To Spine Whack, or Not to Spine Whack. That is the question

[Peter Atwood]

MC Chan, over oiling is definitely a good way to make almost any liner lock fail the spine whack test. That lock is relying on friction as well as geometry to stay open.

I think spine whacking is abuse if it's done 1000 times on a cutting board as Troy suggests. I don't know why you would do such a thing to a tool that you might want to use later on. My suggestion to those who want to test folders to the point of destruction is to get a life.

Of course, I put customs and factory knives in two different realms. I would never abuse one of my cherished custom folders but I might think about gently whacking some of my factory knives and that's only because people on the forums make such a fetish out of it. I think that the general idea is to always treat a folding knife like it could fold up on you.

 

[Troy Webber]

I was only whacking the cqc-7 to prove a point:That on a well engineered and executed lock a moderate degree of spinewhacking isn't really abuse.I gave the knife roughly 2500 good whacks over 3 days with no apparent damage.I dont carry any linerlocks these days so it was sitting in the drawer gathering dust.If it broke I wouldn't have cared.the lock was never oiled-maybe that was one of the reasons it fared so well.At any rate,this particular lock was done right.In a normal year when I did carry linerlocks, my knife might get 1 or 2 whacks every 2 or 3 months -no big deal.I'm not really a compulsive whacker.lol.If it was a custom or a knife that meant something to me I would probably go easy on it.
troy

 

[Marion David Poff]

Gentlemen and any Ladies.....

Thank you for one of the best threads in recent memory.

I would like to recognize a few posters for their outstanding contributions to this thread.



medusaoblongata for his satirical wit...

It seems that there are quite a few unreasonable knife knuts who hold the position that a locking folder should actually lock!

Steve Harvey, with his lucid, succinct and insanely funny evaluation.....

I have developed my own rule of thumb... I look carefully at the blade channel, and if there is a liner lock in there, I assume it will fail.

Joe Talmadge, with his libertatian approach....

I do think that the manufacturer of course has the right to say that the spine whack is considered abuse for warrantee purposes, just like I have the right to ridicule that manufacturer for doing so.

Ken Cook for the straightforward approach...

It comes down to the question of trusting a mechanical safety.
I don't. I can't. I never will.

Which reminds me, that why I like fixed blades so much.



ExamonLyf, in the style of Chuck Gollnick.....

...Balisong.......don't leave home without one!

It don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing.



Troy Webber for his invitation to inuendo laden remarks....

I have been spinewhacking a Cqc-7 over the last 48 hours off and on and my knife is no worse for wear.

Honorary mention goes to all those who presented the pragmatic answer....

If the lock does not work, why does it have one?

And though he did not post, our thanks to A.T. Barr for educating us about the potential menace to our known as the liner lock.



In closing, I might mention, I think the spine-whack test is a personally meaningless test, primarily, since I refuse to own any knife with a lock mechanism that is even remotely suspect in my mind, which obviously, absolutely, 100% rules out any of those weak members of the lock herd, also known as liner locks. They are suspect, and besides, the cutout in the handle drives me batty.