I use the safety on my Buck 898. When I disengage the safety, my thumb is in position to press the button to open the blade. Both operations can be performed in one motion without adjustment, so I have no reason to not use the safety. Seems to me that's how it should work.
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Lock "Safeties"
- Thread starter DocJD
- Start date
I had one of the CRKT LAWKS knives, a medium Crawford/Kasper folder. I think that was back in the late '90s? I didn't care for it at all. I agree that it was a safety for a crappy lock. The Crawford felt 'mushy' and the liner lock would move a bit with cutting pressure during use.
IMO, the best CRKT I ever owned was the very first one I owned; a large Hammond-designed Mirage. It was a decent knife that neither had nor needed a lock safety.
I also didn't care for the closed safety on my Kershaw Leek and Chive. If you wore down or snapped off the very tip of the blade, that safety wouldn't even engage. And it just got in the way. I'd rather they weren't AO designs and had better detents than they do. I realize these designs mostly rely on the tension of the torsion spring to keep them closed, which is one of the reasons I no longer like AO knives.
Jim
IMO, the best CRKT I ever owned was the very first one I owned; a large Hammond-designed Mirage. It was a decent knife that neither had nor needed a lock safety.
I also didn't care for the closed safety on my Kershaw Leek and Chive. If you wore down or snapped off the very tip of the blade, that safety wouldn't even engage. And it just got in the way. I'd rather they weren't AO designs and had better detents than they do. I realize these designs mostly rely on the tension of the torsion spring to keep them closed, which is one of the reasons I no longer like AO knives.
Jim
Last edited:
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- Jan 9, 2006
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Auto safeties are deal breakers for me. Manual safeties, like those on my Hogues, I can live with. I just ignore them.
Sorry to resurrect this thread but I'd like to touch on this as a fan of the LAWKS...
Many years ago I had a Benchmade 880 Dark Star...and got educated on the physics of liner locks in an expensive lesson.
*I learned very quickly excessively flicking the thumb-studs to deploy can wear down a detent ball on one's liner lock.
*I learned doing a hard cut and just the right wrist twist action can make a liner lock slip.Had the scale material been a metallic alloy or a thicker frame?this wouldn't have happened.
*I learned the top of liner lock's file down and travel further away from the blade back to their nested position.This makes them less reliable and more susceptible to an unexpected failure and injury.
My point is even though the LAWKS isn't a high-end lock...it has been proven to handle prying and light batoning quite well with this safety engaged.It also rebuttals to the second and third issue I stated that can happen with any liner lock knife at any price factor.With how common liner lock knives are I'm sure there's a knife manufacturer or two that would just love to get their hands on the patent.It's not difficult to make and be incorporated into many designs.Ever since the Cold Steel court case CRKT has been veering away from their LAWKS and I think they're making a big mistake IF they continue to make liner lock knives.
Comeuppance
Fixed Blade EDC Emisssary
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- Jan 12, 2013
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I'd like to preface this by stating I haven't read any of the previous replies; what I'm saying is likely entirely redundant by now.
Lock safeties are a bad, stupid, dumb idea for idiots.
The primary lock is your best safety. Every level of complication you add on to the operation of a sharp thing grossly increases the risk of accidental injury. Just make the primary lock strong and hard to unintentionally disengage, and you have all the lock safety you should ever implement. Most things you should do with a folding knife could not realistically result in lock failure of a well-made knife. It is not safer to have secondary mechanism you have to consciously remember to disengage on top of the primary lock to close the open sharp thing in your hands. The best safety mechanism I have seen in a folding knife is a flipper tab that non-injuriously interacts with your hand when the lock is disengaged.
I have made countless cuts, closings, and openings of folding knives without secondary lock safeties. I have only ever injured myself with a knife due to operator error that would not have been attenuated by a secondary lock feature. I know this is purely anecdotal testimony, but, anything that gets in the way of me naturally and easily closing a cutting tool can die in a fire. It just makes the potentially dangerous sharp thing take even more forethought to turn into something less dangerous.
Safeties on the opening of automatic knives both make sense, but also completely negate the speed advantage. If your goal is to open a knife as quickly as possible... Your best bet is a waved knife and a little practice. Really, if your primary goal is fast opening in a situation of duress, you should have a fixed blade so you cannot possibly mess up the deployment of the knife outside of dropping the damned thing.
TL;DR: Get a waved knife or a gun if speed is important, and carry a 2-handed knife like an SAK if you feel a lock safety is important. It'll make you more careful with the knife. It's not like there's a plague of people running around hitting the spines of open knives with mallets.
Lock safeties are a bad, stupid, dumb idea for idiots.
The primary lock is your best safety. Every level of complication you add on to the operation of a sharp thing grossly increases the risk of accidental injury. Just make the primary lock strong and hard to unintentionally disengage, and you have all the lock safety you should ever implement. Most things you should do with a folding knife could not realistically result in lock failure of a well-made knife. It is not safer to have secondary mechanism you have to consciously remember to disengage on top of the primary lock to close the open sharp thing in your hands. The best safety mechanism I have seen in a folding knife is a flipper tab that non-injuriously interacts with your hand when the lock is disengaged.
I have made countless cuts, closings, and openings of folding knives without secondary lock safeties. I have only ever injured myself with a knife due to operator error that would not have been attenuated by a secondary lock feature. I know this is purely anecdotal testimony, but, anything that gets in the way of me naturally and easily closing a cutting tool can die in a fire. It just makes the potentially dangerous sharp thing take even more forethought to turn into something less dangerous.
Safeties on the opening of automatic knives both make sense, but also completely negate the speed advantage. If your goal is to open a knife as quickly as possible... Your best bet is a waved knife and a little practice. Really, if your primary goal is fast opening in a situation of duress, you should have a fixed blade so you cannot possibly mess up the deployment of the knife outside of dropping the damned thing.
TL;DR: Get a waved knife or a gun if speed is important, and carry a 2-handed knife like an SAK if you feel a lock safety is important. It'll make you more careful with the knife. It's not like there's a plague of people running around hitting the spines of open knives with mallets.