Spyderco lockbacks??

palegreenhorse

palegreenhorse

Joined
Dec 9, 2005
Messages
541
I recently read in a knife rag that the Mini Manix has had its lockback redesigned internally to perform much better. The new lockback was called a "ball lock, lockback", not to be confused with the ball bearing lock. IIRC the rag stated it heldup with something like 1000lbs on the back of the blade without failure. I guess my questions are.... does this article contain valid information for one, and have the other lockbacks undergone the same lock change such as the Fullsize Manix and the Chinook 2? If not are there plans to? Thanks guys and gals. PGH~
 
Question was asked a week or two back on the Spyderco Factory forum by 4ster, below is TazKristi's response. Bottom line, the author made a mistake.

4 s ter,
You didn't miss a thing. (I don't think you ever do )

The 83mm Manix has the same lock as the original Manix. The writer was actually working on two stories for two different models. Unfortunately, he got the locks confused.

Joyce is on it, I'm sure there will be a correction printed.

Kristi
Click to expand...
 
dniice87 said:
As far as i know the lock back is the strongest lock spyderco makes.
Click to expand...

That was my impression as well. I remember hearing stories about the original Chinook I maxing out the machine use to test lock strength.

Apparently the machine had to practically jump off the floor to break it.:cool:
 
Well its not true, apparently it was a big mistake by the writer as he was confused. Just straight misinformation. I'm just kinda speechless on how something like that could happen. Honest mistake or not the editing process should be re-evaluated to at least double check sources on the information that is set to print. Thanks everyone as I missed the original thread. PGH~
 
The ball bearing lock is nice but it is such a pain to unlock. Not a problem for people that are not in a hurry to close their knife but I am always in a hurry to open and close any knife. Not a real hurry but I just like to be able to do it with no problem. I won't buy anymore ball bearing locks until they make them MUCH easier to unlock. I still like the lock back and the liner lock and I even have grown to like the compression lock but the ball bearing lock is just too much.

Even though I am a huge fan of Spyderco in general, my favorite lock right now is the Axis lock. It is slick. If I had learned on that lock, I would never buy any other type. Spyderco should let Benchmade use the Spydie hole in their blade and Benchmade should let Spyderco use the Axis lock. Could you imagine some of the great knives that could be made?
 
kgriggs8 said:
I won't buy anymore ball bearing locks until they make them MUCH easier to unlock.
Click to expand...

Which model did you try? It seems that most find the Dodo hard to unlock, but find the D'Allara models easier to use. If it was the Dodo, try the D'Allara, and if it was the D'Allara, than wait for the next one(probably the Pickle)

It's constantly being refined, so give it a second chance when the next model comes out, you might be pleasantly surprised, or you might still hate it, but it's not like you really lose anything.
 
"Which model did you try? It seems that most find the Dodo hard to unlock, but find the D'Allara models easier to use."

Yep it was the Dodo. One thing that was nice is that it locked up better than 99% of Spydercos I have seen. Most Spydercos have some blade play but the Dodo I just traded had none. If it wasn't such a pain to unlock, I would have kept it. In the short time I had it, it started to grow on me even though at first I was not happy.
 
There is no right or wrong answer to that question. It all depends on the rest of the knife. As an example, a poorly built ball lock knife with thin liners and flexible scales would fail by having the ball force the liners and scales apart and pop out of the handle. That could happen due to either upward pressure on the edge, causing the knife to open too far, or by downward pressure on the spine, causing the knife to close unexpectedly.

Needless to say that although the first would be more likely to happen the second would be more dangerous. A front lock, on the other hand is virtually impossible to "over open", but if poor materials are used, either the blade tang or the lockbar itself could snap under a downward load. That would be the most dangerous type of failure, as there would probably be no warning.

However, in quality front locks, the real points of failure will be elsewhere. Either the blade or lockbar pivot will fail, or the handle material will fail around it. I imagine a well made ball lock knife would fail either at the blade pivot or like the the poorly made one, except that a lot more pressure would be required to "spring" the handle.
 
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