What is the purpose of a spine whack test?

MORIMOTOM said:
i watched the video, and i dont know what you want us to be checking out. the lock was apparantly fixed.

no way to tell if the pivot is loose, if the noise is the stop pin, etc. i cant even tell which way he is wobbling the blade (vertical v. horizontal).
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My point in posting the link is to highlight the psychological impact a loose/unreliable linerlock will have on the user. I have read on BF and elsewhere about those who don't trust their Emerson's for reasons similar to the ones given in that video. That alone wouldn't dissuade me from buying one of their knives, but just like some Buck Striders with skinny liner locks, I'm not going to sink some serious cash (read that as $100 or more) in a knife with a linerlock I'm unsure about. I have a few knives with liner locks that are fine, but they are cheaper and I'd not trust them in a real self defense situation. For what it's worth, my simple CS Mini-Lawman with the Tri-ad lock is so good, I'd not hesitate for an instant to trust it, spine whacks or not. While the fellow in that vid didn't spine whack that knife, he didn't need to...

After seeing that video and the other one he did before sending it back to have it repaired, before I buy my first Emerson, you can be sure I'll check out the lock it employs. Actually, that would be the case for any knife that sells for over $100.
 
MORIMOTOM said:
i watched the video, and i dont know what you want us to be checking out. the lock was apparantly fixed.

no way to tell if the pivot is loose, if the noise is the stop pin, etc. i cant even tell which way he is wobbling the blade (vertical v. horizontal).
Click to expand...

It's up and down play, I have a big monitor (32") so I can see it really good. :)

That's weird for a knife that came back from being fixed.
 
I wonder what the verdict on that liner is? We may have to find a liner lock for Ankerson to test...
 
I'd love to see the highly vaunted Spyderco Military tested, including angle batoning like the CS AL. I complained a long time ago that it sure looked thin and got tarred & feathered (almost).

I had the Military G-10 linerlock plain edge. A nice knife but "Military" seemed as stretch for ruggedness. I'm sure it was fine but I sold it. :)
 
I can guarantee the tip would snap on the first pry . The knife is solid otherwise, I own a few and am very happy with them overall.
 
Absolutely USELESS I tell ya! Not really a good test.

Well, I once asked my friend to hold my knife and stand perfectly still while I hit his back (its where his SPINE is right?) with a baseball bat. 2 hits was all he could stand.

He didn't speak to me much after that. . .
 
untamed said:
Absolutely USELESS I tell ya! Not really a good test.

Well, I once asked my friend to hold my knife and stand perfectly still while I hit his back (its where his SPINE is right?) with a baseball bat. 2 hits was all he could stand.

He didn't speak to me much after that. . .
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Seems to have worked, if you're purpose was to make him stop talking to you. :D
 
I wonder. To folks who take umbrage at the very idea of a spine whack test: if your favorite lockblade model was demonstrated to consistently fail a moderate spine whack test, how would you react? Would you reevaluate your favorites? Or would you plug your ears, close your eyes, and shout "LA, LA, LA... can't hear you..."? I always get the sense that some folks really don't want to know this kind of information. Just look at how people reacted to Noss and his tests, even though he clearly intended to destroy knives, not show practical use limits.

It's strange to me that one common theme around here is to have a knife that "you can trust with your life". Except, apparently, if you have to whack the spine somehow. It's as if we want the utmost durability in a knife, so that we can never actually put it to the test. Maybe we're so invested in the salesmanship claims and company admiration that we're really scared to see how these things perform under pressure. It is kind of a blow to one's credibility to go to bat for brand x, and then see brand x fail. The deeper one is invested in brand x, the more likely to attack the test and/or tester.

I don't find spine whack tests to be completely without value. I have a reasonable threshold for knife failure. And my test provides a reasonable data point. It tells me if a lock can reasonably function as a lock. You know, the thing it's supposed to be. It's useful because I don't expect a lock to turn a folder into a fixed blade. Nor do I expect a lock to behave like a slipjoint. Which is exactly the kind of failure my reasonable spine whack has revealed in the past.
 
Ankerson said:
The purpose is to make sure the lock is in spec and won't fail on you when you use the knife.

Yes it is that simple. :)
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I'm in this camp. I lightly spine wacked a $100+ knife with a linerlock - not nearly as hard as Ankerson's tests and the lock failed. This was over a year or more ago and the knife performs well but I'm always a bit leery of it. Silly - probably - but always in the back of my mind.
 
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