What happened to the Timberline Vallotton Discovery?

[chrisbrogden]

IIRC, Timberline has been using liner locks in their recent Discoveries. Way back when, they used an integral lock that looked a lot like Benchmade's Axis lock. I owned one of those before. The F&F wasn't the greatest, and the tip broke off pretty easily, but I never once made that lock fail, even under a lot of pressure. Why did they stop making that lock? Is the Axis lock the closest lock today in terms of reliability?

Chris

 

[Mikjk]

i think it was more of a financial factor since Kershaw was threatening to sue due to supposed patent infringment on the assisted opening mechanism.

anyone more knowledgeable than me know more?