David and Fred --
You both focussed on lock "strength" in your reply in this string. I just want to point out that every single liner lock complaint, without exception, is based on lack of *reliability*, not strength. I just want to make sure that is crystal clear, there are no strength complaints, the liner lock format is very strong. The strength thing is a non-issue.
For your uses, I agree with you that you probably won't run into liner lock problems often. But there are two things to remember:
1. Not of all us use our folders so lightly. Anyone doing anything beyond very light utility work can end up torquing the blade -- get your knife stuck in cardboard and twist it out for example. Don't scoff about that one, I got email from a guy whose SOCOM gave him a number of stitches due to failure on torquing exactly the way I described. And anyone really using their self-proclaimed "tactical" folders to train will likely see plenty of liner lock failures.
2. If a knife proclaims itself overbuilt, or suitable for heavy use, or "tactical", then like it or not that's the way I'm going to judge it. If you've made an overbuilt folder that really won't stand up to anything beyond "gentleman's" use, then you really have not made an overbuilt folder. And let's be real: put many overbuilt liner lock folders to hard testing, and way too many will fail, in far greater percentages than you'll see strongly-built lockbacks fail. Not a problem if you use your overbuilt folders as gent's folders.
Once again, many of these issues, such as torquing problems, are not ergonomic issues. They are design pitfalls in the liner lock itself, and careful implementation and testing must be done to make sure your liner lock doesn't fall prey to these problems. And this is again one of my problems with the liner lock -- most other lock formats do not have major torquing or spine-pressure issues, at least not to the extent liner locks do. Again, liner locks are easy to build, but difficult to build consistently reliable.
I wish David Bloch luck, and hope he carefully tests his locks rather than dismissing the liner lock complaints as "testing is too tough", "should use a fixed blade instead", etc.
Joe
jat@cup.hp.com
[This message has been edited by Joe Talmadge (edited 25 June 1999).]
[This message has been edited by Joe Talmadge (edited 25 June 1999).]