The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is $300 $250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Sal's take is basically what I'm saying. But it's a hell of a lot harder arguing with an innovator and inventor like Sal so I'll let his words and thoughts and practices do the talking from here.
Sal says a "light spine whack of maybe 5 pounds of pressure, before purchasing a knife," and "A light tap" at other times before use, even lighter than 5 pounds of pressure.
That is a far cry from what gets talked about by most proponents of spine whacking.
Sal is talking about what should really be called spine taps.
Those Sebenzas failed by just pushing against the spine.
Pushing against the spine is a fine way to do things.
I have never encountered a CRK knife that failed from that though.
I have encountered cheap Chinese no-name knives that did; I was testing them prior to giving them away for free (I had been given then for free for a giveaway).
The weirdest one was a cheap Chinese knife that had failed the hand pressure test, which I then gave some spine whacks.
It passed the spine-whack test, even though it had failed under hand pressure right away!
Weird.
I don't know many people willing to test $400 knives like that. Demko tested two in a row and both failed easily. One was really bad. I don't think he'd rig the test and it's not a coincidence that two in a row just happened to fail that badly.
Sal says a "light spine whack of maybe 5 pounds of pressure, before purchasing a knife," and "A light tap" at other times before use, even lighter than 5 pounds of pressure.
That is a far cry from what gets talked about by most proponents of spine whacking.
Sal is talking about what should really be called spine taps.
Thing is, when I say spine whack I'm with Sal. I don't call it a spine tap because Sal doesn't call it a spine tap.
Unfortunately, when the opponents of spine whacking come out swinging, they make it appear that people test by slamming their knives hard enough to break bone.
But then I find that style of argument very common here. Taking a perfectly reasonable action and making it appear ludicrously grotesque to try to prove their point.![]()
Just look at spine whacks on YouTube.
Most of them are in the "hard enough to break bone" category.
That is why people start threads asking why the hell anyone does it, because that is what is put out there most visibly as spine whacking.
Then there really should be a differentiation, not a blanket condemnation.
I would prefer others to crash test the same model car I have, just like I prefer to have others test the limits of folders I buy.
I'm sure that it's the people who carry a knife with SD in mind are mostly the people who care about sharp impacts on the spine of their folders. Now whether they have to defend themselves everyday or whether they ever have to, is another matter entirely. Just like people who carry guns. These probably don't have to use them everyday as well but want their guns to be reliable.
What I don't understand is that why is it held to be ridiculous when people want their folders to be reliable for SD when reliable guns for SD aren't looked at as ridiculous.
Thing is, when I say spine whack I'm with Sal. I don't call it a spine tap because Sal doesn't call it a spine tap.
Unfortunately, when the opponents of spine whacking come out swinging, they make it appear that people test by slamming their knives hard enough to break bone.
But then I find that style of argument very common here. Taking a perfectly reasonable action and making it appear ludicrously grotesque to try to prove their point.![]()
Sal Glesser said:A "standard" method of "spine-tapping" for lock reliability that anyone can use and understand if needed.
Indeed
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Knives for SD is ridiculous in itself.
Isn't that what he calls it in the closing line?
bodog, your ridiculous analogy isn't even worth addressing, it's apples and oranges. Wanna design a knife that survives a vigorous "spine whacking" not real hard but if you want a lock that won't fail get a fixed blade. You can make any lock type fail if you understand what compromises it's integrity. When pocket lint can defeat pretty much any lock if there's enough and it's in the right place then there's always a chance for failure and based on that no lock is safe.
Oh and if you're gonna take the time to periodically spine-whack which after the knife comes outta the box and into your pocket the first time you've compromised that lock unless you can definitively prove that it's in the same exact condition as when it came outta the box. If that's the case I'll carry a fixed blade, even a smaller one can't fold on your fingers.
Last point and I know it's been beat to death too, slip joint folders have been around long before locks and people manage to get the job done, even using it to pry withall without a concern over whether it folds, it's called a folder for a reason.
I'll agree with one point that was made, it's your knife do what you want with it but that also means I can do the same with mine and to me a spine-whack proves nothing.
ETA... keep this in mind too, constantly spine-whacking your lock blade will eventually lead to a failure, it may take awhile but it'll happen. Personally I'd rather have a knife last for a hundred years and work nearly as well as new and look better aged.![]()
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Somewhere along the line we convinced ourselves we need locks that will support a Buick in case we ever find ourselves surrounded by ninjas in a jungle.