the lock fetish

[kamagong]

Don't be ridiculous. A 110 will take too much work. Get yourself a nice, sturdy khukuri. Makes beheadings near effortless.

- Christian

 

[wouldestous]

this thread is making me consider throwing away all my folding knives and switching over entirely to machetes.
i wont do it but, you know, i thought about it for a little while.

cutting yourself is the risk we all take by volunteering to handle knives.

 

[Ken44]

Now here I was reading this thread getting used to being looked down upon and settling into my second-class citizen role for owning a couple of lockbacks and even worse, a linerlock. And then all of a sudden you come along all friendly and making me feel accepted again. Very confusing. I'm just going to go off now and accidentally behead myself with my Buck 110, due to my lack of a proper upbringing and natural tendency to act irresponsibly while under the mesmerizing power of the evil lock.

Funniest post in thread

 

[akadave2]

I like all knives. If it cuts well it cuts it with me!

 

[LeatherMan64]

IMHO having a lock on your knife blade is a bit like wearing gloves- it desensitizes you, so that you're not being deliberate in where and how you use the blade. That being said, several months ago, I lost around 1/3 of my thumb to a knife that had no lock. I only bring this up to point out that situational awareness is key, and if you're not on the ball, you can find all kind of ways to injure yourself. In closing, I believe that, while a lock does indeed contribute to the overall safety of the knife, it will never replace good technique. (just my $0.02)

 

[sitflyer]

I have a lock back fetish, I have a slip joint fetish, I have a friction folder fetish, I have a fixed blade fetish... Who am I to critique another's likes or dislikes. To me they are all interesting and usefull tools. Interesting reading this thread has been, I'm glad I live in a time and place where I can enjoy all of the aforementioned designs...

 

[akadave2]

I have a lock back fetish, I have a slip joint fetish, I have a friction folder fetish, I have a fixed blade fetish... Who am I to critique another's likes or dislikes. To me they are all interesting and usefull tools. Interesting reading this thread has been, I'm glad I live in a time and place where I can enjoy all of the aforementioned designs...

^This^

 

[Mal2]

IMHO having a lock on your knife blade is a bit like wearing gloves- it desensitizes you, so that you're not being deliberate in where and how you use the blade. That being said, several months ago, I lost around 1/3 of my thumb to a knife that had no lock. I only bring this up to point out that situational awareness is key, and if you're not on the ball, you can find all kind of ways to injure yourself. In closing, I believe that, while a lock does indeed contribute to the overall safety of the knife, it will never replace good technique. (just my $0.02)

And worth every penny Seriously, I would only add to Robert's fine post earlier on the actual use of a knife. I sail. And while I have and use a traditional slip joint with a serrated blade and a marlin spike, I carry a frame lock. Just one hand for the boat doesn't leave two to open a knife and a knife is often needed, sometimes right away. The sometimes cold, occasionally blind cutting required to clear a fouled prop shaft is unsafe with even a fixed blade, even more unsafe with a locking blade and downright stupid with a slip joint.

I've carried a knife almost continuously for 60 or so years. As a boy scout, or on the farm, it was a fixed blade almost exclusively. I had to compromise outside scouting, particularly in school, and carry a Barlow. In the service for 20 years, I carried an automatic and one of the most useless fixed blades ever, when actually flying. Both were government issue. Out of uniform, I replaced the Barlow with a Buck 301. Now there are such good choices in non threatening small locking blades that I doubt I'll ever carry a slip joint except maybe in The City where they frown on "gravity knives".

While the lock won't replace technique, it sure supplements it. Unfortunate that the sheeple think you a bit odd or even threatening carrying a fixed blade. I suppose it is all situational but if you're active, don't really know what you might run into, outdoors and can do with one blade love of the lock is not a fetish.

 

[knarfeng]

I carry a frame lock.

The discussion was not "one hand opener vs. traditional".
It was "Locking traditional vs. slip joint traditional."

And in this forum... we do not refer to the "blade challenged" as "sheeple".

 

[Mal2]

I apologize, from here forward, I won't refer to sheeple as sheeple; though I suspect it was here I first heard the term. I am admittedly a bit politically correct challenged. I did notice that mentioning "beheadings" is OK. I may also now understand the, to me, fine distinction between locking and locking traditional, though I didn't notice that distinction in the initial post. I suspect carrying and using sharp tools for many decades does not teach one much about knives and I should leave posting here to the experts.

Check six, Mal

 

[midnight flyer]

I'm glad that you've never seen a quality knife fail. Count yourself lucky that you've never had to pack a still warm human body part in ice so the EMT's could take it with the victim to the ER.

You assume too much. I have indeed looked for a severed finger (not mine) after it was painlessly removed by a cabinet sized table saw. It shot across the shop, and we found it an put it in a baggie, but were too late getting it to the hospital for reattachment.

Many in my line or work are missing parts of fingers and toes. Some I witnessed their accident, and some not. I have driven my own employees to the hospital when they have cut into their arms and legs (one employee of mine lost almost two pints of blood when he slipped and buried a circular saw into his thigh and nicked an artery). Too many broken bones to count, including seeing bones stick out a finger. Thankfully, only one death on a job that I was working on, and it wasn't from a knife. Crane operator and power lines... fill in the blanks.

Plenty of chisel cuts (on myself), knife cuts, and saw cuts that were to the bone. I even cut off the very end of my own finger when I wasn't completely focused on my work. (It actually was my work, I was yelling at my idiot helpers to get busy and didn't catch that the saw guard failed. Still my fault... depending on the blade guard is kinda like depending on the lock of a knife...)

I look now at injuries as injuries. I don't really dramatize them or categorize them anymore. All I need to know is if the recipient will be all right and if they will be able to work again. I don't care how it happened or what caused it. After a few years on the job it became obvious to me that sometimes things are out of your control and you get hurt from a congregation of errors, some not yours, rather than one simple thing. So the more you can do to prevent injury, the better off you are.

I will admit that I don't feel too bad when someone is being an idiot or using a tool or operating a piece of machinery incorrectly and they get dinged. If the knothead in question knows better and was just being lazy and didn't want to get the right tool, if the penalty isn't too high for being an idiot and they only miss a day or two or work, then I don't feel bad at all.

But sometimes, the penalty sure seems to outweigh the crime. I have seen so many young guys that don't quite understand how dangerous job sites and tools can be get hurt badly. Young guys have other things on their mind than work; girlfriends, plans after work, a new baby, beer, a new wife that he still loves and thinks about, paying his bills on helper/beginner's, lack of funds for those bills when rained out, etc. For those guys (and me) a little extra protection is sure welcome.

I have strangely mellowed over the years and tend to step back now when assessing a situation. But many seem to go the other way. I do admire the attitude of "they should learn how to use it" and the disdain shown by some for those that don't learn how to use a tool such as a knife properly.

But here is the world from my eyes. I see a guy with a black thumb that tells me he got it when he hit his finger with a hammer. Do I deride him and tell him he should learn how to drive a nail? Such a basic tool... and no moving parts. It took me about a year and thousands of nails to get the hang of it as I started when there weren't many nailguns. Yet, everyone knows what a hammer is, but few know how to use it properly. Same with a a handsaw; when someone cuts their finger using one, do I call their parent's skills into question? No doubt, wood saws have been around longer than slipjoint knives, yet so few folks know how to use them properly.

Yet, using a hammer and saw used to be considered very basic tool skills for any guy and were considered so for generations. But these days I run into homeowner/clients that can't even read a basic tape measure, much less drive nails without beating the wood up or cut a board square. Couldn't you use these same principles when thinking about slipjoints? These people aren't idiots, they just weren't exposed to their proper use.

Whose fault is it? I don't know. Maybe society just changed and we didn't. Otherwise, the last two or three generations of parents might have a lot of explaining to do about their shortcomings. Personally, I only carried slip joint knives even out on the job until about 10 years ago. And only CASE or Boker. They worked fine for almost 30 years, but then I bought a nice locker and realized their utility value, and now have a few. Since economic conditions have forced me back into a "hands on" position most of the time, I don't leave home without one, and there is always one under my tool bags. Make no mistake, the slip joint comes as well, just now it is a small one like a peanut or mini canoe.

I once saw a family member toss a old Case swing guard hunter into the bay because it had gotten worn to the point that it was dangerous. The blade would fold like a slip joint at any pressure on the spine.

I understand that completely. When my last saw was worn out (to me) one of my helpers fished it out of the dumpster and cleaned it up and started to use it himself. I didn't recognize it when I used it to make a couple of cuts, but did when the blade guard failed to close and it skittered across my work boot when I set it down, spinning blade onto the concrete. When I realized it was that saw, I took my hammer out of my tool bags and beat it to pieces. Safety problem solved. The defective guard was the main reason it was disposed of in the first place.

I won't argue that a good lock on a blade makes the knife safer. Of course it does. But...I think if one is introduced to knives with a lock blade, and never has to learn good knife handling habits, that person is at a disadvantage, and even may be an accident waiting to happen if something fails. A little wear on the corner of a locking bar, a little lint in the notch, anything, and you have a lock that will fail. I think this is why in the old days, a pocket knife was just that; a pocket knife. It wasn't a stabbing weapon, zombie slaying tool, survival knife, or any other teenage fantasy thing like now. I read some of the posts in the general section and it's too sad to be laughable, how many young guys now think thier super duper ninja tactical knife is some kind of excalliber. They have unreal expectations, and the manufactures seem to encourage this mindset with outrageous claims in advertising. The days seem long gone that a father sits down with his son and gives him his first knife, and shows him how to safely use it. Now the kids learn from video games and knife magazines that are really worthless. With no fatherly influence, or grandfather, scout master, too many kids are believing what they see and read. This, combined with the miracle locks that are advertised with barbell weights hanging from them, are a recipe for a future disaster to some kids fingers. But that's the knife market now. Manufactures are in the business to make money, and I guess the real world has little to do with business. SNIP

Carl.

I agree with that, including the part I snipped. It seems to me that what you are saying and feeling is more an indictment of societal shortcomings and the knife industry rather than a direct comment on the utility value of a locking knife.

Sure lockers fail. So does any simple machine. That doesn't mean with proper use they don't have a place. It doesn't mean that the locking knives should be shunned because a boy didn't learn the proper use of a knife in front of a winter's fire while sitting at his father's feet.

They are just one more tool in the box, and to me, they have a place.

But that's the knife market now. Manufactures are in the business to make money, and I guess the real world has little to do with business.

Never did. Never has. Never will.

Robert