Q to Sal : NATIVE lock

[Franco G]

Dear Sal,

I have read in the Spyderco Forum Archive's thread with title 'which Spyderco?' the following comment by you:
'The Native lock is averaging over 500 inch/lbs of lock strength. Good enough for our "Safe for Hard duty" lock classification. Stronger than any litewight of it's size, although it is thicker than most knives in its blade size.'

Now, as far as I know, 'heavy duty lock' corresponds to over 100 inch/lbs, and the MBC rated lock correspond to over 200 inch/lbs. Somewhere I read that for the Chinook it is over 800 inch/lbs.
QUESTION 1: Does it mean that the Native's lock is MBC rated since it is over 500 inc/lbs? Or, am I missing something important?

QUESTION 2: In another tread you said that there were (early) problems with the Native SS lock. Is the SS's lock now at the the same as the FRN's one?

I would appreciate very much your answer, because I am really confused about that.
Best regards,

Franco
P.S. My younger son (16) got for Christmas the Native FRN in 440v, and he is extremely happy with it.

 

[Sal Glesser]

Hi Franco. The Native with a blade length of 3" would have to have a lock strength of 600 inch/lbs to be considered MBC rated. Please keep in mind that these ratings are only our own in-house ratings.

The Chinook with a blade length of just under 4" does have an MBC rating of 790 inch/lbs.

Early ss Native locks were under standard and had to be re-engineered.

hope that helps. Thanx for the support and I hope your son enjoys his Native.

sal