+1 for the Tri-Ad lock. That system is friggin' amazing.
As we all know, the topic of lock strength is highly subjective, and a lot of personal preferences get morphed into anecdotal experience which colors how we see the pros and cons of different lock systems.
For example: I had a certain knife (brand and model shall remain nameless to prevent shading others' opinions) with a titanium framelock. About a week into owning it I noticed some not insignificant blade play. What was happening was that the the stress from the steel-Ti interface between the tang and lock bar was causing minute plastic deformation of the Titanium. Additionally the steel tang was abrading the face of the Ti lockbar as the blade swung open. Net effect = blade play and compromised lock strength.
The thing is that I wasn't planning on hanging from the knife or deliberately testing its lock strength by stabbing car hoods or refrigerator doors. I just wanted to cut stuff up with it, nothing more. But the fact that I could develop blade play by repeatedly opening the knife was more than a little worrisome. Net effect = I am subjectively biased against Titanium framelocks. Does this mean that all Titanium framelocks are going to exhibit this behaviour? Certainly not. Could some other brands/models exhibit similar behaviour? Concievably yes. Statistically speaking, though, the hordes of Strider, Hinderer, ZT, and CRK fanatics/users out there testify to the possibility of doing a Ti framelock "correctly". Plus I have two other Ti framelocks that have exhibited none of these blade play issues, so the jury's out. . .
However, my point is this: Folding knives are made to cut in one direction, and the forces against the blade while cutting are balanced out by immovable frame material. What I demand from a lock system is that it self-adjusts to remove ALL rotational blade play and that it stay locked while doing hard cuts where I have to bear down and put some ass into what I'm cutting through. AND that it do this repeatedly for years and several thousand open/close cycles.
Given these criteria, I am confident that the Tri-Ad, Axis, and Compression lock are going to pass with flying colors. I would never hesitate to buy ANY knife with any of those three locking systems. I've owned some pretty good liner locks, and Ti framelocks, but for me personally I would have to take each one on a case-by-case basis to verify my criteria are met.
In my book the sheer lock strength factors into the sense of confidence I get using a knife, and sense of confidence is the binary go/no-go factor that determines whether I will use said knife or not.
-nate
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