Let's Talk About Locks

[Blues]

Interesting, I currently use my knife as a spoon. Soup has been a little bit of an issue, not going to lie...

Perhaps a nice potage...

 

[unwisefool]

Perhaps a nice potage...

Good idea. See, I knew we kept you around for more than your good looks!

 

[toker]

I've never had any type of lock fail on me, but I also don't treat them like a fixed blade.

 

[K.O.D.]

Good idea. See, I knew we kept you around for more than your good looks!

Whereas I, like the doorbell at my house, is just there for looks. Good, bad, ugly, you decide!

 

[Henry Beige]

Friction folders and slipjoints work fine for me. I prefer an Axis as easiest to open and close. Tri-Ad lock is just a PITA for me, but not as bad as the atrocious lock on the Pocket Bushman.

 

[Alberta Ed]

There's the Opinel "Virobloc" (collar locks?) invented by Marcel Opinel in 1955. Cold Steel used it on their Twistmasters, which are sort of Opinels on steroids. Very strong, simple, reliable and pretty well legal anywhere

 

[ourgon]

Triadlock is the strongest. Compression lock is good too, also axis. The worse lock is back lock in Spyderco from Japan. Very quickly has blade play and sometimes can fail. Also titanium liner lock isn't the best choice. Very quickly you can have rock lock in Emerson knives.

 

[Mitchell Knives]

Most locks work fine if they are executed properly.

 

[Henry Beige]

There's the Opinel "Virobloc" (collar locks?) invented by Marcel Opinel in 1955. Cold Steel used it on their Twistmasters, which are sort of Opinels on steroids. Very strong, simple, reliable and pretty well legal anywhere

The simple elegance of The Virobloc endeared me to the Opinel with the first one I bought over 40 years ago. It has been an interesting, sometimes controversial subject, generating many dozens of pages of discussion in these forums, especially as successive design changes after 1990 answered a series of questions that nobody was asking, except maybe product liability lawyers.

At the same time, it is the perfect example of the superfluity of any lock. Indeed, the four smallest Opinels have always been pure friction folders. The knives were all friction folders until the introduction of the Virobloc in 1955, and the bigger knives continue to function just fine without using the lock.

 

[AntDog]

Yes, this has been covered to death. And where’s my donut?

 

[Blues]

Yes, this has been covered to death. And where’s my donut?

Agreed.