Schrade Lake & Walker - followup

Joined
Mar 25, 1999
Messages
514
Most of my <a href="http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/002107.html">initial impressions</a> continue to hold, in short it's very close to exactly what I want in most respects, but it lacks a bit to be perfect.<a href="http://www.canit.se/%7Egriffon/knives/schrade/slw1-edge.jpg"><img src="http://www.canit.se/%7Egriffon/knives/schrade/_slw1-edge.jpg" alt="" align="right"></a>

I did not like the edge as delivered. No problem at all cutting wood and the like, perhaps apart from requiring a bit too much force. Plan was to keep the factory edge to see how well it stood up (which I think it would have quite well), but it irritated me that the performance wasn't close to what the steel and geometry should be capable of, so I took out my diamond hone and put a whole new edge on it (at first I only was going to do a part near the handle and the tip) with a much smaller angle. After polishing edge is about as good as they come. Cuts with very little resistance and shows very little sign of wear from light-to-medium work on different materials.

The lock lock may be a good idea, but the implementation has faults. The frame lock isn't as stiff spring as on a Pinnacle and the like, so in some cases a bit of twisting will disengage it, which of course is prevented by the lock lock. But I really only has had a use for it when I was sharpening it. Otherwise, for what I do, it's just not worth the bother of engaging it. The lock itself is good enough.

Unfortunately, the placement of the lock lock lever makes it possible to accidentally lock the lock in the disengaged position. It's happened to me a couple of times that when opening the knife, there wasn't any klik to show it's locked properly, and I couldn't figure out why. A couple of times it may have had to do with pulling the knife from a belt sheath. It's smooth, so you need a bit of force, so maybe it could happen then, although I'm not certain it has.
The times I know how it's happened has been when closing the knife. If you disengage the lock and push the blade closed with the finger close to the handle it can slide the switch to the "safe" position, and as your thumb holds the frame lock open, there's very little resistance to it. So you need to close it not like that or be certain to close it against the ball detent.

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Urban Fredriksson www.canit.se/%7Egriffon/
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EKA Nordic W11, Schrade Lake & Walker, Calypso Jr Lightweight

"I've always been fascinated by Scandinavian knives [...] they're simple, in an advanced way". - Bob Loveless

[This message has been edited by Griffon (edited 10-02-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Griffon (edited 10-02-2000).]
 
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