- Joined
- Jul 28, 2003
- Messages
- 2,790
then you need an axis lock.
I flick my knife all of the time. It's pretty ridiculous, I know, but for every one cut it makes, it's flicked open 9 other times because I love the sound/feel of it. But here's why axis lock knives are the best for knife flickers (old news for most, but to anyone new to the game):
1) The axis flick- this is probably the most popular way to open an axis lock knife. Who cares if you get a thumbstud or opening hole model; you're not going to use either once you get the axis flick down. Basically, leave the pivot loose enough to allow for consistent precision and opening ease but tight enough to eliminate any real blade play. Then, just pull the bar down, flick your wrist, and let go of the bar just before the knife snaps open so that the opening is a little softer. It's kind of like depressing the clutch (pulling the bar down), shifting into the desired gear (flicking the blade), and releasing the clutch quickly but smoothly for mechanical sympathy (releasing the bar carefully).
2) No wearing out- one reality that non-axis users have to live with is the wearing out of their locking mechanisms, although this is lessened as the quality/price of the knife goes up due to steels used and treatment of moving parts. But on a lot of knives, like framelocks or liner locks, the lock itself will wear down over time and there's no way to replace it. With an axis lock, the only parts getting any wear are easily replaceable, where replacing the parts on a traditional lock would require new scales quite often. There are only four parts that I would think need to be considered in axis wear:
-The washers: these are moving parts, and I'm sure they go through a good bit of wear, but if kept lubricated, they should last the life of the tool.
-The omega springs: losing one of these would be like losing your clutch cable in heavy traffic, but luckily you have two clutch cables, so you can probably be fine if one breaks until the job is done, and if you don't want to send it in for repair and Benchmade doesn't want to send you springs to do it yourself (I don't know if they would or not), then you can always make new ones yourself out of wire, some have suggested guitar strings.
-The stop pin- this takes the beating when you flick the knife. Luckily, the blade is heat treated and probably made out of a harder steel, so the blade will have next to no wear whereas the stop pin may wear and deform slightly over time. Luckily, Benchmade has designed these so that they rotate constantly because of their seating, so the wearing should be pretty even. If anything will end up wearing out from flicking, it will be this. Solution? Get a Benchmade repair, replacement, or try making your own. It shouldn't be too hard.
The axis lock bar- Pretty much the same deal as the stop bar. I believe that the sleeve on this rotates regularly as well through an inherent design trait. Also, if you flick the knife, it will cause less lock bar wear because it won't be in contact for most of the blade travel.
Hope that this has swayed a few of the misguided and set some minds at ease. Flick away!
I flick my knife all of the time. It's pretty ridiculous, I know, but for every one cut it makes, it's flicked open 9 other times because I love the sound/feel of it. But here's why axis lock knives are the best for knife flickers (old news for most, but to anyone new to the game):
1) The axis flick- this is probably the most popular way to open an axis lock knife. Who cares if you get a thumbstud or opening hole model; you're not going to use either once you get the axis flick down. Basically, leave the pivot loose enough to allow for consistent precision and opening ease but tight enough to eliminate any real blade play. Then, just pull the bar down, flick your wrist, and let go of the bar just before the knife snaps open so that the opening is a little softer. It's kind of like depressing the clutch (pulling the bar down), shifting into the desired gear (flicking the blade), and releasing the clutch quickly but smoothly for mechanical sympathy (releasing the bar carefully).
2) No wearing out- one reality that non-axis users have to live with is the wearing out of their locking mechanisms, although this is lessened as the quality/price of the knife goes up due to steels used and treatment of moving parts. But on a lot of knives, like framelocks or liner locks, the lock itself will wear down over time and there's no way to replace it. With an axis lock, the only parts getting any wear are easily replaceable, where replacing the parts on a traditional lock would require new scales quite often. There are only four parts that I would think need to be considered in axis wear:
-The washers: these are moving parts, and I'm sure they go through a good bit of wear, but if kept lubricated, they should last the life of the tool.
-The omega springs: losing one of these would be like losing your clutch cable in heavy traffic, but luckily you have two clutch cables, so you can probably be fine if one breaks until the job is done, and if you don't want to send it in for repair and Benchmade doesn't want to send you springs to do it yourself (I don't know if they would or not), then you can always make new ones yourself out of wire, some have suggested guitar strings.
-The stop pin- this takes the beating when you flick the knife. Luckily, the blade is heat treated and probably made out of a harder steel, so the blade will have next to no wear whereas the stop pin may wear and deform slightly over time. Luckily, Benchmade has designed these so that they rotate constantly because of their seating, so the wearing should be pretty even. If anything will end up wearing out from flicking, it will be this. Solution? Get a Benchmade repair, replacement, or try making your own. It shouldn't be too hard.
The axis lock bar- Pretty much the same deal as the stop bar. I believe that the sleeve on this rotates regularly as well through an inherent design trait. Also, if you flick the knife, it will cause less lock bar wear because it won't be in contact for most of the blade travel.
Hope that this has swayed a few of the misguided and set some minds at ease. Flick away!
