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What do you suppose is the life-expectancy of the Axis-Lock mechanism?
- Thread starter Gollnick
- Start date
For a while I hung around a knife store doing a little work replacing the "weak links" in Benchmades. That meant replacing the Delrin spacers with micarta or aluminum (sometimes with filework and such) and replacing the G-10 scales with aluminum, titanium, or micarta with threaded metal inserts for the screws. Believe me, those spacers can and do break! And the G-10 strips its screw-holes, even without disassembly if it is stressed (though I believe that Benchmade has made efforts to correct this with inserts or screws that come from both sides to a central metal tube).
I'm very curious to hear how Axis-locks hold up over time. The design looks like a great idea, though I am concerned about the thin springs and their placement in a gap on each side of the blade (dirt!), but I think problems from wear are grossly exaggerated on liner-locks. I've carried a modified AFCK for 2 1/2 years, and its lock still falls dead-center on the locking face of the blade despite LOTS of opening and more gratuitous "flicking" than I like to admit. The locking pin shows some wear, but it's un-noticeable in the lockup. The only knives I worry about are cheap knockoffs and the Kershaw "Liner Action" series that lock against an aluminum spacer instead of a stainless pin; aluminum can peen a great deal and this lets the blade travel too far back, thus letting the liner ride too high on the locking face.
Just an aside, I think that companies that make screwed-together knives and then deny their customers the option of disassembling them are being both unrealistic and overly controlling. It's MY knife, and I should be able to disassemble and clean it as I wish, without violating a warranty. Let's have a big hurrah for Kershaw, who (last I checked) openly advocated "taking down" their screw-together knives, instead of using crazy pegged Torx-headed screws and threats to prevent it.
-Corduroy
I'm very curious to hear how Axis-locks hold up over time. The design looks like a great idea, though I am concerned about the thin springs and their placement in a gap on each side of the blade (dirt!), but I think problems from wear are grossly exaggerated on liner-locks. I've carried a modified AFCK for 2 1/2 years, and its lock still falls dead-center on the locking face of the blade despite LOTS of opening and more gratuitous "flicking" than I like to admit. The locking pin shows some wear, but it's un-noticeable in the lockup. The only knives I worry about are cheap knockoffs and the Kershaw "Liner Action" series that lock against an aluminum spacer instead of a stainless pin; aluminum can peen a great deal and this lets the blade travel too far back, thus letting the liner ride too high on the locking face.
Just an aside, I think that companies that make screwed-together knives and then deny their customers the option of disassembling them are being both unrealistic and overly controlling. It's MY knife, and I should be able to disassemble and clean it as I wish, without violating a warranty. Let's have a big hurrah for Kershaw, who (last I checked) openly advocated "taking down" their screw-together knives, instead of using crazy pegged Torx-headed screws and threats to prevent it.
-Corduroy