What is the best kind of lock on a folding knife?

It all depends on your personal preference and what you use your folding knives for. I personally either am cutting something light, or I am not so I like small to medium slip joints and lock backs. I use a fixed blade when I'm not cutting something light.
 
I prefer liner and frame locks for ease of use.
Personal preference for the user.
 
Personal preference. I like frame/sub/liner locks because they can be manipulated with one hand easily. Not a big fan of axis locks because of how many times I've replaced the springs on mine.
Don't worry yourself with lock strength. Its fine as long as the blade wont close on me with quite a bit of thumb pressure. Carry a fixed blade if you're truly worried about this.
 
I like liner locks like said above its all personal preference like what will you be using it for what kind of knife its in what brand makes it etc.
 
If it locks the blade in place and gives me a warm fuzzy feeling, I don't have a preference as to what type of lock it is even though I own more frame locks than any other type of knife lock.
 
The best lock is the lock you can manipulate the most naturally.

For me, that's button locks and frame/liner locks. I'm not big on lockbacks, axis/arc locks, top locks, or much else to be honest. The only lockbacks I'm generally a fan of are Cold Steel's, as most other lockbacks that I've encountered develop play. You won't see me with another Endura Wave, is all I'm saying. I'll grab a Talwar or a Ti-Lite first, given how rattly that Endura became after just a couple months.
 
I personally don't care for frame or liner locks.

I have been using Benchmades with the Axis lock for some time now and am used to them.

A plain ol lock back is fine with me in most cases.
 
Axis style for me for non-autos. Not a huge fan of liner locks overall, but I appreciate higher quality ones may have proven themselves. I like lock backs too, as long as they don't interfere. My medium CS Voyager (older aus8) seemed strong, but it certainly isn't fluid to deploy.
 
#1 Bali-Song locks are amazing.

#2 Axis Lock

#3 well I have not found a 3rd place I like.
 
I like frame and linerlocks mostly. I don't like lockbacks because I always feel I might hit the lock release during use and just aren't as simple to use one-handed. The exception is my Buck 110 for some reason, but I still use two hands for safety.

Button locks don't seem as secure to me. Triad and Axis are good locks but harder to use with gloves in my case. They can be a bit stiff too.

I'm very impressed with Cold Steel's patent-pending leaf spring linerlock on their Ti-Lite models...I feel it adds a new strength aspect to a linerlock and hope to see more of this type linerlock in the future on other knives. The 90-degree vertical bend and contact along the entire blade width has to make it stronger than the traditional linerlock design IMO.​

Bottom line is most locks on the better knives are probably fine...a lot of it for me is probably mental.
 
Personally I like frame and and liner.

When I was a Kid I had a really bad experience with a lock back. I had my Dad's old Buck style lock back, while I was camping. I accidentally hit or tapped release, and the razor sharp blade flopped down catching my fingers really bad. Also over the years the lock had worn out, and a good tap would allow the blade to snap closed.
 
Best as in "won't close on your fingers" ? Balisong.

Best as in "easiest to close when you're done cutting stuff" ? No lock at all.
 
If you are worried about safety or strength in terms of staying closed, then it's a frame lock....

The pressure that keeps the lock face on the tang comes not only from the lock bar, but your hands apply pressure when you use the knife.

The harder you cut, the harder you squeeze....
 
Frame lock is my prior choice. Because it is easy with one hand and keep the knife thinner.
Lock back is my 2nd choice. I always feel it is more secure than frame lock but it can make a knife bulkier and heavy.
Axis lock is strong but i am not too crazy about how Axis lock open. Def a personal habit choice.
Liner lock is a turn off for me most of the time when I select my knife. I only have liner lock knives before I get serious into knives. Liner lock made me feel not as strong as top 3 types of lock system but to be honest, none of my liner lock fail on me.
 
The triad lock is one of the strongest locks available. I have smashed the spine of my XL voyager as hard as I could against a 2x4 repeatedly and I could not get that thing to develop even the slightest bit of play.

I prefer the axis lock in general though, it's incredible fast to open and close.
 
Frame and liner lock for me, just because of ease of use. Para 2 compression lock is a good second.
 
the backlock is my favorite type of lock. i love hearing that clicking sound of the blade locking into place, they also seem like they are more reliable than a liner lock. spyderco knives with the backlock are my favorites.
 
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