Ti lock wear

Dallas T

Dallas T

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Apr 6, 2013
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Just curious from long time Owner of titanium lock, how do they fair after long term daily use? Do they generally wear in and stop or do they typically keep moving toward other end? Thanks in advance
 
marcus52AR said:
Quality titanium framelocks typically settle in and move very little over years of use.

I've had a CRK and RHK that haven't budged for years.
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Since this is the Emerson forum, my guess is he is asking about liner locks, not frame locks, since they are the most common lock on Emersons (what? 99% of the knives?).

I have knives with lockup at 20/30% (new) all the way to 90% (an old Super Raven that was Po'Boy'ed). Although most knives I have with over 50% lockup are older, I have had a few newer ones that lockup greater than 30%. I think they do continue to wear, and thus move, over time. Obviously the amount of opening/closing that is done effect this, especially if you use your knives as fidget toys.

One or another of the wiser and more experienced folks on here will eventually weigh in.
 
Dallas T said:
Just curious from long time Owner of titanium lock, how do they fair after long term daily use? Do they generally wear in and stop or do they typically keep moving toward other end? Thanks in advance
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Locks are definitely the one thing I wish Emerson would improve on.

It seems like when working properly the lock will wear in to a sweet spot at which point the lock has broken in and wear virtually stops. This seems to be due to the fact that the tang has worn away the lock to the point where it is no longer sticking and the lockbar has adjusted to where it is just the right length that the tang of the blade no longer needs to wear any extra off.

You will notice the black mark that develops on the blade’s lockface which is worn titanium. Never wipe this off any lockface as its presence seems to help mitigate lockwear. The only time I would clean it off is when it occasionally causes lockslip.
 
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I've owned a few Emersons, but only two that seem relevant to your question: a Mini CQC-7BW I carried daily for a year, and a CQC-7V I carried daily for about 4-5 months. Both liner locks migrated a small amount during their break-in period (about 2 weeks), and then never budged again.

I rarely wave-open my Emersons, but generally when I do the lock engages further/deeper on the tang than it would when I just open it with the thumb disc. But in all cases, on the next non-wave opening (and all subsequent) the liner engages at the "normal" percentage for the knife. I suspect if I waved them regularly, I'd see more lock migration over time.

I don't know if that helps for long-term usage (a year is long-term for me!), but TL;DR mine tend to move a bit and then stay in that spot.
 
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