Spyderco Locks: How strong are they?

I

Ian11

Joined
May 15, 2003
Messages
42
Does anyone know any real numbers for the amount of force or pressure various Spydercos can withstand. I realize the liner lock is the least strong with the compression locks being the strongest. But does anyone have any concrete numbers like the liner lock on my Starmate to a frame lock on a Police to a MBC rated compression lock on a Gunting?

I don't know if Sal would release those numbers but I'd like to get a better idea for the strength of these locks. Any help would be appreciated.
 
The Gunting, Lil Temperance and Chinook are all MBC rated, I believe to withstand 200lbs of torque per inch, someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

I don't think there are numbers for any others, and in a recent thread, Sal said he wouldn't release the numbers. I think any lockback will be strong enough. The Military and Starmate have good reputations for being strong and taking alot of abuse.

Hope this helps.

Leo
 
Yeah, thats the impression I got after doing a search.

Anyone want to make educated guesses as to how strong theses various locks are?
 
I don't know how stong they are (in figures), but I use spydies every day and I never encountered lock problems (in fact I never encountered any problems) with any of them.
 
I posted this thread because I started having doubts about the strength of my liner locking Starmate for hard use or (God forbid) for self defense. I'm getting over it and will use it without overthinking things.
 
This is a really good question. The only spyderco folder that I have heard doubts about was when the Millie first came out, and there were some purported "white-knuckle" lock closings. Fairly certain that the issue has been dealt with (I'm carrying a Millie right now:cool: ). To be quite frank, I have enough faith in Spyderco and its folders to use them without question.

One question I've always had is what exactly is a MBC rated knife? What kind of numbers are we talking? LAG3 mentioned 200lbs of torque, but official word would be nice. Went through the spyderco webpage looking for stats, but the closest I could find was "designed for MBC".

AB
 
lan11,

there is a recent thread at this Forum, started by tarsier, title Request for lock strength data with a lot of data, and with Sal's comments.
Although there are no complete list of the ratings, we know
1. MBC locks: Gunting, Lil'Temperance, Chinook.
2. Heavy duty: Police, Wegner, Endura, etc.
3. Most recent test on Military, according to Sal, gives 'a little over 550 inch/lbs. divided by 4" = 137.5 inch/lbs per inch or well into "Heavy duty" rating.'
4. Sometimes it is not clear if the numbers are given for the SS or FRN version (e. g. Native with SS handles has stronger lock then Native with FRN ones, but both are probably equally reliable).

Franco
 
These ratings are for our own development, not for sales pitch purposes. They also help us maintain standards. I don't mind sharing info here and there for discussion purposes. The "goal" is to deliver such reliable hi-performance products that you come to "trust" the name.

The real deal, even more than strength is lock reliability. Break tests also show us where we might have reliability problems or room for improvement.

sal
 
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