, just pushing on the spine.
 
The Kershaw Skyline has no limits. A guy around these parts once chopped a tree down with his.
 
No, it's not a design flaw. It's a linerlock's nature to disengage when gripped hard on a knife with low tolerances.

celtic11 said:
The Kershaw Skyline has no limits. A guy around these parts once chopped a tree down with his.
Click to expand...

Ehh, I'd have to disagree with you on that. G10 may be rigid, but with no liner to support it; it will fail under moderate tension.
 
I think someone one here had a similar finding. They thought the lock was slipping but then noticed they were disengaging it unintentionally.

The Skyline was built for lightweight, not hard use. You way exceeded what it was designed to do.
 
Franciscomv said:
Let me begin this thread by making it clear that this is not an atempt at Kai bashing, I really like their products and own quite a few of their folders (and I'll be buying more, especially ZTs). I just wanted tp share my experience with fellow knife enthusiasts.

I was doing some heavy cutting with my Skyline while fixing a few things around a gym I train and teach at, very thick rubber floor tiles, thick rope and a few more things. While going through the rubber tiles I held the knife in a tight grip, put my thumb on the spine of the blade and almost immediately felt the lock disengage. The blade didn't fold on my hand because it was stuck in the rubber, I was cutting slowly and noticed what happened and, finally, because of the flipper (good safety feature).

Being the knife knut I am, I tried to reproduce the failure and it was quickly obvious that when I held the knife in a very tight grip the meat of my index finger moved the lock a bit and the pressure of my thumb on the spine did the rest. Lesson learned: if the job calls for a gorilla grip on the knife, don't use a lightweight folder, get a fixed blade. I could feel the whole handle flexing.

I don't consider this a design fault, if the linerlock wasn't exposed it would be very hard to close the Skyline since there isn't much room in there to get your finger in.

Just to see what happened I tried to close the locked blade pushing on the spine with my hand while keeping my other hand away from the blade's path and not touching the linerlock in anyway. It closed. I didn't hit it or spine whack it, just pushed.

I've got to say I wasn't disappointed in the Skyline, since I don't think it failed while being put to the kind of use it was designed for. I kept using the knife for the rest of the day with zero issues (in fact, I just used it to help make dinner).

This is just a reminder that all knives are compromises, the Skyline is slim, lightweight, affordable. Of course it's not as well suited to hard use as one of its ZT cousins.

I am curious about whether other Skyline owners have found that they are able to close the blade without disengaging the lock, just pushing on the spine.
Click to expand...

He said numerous times that he was aware it wasn't a design flaw, and was also aware that he far exceeded the knife's designed use.
 
I always thought it funny they use the medium duty pivot on them (same as the 0350), when the rest of the knife doesn't require it. It's a great casual EDC, but I've never trusted it for anything but light cutting.
 
Franciscomv said:
I used the Skyline because it was in my pocket at the time and I wanted to see how it handled it. It did cut everything I needed to cut.
Click to expand...

Good to know what the Skyline can handle. Do you think it still would have disengaged if you had kept your thumb wrapped around the handle when cutting?
 
How about the skyline fixed blade? Just a thought. Glad it was not a design failure and glad you were not hurt.
 
Chuck Norris once used a Skyline to chop down a tree. The car was a write-off though.

Take my wife, please. Bad-dum-tss.
 
jkwithawave said:
Good to know what the Skyline can handle. Do you think it still would have disengaged if you had kept your thumb wrapped around the handle when cutting?
Click to expand...

Ifnmy thumb hadn't been pushing on the spine of the blade, the lock would have held just fine since even in my tightest grip the lockbar didn't move all the way to the unlocked position. There was still a- tiny- contact area with the tang.
 
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