Spyderco Paramilitary lock

I believe it is. I can't say I've personally tested it but I have an Axis lock and I have had several compression locks and they seem to both be stronger than the body of the folder. By that I mean I believe that the folder would break in some other place before the lock gave out on either the axis or compression lock. Personally I think the compression lock is Spyderco's strongest lock followed by the nested compression and then the lockback.
 
I have both a compression lock and an axis lock. I believe that the compression lock will be marginally stronger and more reliable under heavy testing (that I have not done). I don't believe that it is significant enough to care about, as both are amazing locks. Conversely, while I think the compression lock is very easy to use, it still isn't quite to the level of the axis lock for user friendly and smooth action (or even price, for that matter, somehow..).

Tuesday I might go into much greater detail on the subject if you want me to, very busy tonight and tomorrow.
 
There's a difference between strong and reliable. A lock could be the strongest in the world, but you wouldn't want it if it's easy to disengage by accident. Are you planning to lift a car with the lock or just planning to keep the knife open when you want it open?
 
Artfully Martial said:
They're both strong and reliable. Very superior alternatives to what most knife makers are using.
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Indeed. My post was mostly a reply to the original poster.

I have two examples of each of those locks (that I can remember--maybe more), and, along with a well-made lockback, they form the Magic Trinity of Proper Locks.

So, to clarify my first post: Focusing on lock strength is kind of a red herring. The Axis and Comp lock, brilliant designs that they are, are excellent about not letting you close them accidentally. The Axis might be a little better since the closing mechanism is on the side, but it would depend on how you hold your knife.

I'd venture to guess that 90% of the time when a folder's blade closes accidentally, it wasn't because the brute raw strength of the lock was overcome. Does anyone disagree with that?
 
In my humble opinion, both the axis lock and para's compression lock are very out of the way. It's very, very difficult for me to imagine accidentally disengaging either, but if I had to choose one that was better in this category, it would be the compression lock. The meat of my hand never touches the lock itself when held properly, no matter how hard I try. If you hammerfist it, the soft flesh between thumb and index finger barely touch it, but even if you tried, there's certainly no way you could get force through it. Also, the compression lock would be much more difficult to disengage by an assailant.
 
I know that not all compression locks have the same strength and I assume the same is true for the axis lock. That said, all compression lock are mighty strong and so are all axis locks. Strong enough that personally I find reliability a much greater concern and both seem to be very reliable indeed as long as they are maintained properly.

Sal explained a while back that the failure of a lock can be adjusted to some degree. The compression lock can be made to fail either by the anvil pin ripping out of the G-10 and the steel liners or by the deformation of the lock pin. He said that they made a design decision to have the lock fail by deformation of the lock pin, but you can (or rather can not, at least I can't) probably imagine the forces required. I would assume, even though it is probably very hard to say without trying, that the axis also fails by the lockbar ripping out of the liner and the scales. Either way, plenty strong in my book.
 
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