lock failure

J

jryan

Joined
Apr 16, 2006
Messages
28
I was wondering how many of you have actually had the lock on a folder fail? It has never happened to me, but I rarely use my knives for much more that cutting boxes, tape, opening packages, etc.

The second part of the question is, do you think you may have been abusing it?

I am just wondering cause I read a lot about which locks or knives are the strongest so I wanted to hear something from personal experience.
 
Most problems with locks tend to come in evaluations because most people who are fairly demanding of locks don't tend to want to carry one which is untested and wait to see if it closes on the hand in use, that is a pretty irresponsible way to behave. It would be like getting your breaks adjusted and then waiting until you actually needed to stop for a "field evaluation".

I have seen lots of locks close readily, some you could just pop on the palm of you hand the the blade folds, others under mild torques. Some are defective because I have seen much better peformance of the same type of locks, others were simply overloaded like the Sere 2000 folder and failed due to poor design (cutout in the liner).

There have been lots of reports of lock releases on the forums, from cutting weeds and cardboard, to back cuts for martial training, etc. . Joe hears about it more than most as he wrote the FAQ on liner lock testing.

-Cliff
 
I had a liner lock on a Benchmade AFCK fail on me. It was most likely my own doing. I had the knife for a long time before it happened; about 5 years and I put it through all sorts of crap. I never paid it any mind because it was a user, a work knife. The liner was just about hanging over the opposite side of the blade about 10%. Very minimal. I was using it to make some tent stakes because I had misplaced them before my camping trip. As I was shaving off wood to make a point I hit a knot which forced the blade back onto the stop pin with more force than I expected. This made the liner move over 100% and get wedged between the blade and the the opposite side liner. Luckily I didn't hurt myself. I was able to disassemble the knife and bend the liner back to sit about 85% over on the blade. Not great but not too safe either because now I had some vertical play in the blade. The stop pin was only held in by a set of short screws. I have a feeling that they bent and popped the pin out because the stop pin never sat into the liner properly after that and it had a wear mark on one side that was facing the blade. Bending the liner didn't help either because I actually shortened the liner by a fraction and it never sat flush on the blade.
 
I don't think I've ever had a name brand knife lock fail on me during normal use. After reading some of Cliff's complaints concerning liner and framelocks, I did what he said with stabbing my CRKT into cardboard and twisting it a certain way. It's easy to disengage the lock this way, but I've never done it during normal use. It was also my opinion that if one is paying attention, they can easily re-adjust their grip, at least on the model I was using. Prevents you from disengaging the lock.

In normal use though, I've had all my knife locks stand up just fine. Slipjoints haven't ever given me problems either.
 
I had a Buck 110 lock fail on me when I was young. In defense of the knife though I had abused it and thrown it sticking it in trees and who knows what else before it finally gave out on me. The knife was sure tough.

I recently had an Emerson knife fail on me during use. It gave no warnings and just let the blade close when it got tangled in duct tape I had been cutting. It was rather disconcerting. Later in repeat tests I could not duplicate the failure and deemed it operator error on my part. I later donated the knife to a guy going to Iraq.

STR
 
Cold Steel Shinobo tanto. Abused by car hood penetration. Now, a solid spine wack will close it. My fault and stupidity.

BM 806, digging in a creek bed. Something in the muck must have pushed the axis bar back. Hands so numb, didn't feel the cut. Again, my fault for not keeping a visual.
 
Vivi said:
I did what he said with stabbing my CRKT into cardboard and twisting it a certain way. It's easy to disengage the lock this way, but I've never done it during normal use.
Click to expand...

I didn't origionate this, it was reported to Joe, same as the weed cutting, others have noted similar issues, generally cutting thick material where you are working the blade through it and the force is high. The problems are generally with the design, the blade thickness and overbuilt nature of the folders are designed towards heavy use, and the lock strength is constantly promoted to be huge, 1000 +in.lbs is common, yet the security is low so essentially all the overbuilding is useless because you are limited to using it as a gents knife anyway or the lock releases.

-Cliff
 
Hi JRyan,

Lock reliability and lock strength are different.

Any lock can fail. Causes can be lint, dirt, failed spring, worn part, etc. It can even be poorly made. An occasional light spine tap will let you know if the lock is properly engaging.

Having a lock fail and a sharp knife close on your fingers will probably muck up your day, so lock awareness is a good idea when using a folding knife.

sal
 
I try not to use folders very hard, I'm a firm believer in the "already broken" theory. However I've had very bad experiences with Buck liner locks, both my CrossLock and Alpha Folding Hunter would fail easily and the CrossLock actually disengaged during normal use.

Another lock that failed was a Böker liner lock.

Something all three knives had in common is that I had a bad gut feeling about them but liked the design. I'm not getting any more liner locks from those manufacturers.
 
The Buck crosslocks are poor in design. The spine is made of plastic on the one I own. It failed under minimal force (relative term). I have drilled the liners and placed my own blade stop pin to solve the problem. I called Buck and complained about the design and they offered to send me a new knife. I explained to them that I did not want a new knife of the same design and that I would fix it myself. Otherwise it has served me well.
 
I recently had a lock back fail in a most unexpected manner, when it somehow came open (un-noticed) in my pocket and the blade poked though my pants. Fortunately, the tip was pointing away from my body. I still cringe when I think of what could have happened if it was pointing the other direction.
 
I have caused some locks to fail during spine wacks, but never during actual use.
 
A Leatherman Charge liner lock failed on me the first time I used it, no injuries. It was possible my work glove might have have activated the release, although a moderate spine whack folded the blade, too. When it happened again a few weeks later, I sent the item to Leatherman, who examined it and said everything was up to specs. I stopped using it, though. Even if the glove were at fault, that's the way I work and
no other locking blade knife or multitool I have ever used that way has failed.
 
I had a Cuda Maxx frame lock fail on me and got cut as a result, though not badly.

I also had a Case lockback fail on me -- but no injury. Even after cleaning I discovered the lock would not pass a whack test.
 
All of my knives get a solid lock testing before going into my pocket.

95-99% of the use is going to be ultralight duty, edge-directed, but my favourite story goes like this:

One time I was using a folder to cut veggies in the kitchen prepping for dinner. My wife sneaks up behind me and surprise hugs me. I put my knife hand forward out of the way to keep it away from her, and the spine accidentaly smacks into the microwave -- not very hard, just tapping it.

Lock fails; blade collapses.

Luckily, not enough force to cause it to hit my hand.

On investigation, firm palm pressure caused the lock to slide directly off the tang. Got rid of that one ASAP.

-j
 
*laugh*

She's gotten a LOT better. She doesn't fly around the corner and jump on me without warning anymore.

That having been said, so have I... when I hear her coming, I quickly close the one I'm playing with, put it under some papers, and whistle an innocent little whistle. ;)

-j
 
I have a cheapo Chinese POS that has failed since day one. The lock provides some resistence, but it really works more like a slipjoint.
 
I've never had a lock fail on me. Then again, I spent the first 30 years of my knife-using life with only slipjoints, so I'm very conscious of the fact that I'm using a folding knife.
 
No, I have never had a lock failure,ever. And I have been using knives for 30+ years.
 
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