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KAI needs their own Lock!

EZ Bake

EZ Bake

Joined
Mar 5, 2009
Messages
1,752
I love me some liner-locks, frame-locks, and back-locks, but the thing that has always bothered me about the production knife world is that Spyderco has a couple of different locks of their own, Benchmade has the McHenry/Williams Axis-Lock (and the Nak-lok?), and even Cold Steel has Andrew Demko's Tri-Ad lock, but KAI doesn't seem to have a special locking mechanism of their own.

I wish they would release something in a cool new lock, but until that happens - Surely I can't be the only one, right?
 
Did any one else but kershaw use the thump stud lock found on the spec bump? I havent seen any other brand use it but I could be wrong.
 
marcinek said:
If it ain't broke, why fix it?
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If that were the case, I wouldn't have like 6 new KAI designs here that I didn't own last year :)

New designs aren't necessarily fixing something - just cool new innovation (and I know KAI is capable of designing cool new things - I'd just like to see something new in the locking-mechanism arena and Kershaw/ZT is a favorite brand of mine). I have no plans to stop buying the liner/frame locks but variety is the spice of life :thumbup:
 
There was also the short lived vault lock, another Ken Onion design. Neither it or the stud lock ever took off with the public.
 
stjames said:
There was also the short lived vault lock, another Ken Onion design. Neither it or the stud lock ever took off with the public.
Click to expand...

Wasn't the Vault Lock the precursor to the Stud Lock? I really liked the Stud Lock, but I thought it was discontinued due to issues (can't remember where I heard that). If it was just discontinued due to sales/popularity, then it might be time to try another model with it - it seemed to be a good design to me (but I'm no expert).
 
Stud Lock is awesome imo. I only have a Speed Bump, and while the overall knife is not my favorite, the lock is one of the coolest out there. It doesn't look like it should work, but it is solid. The Hawk Lock on the RAM and MUDD are also very cool. The RAM is my favorite Kershaw, and the lock works great with the flipper mechanism. It should be noted that the locks are not KAI's though. Ken Onion and Grant and Gavin Hawk own the rights to the locks, and presumably could allow other companies to use it. The Knockout's lock is KAI's. While still really a R.I.L. it is a slight modification.
 
Yup, I have an Offset and thought of that one too. Didn't know what it was called though...
 
Holy crap I forgot about the Hawk Lock - wasn't it considered to be one of KAI's beefiest locks? Was the Hawk lock on any knives other than the Mudd and the Ram?
 
I recall Gavin and Grant saying the Hawk lock was not a particularly strong lock as they don't design toward ultimate strength. I have had my RAM apart and it design does seem like it would be a strong lock though. The main thing with the MUDD was the sealed pivot they came up with.
 
EZ Bake said:
Holy crap I forgot about the Hawk Lock - wasn't it considered to be one of KAI's beefiest locks? Was the Hawk lock on any knives other than the Mudd and the Ram?
Click to expand...

I don't think the Hawk lock showed up in any knives besides those two. Regarding strength (and the comment below yours), it'd be cool to see some data regarding the strength of a Hawk lock compared to maybe a Blur's liner lock or a Knockout's sub-frame lock. To speculate, maybe the reason the Hawk lock's weakness is in the thickness of the lock? I've only had minimal experience with it though.
 
I'm a big fan of the Stud Lock. I really wish that they would put it back into production.

Tom
 
i loved the stud lock. after carrying the bump for a while i found myself trying to unlock other knives that way.
 
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