Lockbacks with "wear-in" room to combat vertical play. (other than Tri-Ads)

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gomipile

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Apr 17, 2010
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Nothing against Andrew Demko's design. I love the Tri-Ad lock, but it's a known quantity with respect to my question, since every Tri-Ad knife has wear-in room to prevent vertical play.

What other lockback/mid lock/etc. knives have that wedge-shaped mating surface with room to wear in? Even my nicer lockbacks(Spyderco, Buck, Kershaw, etc.) develop a bit of vertical play after being flicked a lot.
 
Ya, I don't think that there is a wedge shaped mating surface on the triad knives. Their resilience has to do with the way that the back lock is build to be able to move forward and put compressive force on the stop pin. No other lock back has that so you develop play.

I also want to point out that I have flicked liners and axis locks and haven't ever gotten play on any of them and that includes 'waving' them.
 
GMAHN said:
Ya, I don't think that there is a wedge shaped mating surface on the triad knives.
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If you want to hear it from Andrew Demko himself, take a look at this video just after 2:00 in:

[video=youtube_share;JgOYBu9tvgM]http://youtu.be/JgOYBu9tvgM[/video]
 
Pretty sure that Buck's lockbacks have lockbars with a wedge-shape on them.
You can find pictures of a Buck 110 with clear handles.

There's no lockback that compares to a Tri-Ad lock, in my opinion.
Lockback + a stop-pin... I love it.

Both my Spyderco Delica and Stretch have vertical play, but it doesn't affect function at all.

If you trust the lock mechanism, I wouldn't worry about a little play, but that's just me.
 
I love the Tri-Ad locks, I was just wondering if there were any other lockbacks which don't develop blade play with normal use and a bit of Spyder-dropping or flicking.
 
Oh, I completely forgot that Spyderco Chaparral has a stop-pin.
A friend of mine has had a Chaparral for a while and he says it is still very solid.

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gomipile said:
I love the Tri-Ad locks, I was just wondering if there were any other lockbacks which don't develop blade play with normal use and a bit of Spyder-dropping or flicking.
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Is the Spyder drop a bad way to open a knife? It's actually my favorite way to open my Delica. Hope I'm not damaging it too bad.
 
XiaolongJackson said:
Is the Spyder drop a bad way to open a knife? It's actually my favorite way to open my Delica. Hope I'm not damaging it too bad.
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I haven't had a problem with it on my early 2000's Endura yet. However, my Cara Cara 2 arrived rock solid, but developed a tiny bit of vertical play after Spyder dropping it a lot over a 2 week period.

I did not know that about the Chaparral, Nullity. Thanks, that's exactly the kind of info I started this thread to find.
 
gomipile said:
I haven't had a problem with it on my early 2000's Endura yet. However, my Cara Cara 2 arrived rock solid, but developed a tiny bit of vertical play after Spyder dropping it a lot over a 2 week period.

I did not know that about the Chaparral, Nullity. Thanks, that's exactly the kind of info I started this thread to find.
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Alright then. I guess I don't mind either way, since I bought my Delica to use it.
 
gomipile said:
I haven't had a problem with it on my early 2000's Endura yet. However, my Cara Cara 2 arrived rock solid, but developed a tiny bit of vertical play after Spyder dropping it a lot over a 2 week period.

I did not know that about the Chaparral, Nullity. Thanks, that's exactly the kind of info I started this thread to find.
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I carried my cara cara 2, 5 days a week at work for about 9 months and abused the crap out of it. And it is still vault like in terms of lock up.
 
Nullity said:
Oh, I completely forgot that Spyderco Chaparral has a stop-pin.
A friend of mine has had a Chaparral for a while and he says it is still very solid.
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nopyo said:
Mind = blown.

I just got a Chaparral, and I never knew it had that. Thank you so much for sharing.
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The Chaparral was just bumped up a fair bit on my wish list!
I wonder why the description of the knife doesn't mention the stop pin. It's a great feature.
 
I've had a backlock of some sort in my pockets for the better part of the last 15 years. My Delica Wave, Endura Wave, or my more recent Orange FFG Endura have seen a ton of use, abuse, spidie dropping, waving from the pocket, and more. My Tri-ad lock AK-47 is a great knife and I really like it but the fact is it has more play than all my Spydercos combined, and it's all developed from use. I'm not knocking my CS knife or the tri-ad lock, I love the knife and the lock is extremely impressive but keeping with the facts it has developed more lock play than any of my other lockback knives.
 
Jason B. said:
I've had a backlock of some sort in my pockets for the better part of the last 15 years. My Delica Wave, Endura Wave, or my more recent Orange FFG Endura have seen a ton of use, abuse, spidie dropping, waving from the pocket, and more. My Tri-ad lock AK-47 is a great knife and I really like it but the fact is it has more play than all my Spydercos combined, and it's all developed from use. I'm not knocking my CS knife or the tri-ad lock, I love the knife and the lock is extremely impressive but keeping with the facts it has developed more lock play than any of my other lockback knives.
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Where is the play? What part is out of spec? Do you have any idea how or why it happened?

My Cold Steel American Lawman has literally no play when locked. Actually, you can even loosen the pivot to induce play, but once it locks, there is no play, vertical or horizontal.


Granted, our 2 examples are statistically insignificant, but the general consensus is that the triad lock is technically superior. It is just an evolution of the lockback, so it should be no worse than a standard lockback.


My biggest grip with a standard lockback is that the lockbar acts as both a stop-pin and the lock, meaning if the spring fails, using the knife becomes troublesome. A triad lock, or any lock with a stop-pin, can have a lock failure but still be very functional. I still carry a Spyderco Stretch because aside from the lock, it is superior to the CS AM in almost every way. One of those newer CS AM with CTS-XHP are very, very tempting though... :)
 
It's just a little up and down play, nothing to worry about, its a sub $100 knife and is of the quality I would expect from that level of knife (My Spydercos are no exception). If it was $200+ or a Demko custom I would have a different opinion.
 
Jason B. said:
It's just a little up and down play, nothing to worry about, its a sub $100 knife and is of the quality I would expect from that level of knife (My Spydercos are no exception). If it was $200+ or a Demko custom I would have a different opinion.
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You might try cleaning the lock's contact points. IIRC, mine was initially a little finicky as the stupid black coating was being worn off.

With locks, I care much less about ultimate strength than I once did. Yes, absolutely make a lock as strong as you can within the design parameters, but I realized that even if the knife was the strongest folder ever made, I could still never fully trust it.

Kinda like a gun safety. If the safety is the only thing protecting you from an accident, you are doing something wrong.
 
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