Lock failures? Springs broken? Assisted letdowns?

Haven't ever had an issue but I've know only one person to have an axis lock issue personally but other than that none. I don't believe in springs being in knives. 90% of my folders are framelocks
 
highestpoint said:
I don't believe in springs being in knives. 90% of my folders are framelocks
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A framelock is a type of spring...

And if you don't believe in them, I can prove they are a reality. Do you want me to show you photographic proof that springs in knives exist?
 
Bill, I was going to point out the same thing. Top tip, frame and liner locks are springs too!
 
I had several Speedsafe's fail. I stopped buying them. Axis locks, I had much better luck with. I had many BMs for years with no issues.
 
In the 19 years I've had my Kershaw Whirlwind, I'm on my 3rd torsion bar. That's with lots of fidgeting too.

I've had a couple of cheap no name gun show assisted knife failures though. I had one open in my pocket and give me a nasty gash on my finger because the bias to keep it closed wasn't strong enough and every time something in my pocket would glance the flipper it opened. It also lacked a detent. I threw that one on the trash pretty quickly.

For the past 7 years my main EDC has been a Spyderco Tenacious. Its about the simplest maintenance free design ever. I've even thrown it in the dishwasher after cutting up meat. I wouldn't try that with any of my spring assisted or autos.
 
NJBillK said:
A framelock is a type of spring...

And if you don't believe in them, I can prove they are a reality. Do you want me to show you photographic proof that springs in knives exist?
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In the case of frame and liner locks the springs are much larger, and I would imagine the time it would take to stress one to the point of breaking as compared to say an omega spring would not be anywhere in the same ballpark. Other components would likely wear out first.
 
jstn said:
In the case of frame and liner locks the springs are much larger, and I would imagine the time it would take to stress one to the point of breaking as compared to say an omega spring would not be anywhere in the same ballpark. Other components would likely wear out first.
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Unfortunately, it doesn't take the failure of a huge framelock lockbar. It only takes the face to deform slightly.

On a liner lock, any deformation at all will likely cause blade play and a sloppy lock-up, or at least a significantly shortened life span (in the case of it being forced to have a higher lock up degree).

Omega springs can be replaced at home with some small wire. It takes a few minutes, but yu don't have to be without your knife for a few weeks.
Can you do that with a frame lock?
 
Only lock failure I've ever had was a liner lock on a Benchmade CQC-7, but it failed in a way it couldn't be closed. So it still failed in a way that kept it safe for the user.

Nonetheless, that was the last time I carried a liner lock.
 
NJBillK said:
Unfortunately, it doesn't take the failure of a huge framelock lockbar. It only takes the face to deform slightly.

On a liner lock, any deformation at all will likely cause blade play and a sloppy lock-up, or at least a significantly shortened life span (in the case of it being forced to have a higher lock up degree).

Omega springs can be replaced at home with some small wire. It takes a few minutes, but yu don't have to be without your knife for a few weeks.
Can you do that with a frame lock?
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I certainly agree. Just pointing out that it is a different type of failure. I don't buy frame or liner locks for the very reason you mention (well, I do own one framelock currently), and have nothing against Omega springs either. My preference is the compression lock or Triad, which also use springs, but I believe they will last a decent amount of time, and circumvent some of the issues with framelocks and linerlocks to a degree.
 
only knife that I have had a lock failure during use was a gerber lockback in the 90s which I threw away immediately after bandaging the cut. I've had a couple liner/framelocks fail relatively gentle spine whack testing though.
 
I have a few spring assisted ZTs, and so far I have to replace 2 of them(all within 6 months of purchasing them), one 770cf and one 566cf.It was a major inconvenient for me, the 2 springs took almost 8 months to arrive! (I'm from South Africa). I buy knives mostly as a hobby, so its rarely used. I was really surprised at how fragile these things were. So touch wood on my other 2 assisted zts( 350 and 303).

I think Im lucky when it comes to lock failure. Nothing like that ever happen so far, maybe with the exception of an Emerson cqc7( the lock bar moved all the way to almost 90% within a few dozen openings!, luckily it hasn't moved any further...)

PS. Deassisted the 566cf, flip fine. Not so great for the 770cf,so that remain assissted.
 
I've had an omega spring break in a BM Barrage, and torsion bars break in a Kershaw Thermite and a ZT 0566.

The Barrage was a heavily abused rescue from a pawn shop, so god knows what the previous owner did to it.

I would have liked to keep the 0566 deassisted, but the detent is non-extant on mine. Should send it in, but never got around to it.

Both Benchmade and KAI sent me replacement springs without issue (and the torsion bars were of a thicker gauge/design iirc). No issues since, but I don't really carry them much anymore.

The only lockbacks or linerlocks that failed on me were cheap gas station garbage in my childhood.
 
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