Tweaking a CRKT M-16

[glen200300]

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[wwells20]

I haven't done any mods to my LAWKS just to the pivots. On my m-21, I took off ~1 to 2 deg. from the tang and lenghtened the lock bar and that (on my knife) took care of the lock bar sliding back off the tang with spine-whack tests. * as with any mod, the possibility of damage exist. Be careful. This worked for me and I might have just gotten lucky.

 

[rebeltf]

I read a post describing the "good design, poor implementation" of the LAWKS system on the new CRKTs

Not bustin your nads here man but that is a silly thread. It seems some folks arent pleased no matter what , always out to make something "fail"...
The only way I can see the LAWKS fail is if it is loose, and moves too easy , otherwise....
I took my CRKT completley apart and heat colored the frame , smoothed and rounded the scales and put it back together, works as good as it did beforehand.

 

[MikeV]

Why all the complaining about the LAWKS anyhow?
What are you planning on doing with the M16? Shove it through a car door like Cold Steel used to advertise?

 

[Cliff Stamp]

It seems some folks arent pleased no matter what ...

Everything has failure points of course, the one I had was just so low it made the LAWK's system useless in regards to spine loads, if the liner would release the LAWK's did little to prevent it, though it did enable it to better handle torques.

-Cliff

 

[glen200300]

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[rebeltf]

I hear what your sayin Cliff , curious though how many did you test ?
My Prowler's LAWK is nice and stiff but , I rarely feel the need to use it as the liner lock is sufficient enough for most tasks.
The thing is , out of that thread a lot of less than... umm , lets just say impressionable folks will take it as gospel that the LAWK's safety is all around crappy and that just isnt true.
Will it fail if you beat the bejeezus out of it with a 2X4 ? Probably to of course.... You give me one of those fancy 500 dollar folders and I'll make that lock fail in under a minute , guaranteed. Any lock will fail given sufficient abuse.

 

[glen200300]

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[MikeV]

Why don't you read the posts by the two people with nerve damage, or others like myself who've had a close call and a scare or two?

What caused this close call anyhow Glen?
I am just curious as to what was happening to cause people to get nerve damage from a folder? Wow!

 

[skroll5]

I have several CKRT knives,and they seem fine-do you think yours was a "lemon"?
or have I just been kinda lucky?
I would be interested in any mods to beef it up,if it is prone to failure!!

 

[Laceration]

I've noticed that the LAWKS on a lot of models look like this:
-------\
If alot of force is pushed against it, it will flatten and fail. What I do is bend it to look like:
-------] or ---------/ (the angle is exaggerated but you get my point)
that way when pressure is exerted against it, it will either hold or crush underneath itself doubling it's thickness so the liner won't disengage. I think the problem most people have when the LAWKS fail is that it looked like the first example and they never noticed it. I tested the LAWKS on my M16 by pressing down hard on it with a screwdriver and it didn't crush so maybe some lemons got through? Anyway, hope this helps.

 

[glen200300]

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[glen200300]

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[rebeltf]

Rebelt, I am sick of your passive-aggressive responses.

Mind your tongue , son.

 

[Cutshaw]

I don't have any M16 experience... yet. I have one coming today or tomorrow from the secondary market that was a supplement to "even up a trade" for a couple of much more expensive items. I'm anxious to try out this folder due to all of the positive remarks made by others regarding the flipper.

Thanks to those posting their thoughts and remarks regarding the M16; I do enjoy the informative read and conflicting opinions. I'm actually looking forward to examining this knife even though it wasn't the true intent of the trade.

Information traded on these forums makes all of us more informed consumers and users. Please try and keep everything civil; freely traded reviews is what makes BF such a good place.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

Will it fail if you beat the bejeezus out of it with a 2X4 ?

This isn't the nature of the impacts being discussed, mine bent far easier than that and I could actually fold the knife right into the handle with the LAWK's engaged, it would just bend out of the way. It was no great exertion, similar to bending a normal kitchen spoon for example, nothing serious force wise.

A thin piece of mild steel has little to no stiffness, the strength can be far less than 1/10 of hardened steel. It isn't that it can break, it is the point at which it breaks that is of issue. Note as well that CRK&T also promotes the LAWKs very heavy :

"The real breakthrough was our ability to engineer our new patented* AutoLAWKS® knife safety into both models, which automatically actuates when the blades are open, making these folders into virtual fixed blades when locked."

This is how they promote the LAWK's in general.

-Cliff

 

[Joe Talmadge]

I love when testers hold companies responsible for their own advertising.

Folks, this is a good thread, but it's getting unnecessarily heated in places. Please keep the discussion on track, and devoid of any personal insults.

I'd add in that I've found CRKT liner locks to be particularly unreliable, but don't have enough experience with the LAWKS to have an opinion.

Joe

 

[Laceration]

This isn't the nature of the impacts being discussed, mine bent far easier than that and I could actually fold the knife right into the handle with the LAWK's engaged, it would just bend out of the way. It was no great exertion, similar to bending a normal kitchen spoon for example, nothing serious force wise.

We've discussed this in the past. I really think the Point Guard you had was defective. There's no way I can do that with my M16 and I've tried. I pressed down hard on my LAWKS with a flathead screwdriver and it did not give. I've applied heavy pressure to the spine of my brothers, my friends, and my M16 and the liner did not fail, let alone the LAWKS. Maybe we just got lucky or you guys got lemons but I trust my knife and use it hard and regularly and have for the past two years. Not trying to cause any grief as I respect Cliff and enjoy reading the results of his testing, I just think he might want to pick up another knife with LAWKS and see if the same thing happens. If you don't test more than one knife then you can't really say that LAWKS is worthless, you can only say that the one knife you had with it is.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

If you don't test more than one knife ...

It is always an issue that variances can effect results, however consider the possibility of getting an unhardened liner. However I don't base the above on just using the knife but contacting them by email and returning the knife for inspection and not recieving a clear statement that the one I had was defective or any contact at all about the return. That particular knife was also individually selected for a review by CRK&T.

-Cliff

 

[Gryffin]

However I don't base the above on just using the knife but contacting them by email and returning the knife for inspection and not recieving a clear statement that the one I had was defective or any contact at all about the return. That particular knife was also individually selected for a review by CRK&T.

How does any of that change the fact that you've tested exactly one (1) LAWKS-equipped knife?

Yet anytime LAWKS is mentioned, you eagerly proclaim that it's completely and totally useless, based on that one, single, solitary sample.

Like Laceration says, you really need to test at least one other LAWKS knife, preferably several, if you intend to publicly trash the design. And in the mean time, please stop making pseudo-authoritative proclamations about an entire line of knife designs based solely on your one, crappy sample.

Let me counter your one sample with one of my own:

My beater camp knife for several years was a CRKT M16-14 "Big Dog". Without LAWKS engaged, it had a problem with spine-whacks for a while until broken in, but with LAWKS engaged, it never failed me. I even tried batonning with it, which I'm sure put a lot of stress on the LAWKS since the lock tended to slip, yet unlike your Point Guard, mine worked perfectly until the day I lost it.

So, based on my single sample, I can say with authority that the LAWKS system works just as designed, and never, ever fails. Or, I could say that, if my methodology was as sloppy as Cliff's.