I belive what you are seeing is the result of a couple of generations of boys growing up with absolutly no knowledge of knives at all except for what they read in the magazines. When Buck came out with the 110 in 1964, it changed everthing in the knife world. I'm not sure for the better. With the Buck and all it's knockoff clones ruling the knife market for the 60's and all the 70's, and the birth of the tactical knife thing in the 80's with Cold steel, the buyer dynamics changed drastically. For the new buyer market, young males under 25 and first time knife buyers, the cool factor was it. The 'cooler' a knife could be made, the better it sold. This was the beginging of the high speed operator market. Out with the old and in with the new.
Now in 2013, we have young men who's fathers never carried a traditional pocket knife. The slip joint is seen as a throw back and unsafe to use. Maybe one young guy gets one as a kid, nobody teaches him how to use it, so he ends up cutting himself really good, and blames the tool instead of admitting to a stupid mistake on his part. The tool is then forever branded as an unsafe thing. Never mind that for hundreds of years it was the go-to cutting tool for men climbing rigging of sailing ships, a freight wagon driver hauling goods, farmers, cowboys, miners, and train workers. It's part of the modern thing to not take any personal responsibility, so the tool is blamed for injuries. Now the knife with a locking blade is a step toward idiot proofing the thing. At a BBQ, I used a sodbuster, and I loaned it to a young lady to slice some of the bread, and her boyfriend told her not to use that knife because it was dangerous. He then handed her his black tactical thing, saying there was a reason that 'those' knives were not even made anymore, meaning my sodbuster, because they fold up on fingers with no warning. I looked at him very carefully, but he was being serious and actually believed what he was spouting. I corrected him, and told him that there was a strong market for traditional knives among people who actually knew what they were doing with a knife. I don't think he believed me.
These days, there is a perception that a knife without a lock on the blade is an accident waiting to happen. And in the wrong hands, it is. But in my life, I have seen two very very bad accidents with a lock blade knife. One, a young man was doing very stupid things and when warned, he just said "It's a Buck knife, no problem." Just after lunch he managed to amputate his right index finger at the first joint. A few years back I needed an operation on my left hand for a tendon problem. I was at the hand center of the Carroll Country Hospital, waiting to be brought back to the OR for the out patient surgery, and sitting with us in the waiting room was a young man with his mother. The guys hand was bandaged up, and in conversation it came out he was severely injured when a lock on a blade gave way, and he was there for an operation on a severed ligament to get his digit operating again, hopefully. Like the Buck knife user, he had been confident in his safety because his fancy back knife had a lock. Lessons in reality can be painful.
But both of these young men were carrying a knife that was supposed to be 'safe' because it had a lock on the blade. But neither of them in their young life had learned good knife handling techniques. The technology failed in the face of stupid behavior. Knives that fold, can fold at any time due to mechanical failure of a part, or gross misuse of the tool. Too many people put too much faith in technology keeping them safe. All the seat belts and air bags won't save you if you insist on driving like a fool, so why should a knife lock be different? I'd rather carry a knife with no lock and be conscious of the fact, than carry a locker and get over confident. If my slip joint pocketknife is not adequate for the job, then it's time for a sheath knife. What you young folks call a fixed blade, although it's not broken and I don't know what's been fixed. Fixed blades come in all sizes, from nice little pocket puuko's to sturdy belt knives. If you're worried about a blade folding on you, then don't carry one that's already meant to fold.
Becoming a knife nut at a relative late age, I made it through the first 40 or so years with a Buck 301 in a pocket. If that was not enough, then I had a Buck 102 that went on my belt. I was probably the only person in the world who looked at the 110 and wondered why I would need a boat anchor that had a blade in it. The stockman did darn near everything, and if it didn't, then I had a sheath knife. Now I carry a peanut and a 102 woodsman. So far so good.
Carl.
