Let’s talk lock rock and is this it?

J

jalcon

Joined
Jul 30, 2013
Messages
452
So I’ve owned about 8-10 hinderes in the last 10 years. And honestly no other frame locks. My other knives are spydercos and compression locks.

Every single Hinderer knife has had what I guess people call lock rock. Doesn’t it matter? Does it affect the knife? I don’t know. All I know is when I post this on the Hinderer Facebook group they call me crazy and say they’ve never heard of it and I’m just incredible unlucky. Every one has done this or behaved this way.

Check out the following two videos. These are three brand new knives. I have no idea how to embed videos btw.


 
That definitely looks, sounds and acts like "lock rock" . I don't own any hinderers so I don't have a dinosaur in this orgy, but I'm not surprised you would get a poor reception from fans of his. I wonder if it goes away if you really seat the lock with a very heavy handed flick open, also at what percentage is the lock engagement? Perhaps you are not wearing the lock in as hard as is expected for these knives.
 
That's like going on the Spyderco forums, and asking Sal to change the spydie hole!

The whole spydie universe would come to a stand still. As no one should ever question Spyderco on this feature.

With that being said, have you contacted Hinderer about the situation?
 
jalcon said:
So I’ve owned about 8-10 hinderes in the last 10 years. And honestly no other frame locks. My other knives are spydercos and compression locks.

Every single Hinderer knife has had what I guess people call lock rock. Doesn’t it matter? Does it affect the knife? I don’t know. All I know is when I post this on the Hinderer Facebook group they call me crazy and say they’ve never heard of it and I’m just incredible unlucky. Every one has done this or behaved this way.

Check out the following two videos. These are three brand new knives. I have no idea how to embed videos btw.


Click to expand...
the first video I can't hear or tell what your complaining about, if blade is moving i just cant tell.......

the second I can hear something rattling. are you saying when knife is locked open and you shake it the blade is bouncing around from stops to lock bar around making that noise?

assuming that's the issue what does Rick say on it, normal or not normal?
 
You’re squeezing vertical pressure on the lockbar in the 2nd vid. This creates a gap between lockbar and tang. In the first vid, you can see the lockbar moving slightly when you apply downward pressure on the blade. I bet you don’t have this problem when you’re gripping the knife and using it in a normal way.
 
I wonder if a little pencil lead on the lockbar face would help it engage deeper until it's mated better. 🤷‍♂️
 
Last edited:
Haven’t had any lock rock issues with any hinderers I’ve had. But increasing the tension on the lockbar by bending it in just a little bit should fix it.
 
91bravo said:
You’re squeezing vertical pressure on the lockbar in the 2nd vid. This creates a gap between lockbar and tang. In the first vid, you can see the lockbar moving slightly when you apply downward pressure on the blade. I bet you don’t have this problem when you’re gripping the knife and using it in a normal way.
Click to expand...
Yeah I think there is a general confusion between lock rock and lockbar flex. Maybe what I’m experiencing is lock bar flex. Using the knife, I doubt I’d ever notice this. It’s just spending $450 on a knife you’d like it to be perfect. But maybe the truth is, every frame folder would act like this if you torqued it alittle like I am in my videos, both holding it with two hands in the air and flat in the table. It’s just funny bc most people will say there’s doesn’t do that so it gives me a pause. I’d love to handle their knives right after they say there’s doesn’t do it to see if I would replicate it.
 
jbmonkey said:
the first video I can't hear or tell what your complaining about, if blade is moving i just cant tell.......

the second I can hear something rattling. are you saying when knife is locked open and you shake it the blade is bouncing around from stops to lock bar around making that noise?

assuming that's the issue what does Rick say on it, normal or not normal?
Click to expand...
In both videos I’m getting the blade to move vertically while open, just different ways of doing it. I think it’s due to the fact the kickbar has no choose but to flex ever so slightly. It’s the worst in the 3” hinderer. I sent one like this to the ranch two years ago, they sent it back and it was actually worse lol.
 
Again I’m not trying to bad mouth hinderer knives. I think they are awesome and think Rick seems like a good dude. I’m just trying to get to the bottom of this that’s all.
 
Spyderco back lock knives inherently do this too. The blade rocks up and down when the knife is open. I don’t find find this to be a safety issue, but just a nuance of the back lock design. I never notice it in use. I don’t currently own a Hinderer, but my wife does and I’ll check hers out when I get home. She uses hers all the time and doesn’t have any issues with it. And hers is one of the first gens without the lockbar insert.
 
I can’t say for sure but it looks like the lock is flexing inward (toward the spine) and the clicking you hear is the lock bar stabilizer doing its job. I wouldn’t call that lock rock. All frame locks will do this, some just take more or less force to make it happen. If the lock is slipping in the direction of unlocking, that’s what I’d call lock rock and that would be a safety issue.
 
That looks like lockbar flex or slip, but it is hard to tell. Although the term gets used a few different ways, I have always understood the correct meaning of "lockrock" to be where the blade touches the lockface in two different spots. In other words, you are getting play WITH NO TENSION on the blade.

This is not to say whether what you are experiencing is ok (I agree with other posters that, with the way you are applying pressure here, I would think some play is common to some degree). I am only speaking about the use of the term "lockrock."
 
My understanding of the term "lock rock" is some movement between the blade stop and the lock bar face giving the feeling of slop in the action when fully lock led but not jammed to deeply set the lock bar into the blade stand face. I would bet some of what people think is lock rock is actually mostly lack bar flex and also probably shouldn't exist either.
 
Obviously people have different ideas of what "lock rock" is.

To me, "lock rock" is when the lock actually moves back across the tang (loosens, disengages) with any pressure on the back of the blade. I can't tell from the video if that's happening. If the lock isn't moving across the tang, but instead the lock bar is bending under pressure, I'd call that "lock flex".

I've never owned a Hinderer, and have no opinions about him or his knives one way or the other. I've only ever owned one frame lock (Bradley Alias 1). Watching both videos got me curious-

I tried the action in the first video with my knife, and I had to force the blade to get the slightest, barely perceivable movement in the blade. This is not something that concerns me. As long as the lock isn't moving across the tang/disengaging, I wouldn't worry about this. Besides, I don't apply that level of pressure to the back of the blade when cutting.

Regarding the action in the second video (blade rattling when gripping the knife normally), I've never experienced this, but I tried it anyways. I opened my knife and gripped the handle as I normally would, with varying degrees of grip tightness, and I could not get the lock to loosen and the blade to rattle. The lock-up remained rock-solid.

So then I started gripping the knife at odd angles, intentionally trying to get the lock to disengage, but no matter how I gripped or twisted the knife in my hand, the lock would not disengage and the blade wouldn't budge.

I would also point out that this knife is heavily used.

Again, different brand, different knife, but it leads me to believe that their is something wrong with either the design of those particular Hinderer knives, or the execution. Having a knife lock disengage, to the point of the blade rattling, simply by gripping the knife in a normal way sounds pretty bad to me.
 
Last edited:
At least the blade does not close. Some time back I was at my friend's home and he had a Custom Folder from a well known, and respected knife maker. If you held the knife in your hand, reached forward with your forefinger and pressed down on the spine of the blade, nothing happened. If you pressed down a second time, the blade would close. Did it every time. My friend sent the knife back to the maker, got the knife back and it still did it. Never figured out why. John
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top