folding knife use, triad lock

Chris Pierce

Chris Pierce

Joined
Nov 15, 2006
Messages
4,837
I mostly carry my cold steel American lawman with the triad lock. I sort of got used to being able to do anything I want with this knife, from splitting small kindling to hammering it through 2x4's. Recently I was camping and used my Buck 110 build out in 154cm to split some kindling by hand (without a baton) and the blade developed quite a bit of play. I think the toughness of the TriAd lock has ruined me. I expect any folder I use to bale to keep up with them. I guess I need to get used to babying my other knives. Has anybody else had this problem?

(PS, I'll be contacting buck about the 110, but don't expect them to repair the knife for free)
 
Yeah! Get a quality slipjoint and carry it around for a couple months, you'll either lose a finger or learn to never abuse your knife again :)
 
I haven't carried my Recon 1 (and I don't really intend to, it's too big), but I think that it isn't so much babying as keeping in mind each knives abilities and limitations.
 
I know not to use my leek for the same stuff I'd use my recon for. I snap metal trailer seals off trucks with the recon and wouldn't expect my other knives to do it.
 
Last edited:
I have been through this too, the triad is just so strong and durable its tough to compare other locks to it. I would trust anything to the chores I put my recon 1 through, ive never had any play, wobble, or thoughts of it failing. It puts a lot of other locks to shame, even those at a price point much higher than it. Outstanding lock, I have really come to love its performance.
 
jhyde7585 said:
I have been through this too, the triad is just so strong and durable its tough to compare other locks to it. I would trust anything to the chores I put my recon 1 through, ive never had any play, wobble, or thoughts of it failing. It puts a lot of other locks to shame, even those at a price point much higher than it. Outstanding lock, I have really come to love its performance.
Click to expand...

Quote of the year!

L O L.
 
Eventhough none of the current Cold Steel models really appeal to me, the Tri-Ad lock is certainly something I'd like to try. The Lawman is in my short-list.
 
Yeah, I've had to baton my lawman before. I needed a wooden wedge at work and all I had was my lawman, I'm a welder, so we don't have circular saws, table saws or anything like that and I was out one a fishing boat. It was a bid job so I wasn't going to spend a hour whittling a wedge out of a 2x4 so I used my 4lb single jack and lawman to make a wedge. After that I started batoning it a little more often. And for small kindling it works just fine.


flipe8 said:
Eventhough none of the current Cold Steel models really appeal to me, the Tri-Ad lock is certainly something I'd like to try. The Lawman is in my short-list.
Click to expand...

Good call. Out of over a hundred other "tactical" folding knives that I've owned The lawman is the only one with no sentimental value that I've kept. I've owned several recon 1's in both blade shapes, an AK-47, both the Mini AK-47 and lawman and a HoldOut 3, but I prefer the lawman over any of them.
 
well, recently as I had the idea to cut me up some sirloin filled cowboy boots; that there lock held fast.
 
Can you not start a fire without batoning wood or do you just do it for fun? I have started thousands of fires in my life and never needed to baton wood.

As for the fellow who is a welder, what do you cut metal with? No chop saw or band saw? I have worked in a handful of welding shops and all of them have some type of cutting device. Still, if you had nothing its good it took the abuse.

I have used AXIS locks almost exclusively for the last 5 years, though I do also use CBBL and compression locks, and while I don't baton with them, I do use them pretty hard. And I have never damaged one or felt like one was going to fail. The only knives I have had close unintentionally were a liner, frame, and back lock, all from reputable companies. No cheapies. The only thing I can say has happened to a few knives is the pivot loosening up a bit, but some teflon tape has cured that.

Locks that use a stop pin, like the Triad, should all be strong enough for heavy duty use, except liner and frame locks in my experience.
 
FlaMtnBkr said:
The only knives I have had close unintentionally were a liner, frame, and back lock, all from reputable companies.
Click to expand...
Was that due to the lock failing or somehow disengaging due to the way the knife was being used... which I suppose you could argue is a sort of lock failure.
 
They all disengaged from the force on the blade. As far as I'm concerned a lock doesn't have to break to be a failure. If it closes during use unintentionally where the result is a cut finger, or close to it, it's a failure in my book. The backlock I found any pressure on the blade caused the lock to lift up as if it was being pressed, and with enough force it would pop closed. The liner and frame both 'walked' towards the unlocked position from either twisting the blade or on/off pressure on the blade. Both can cause the lock to move towards the unlocked position in small increments, until it eventually unlocks and the blade closes. Fortunately its not always a lot of closing force that causes it to happen and when it did unlock it didn't slam closed so I only got a shallow cut one of the times. The backlock failure slammed closed pretty good but luckily the small tang hit my fingernail and took much of the force and the cut wasn't too bad.
 
FlaMtnBkr said:
Can you not start a fire without batoning wood or do you just do it for fun? I have started thousands of fires in my life and never needed to baton wood.

As for the fellow who is a welder, what do you cut metal with? No chop saw or band saw? I have worked in a handful of welding shops and all of them have some type of cutting device. Still, if you had nothing its good it took the abuse.
Click to expand...

To answer your first question. An example of when you might need to baton to make a fire. My Mother and her husband were staying at an RV park near the beach last weekend, so I brought the family and a tent so we could spend some time with them. They live about 6 hours away, so we don't see them a whole lot. Anyway, I didn't think to bring a hatchet or a fixed blade. So all I had was a bunch of rounds and a folding knife. I was not in the woods, so I couldn't just pick up twigs or small pieces of burnable materials. I had to get some thin pieces of wood if I wanted to make a fire. My only tool was a folding knife, you get the idea.

To answer your second question. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I was out on a commercial fishing vessel, as in not at the shop. So the only tool I had for cutting wood was my cold steel american lawman. In the field I use a cutting torch for cutting steel. Sometimes a portaband or zip disks on an angle grinder, but I had no zip disks and no portaband since the job didn't require them, I also don't get to pack the company job box. I'm glad I had the lawman because without the wooded wedge I'd have been out of luck.
I'm sure some folks would have spent the time to dig around and found something else that would have worked, but it was a bid job that we were already loosing our @$$ on due to some cheeseball losers we had hired, and I'm a get it done kind of guy.
 
Although I don't think I've ever been at a place I can't find some twigs and kindling, I'm sure its possible somewhere. All good examples of why its good to be prepared with a sturdy knife. Thanks for the reply.
 
For those of you who baton with a folder, if I may ask, is there a legal reason you don't carry a small fixed blade? I'm not trying to rag on you, the lawman (and all triad knives) is a tough sob, and if that's what you have when you need it, I don't blame you a bit for using it. But, I've started carrying an esee 3 iwb just about every day, and I could do absolutely disgusting things to that knife before it breaks. Its actually less conspicuous too, since there's no clip saying "hey, knife in pocket here." If you can carry a fb legally and you like tough tools, I strongly urge you to give it a try.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top