What lock for a life time? framelock or lockback?

Get a Sebbie or Strider. Once you finished paying for it your lifetime knife buying budget will be completely depleted so it had better last you a lifetime.
 
allenC said:
So you "baby" your Sebenza!
I've flicked many lock-backs for many years with no ill effects whatsoever, including the Endura 3.
So basically, you are admitting that if you "flicked" the Sebenza it would not hold up as well as an FRN Endura.

I own several assisted-openers and a few autos as well (switchblades), and I can tell you with 100% certainty that they are no stronger than an non-assisted-opening or non-auto folder in regards to the pivot and stop-pin.

If you disassemble an auto, an assisted-opener, and your average "tactical" one-hander you will discover that there are no real differences in pivot or stop-pin strength.
Any average modern one-hander should be able to withstand "flicking" without any problems.

But basically you "baby" your Sebenza and you don't put any undue stress on it. With that kind of treatment even an Opinel will last several lifetimes.
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Not really. I don't baby my Sebenza or any of my other knives (including my Strider SNG, Crawford Kasper, JW Smith Framelock and innumerable production knives, many of which are lockbacks, a few which are semi-auto and one automatic) I just use them as they were intended.

I've disassembled many knives and by visual inspection, you cannot tell if a pivot or stop-pin is strengthened as that is mostly done by metal selection and heat treatment. The designers of the knife, however, certainly know (or should know) what is necessary for long life in their designs.

Flicking a knife that isn't designed for it is like: revving your engine to redline constantly, dropping a 1911 slide on an empty chamber, dry firing a rimfire without a snap-cap, throwing kitchen knives at tree stumps....etc. You might not damage or destroy the item right away, but you will eventually, so why risk it?

I depend on my knife everyday, and along with my 1911 and P7M8, I expect it might save my life one day. Therefore I use them just for cutting things, I observe scrupulous maintenance and cleaning methods, and I don't subject them to undue stress. If I need the half second advantage flicking offers over normal thumb opening, I'll grab my OTF Microtech HALO instead!
 
Flicking a knife open is just plain fun. Be a grumpy old man and say it is useless if you want. There are lots of things that we have that we don't need. Titanium framelocks with S30V blades are probably in that catagory of things for most of us. Do I need a knife like that for my daily knife chores? Doubtful, I think pretty much any knife could handle the abuses of opening letters and cutting tags of things that my knives usually go through.

That being said, I don't think its a big stretch to say that consistantly opening a knife with an inertail wrist flick will probably damage almost any knife over time. That type of flick puts way more stress on the parts than any AO or auto mechanism.

The same is not true of flicking it open with your thumb though. As in not moving the knife, just snapping it open with the thumbstud (or disk or hole). This is how I open most of the knives I have about 95% of the time. Any well made knife should be able to handle this, and if it can't, its crap. Plain and simple. If this type of opening voids the warrenty on a knife, then that knife is not worth spending your hard earned money on. Not to me anyway.

I'd have to look into it closer, but if flicking it open with you thumb voids the warrenty on a Sebenza, then the Sebenza is off my list of knives to purchace.
 
I don't flick my Sebenza because I like to appreciate the ultra-smooth action that no other knife I own offers.
 
I couldn't flick my Sebenza if my life depended on it. The ball detent is so darned strong, that it just won't flick. Add in the lack of traction provided by the titanium scales, and the funky shaped thumb stud, and you definitely have a knife that was not intended for flicking. Chris made my Sebenza "99% Flick Resistant".

I will also add that the ball detent refuses to break in. After many years of ownership, the detent strength has not changed one bit.

Not that this bothers me at all. I'm not much of a flicker. I pretty much view flicking as just another reason to accidentally cut myself.
 
Django606 said:
I don't flick my Sebenza because I like to appreciate the ultra-smooth action that no other knife I own offers.
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Buck Mayo TNT is just as smooth and half the price. I was just playing with my friends Sebenza and my TNT on Wednesday and both of us agreed that the TNT was probably somother actually.

The sebenza is without a doubt a more stout knife, bot handle and blade. As far as smoothness though, the two were on par with each other.

I think most of the axis locks from BM are about the same if not smoother as well.

The Sebenzas that I have looked at are very smooth indeed, but its far from a unique phenomenon in the world of high end production folders.
 
I said no other knife that I own rivals the smoothness of my Sebenza.

I can easily flick my Sebenza if I wanted to, but like I said, I like to appreciate the smoothness and extremely tight tolerances.
 
Buzzbait said:
I couldn't flick my Sebenza if my life depended on it. The ball detent is so darned strong, that it just won't flick. Add in the lack of traction provided by the titanium scales, and the funky shaped thumb stud, and you definitely have a knife that was not intended for flicking. Chris made my Sebenza "99% Flick Resistant".

I will also add that the ball detent refuses to break in. After many years of ownership, the detent strength has not changed one bit.

Not that this bothers me at all. I'm not much of a flicker. I pretty much view flicking as just another reason to accidentally cut myself.
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Your talking about the inertail wrist flicking though. A sebenza can easily be flicked out using the thumb stud.
 
Since he brings up the thumbstud and traction of the titanium, I am assuming he is referring to thumb stud flicking.
 
ginshun said:
Your talking about the inertail wrist flicking though. A sebenza can easily be flicked out using the thumb stud.
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Mine cannot. The ball detent as EXTREMELY strong on my particular Sebenza.
 
Buzzbait said:
Mine cannot. The ball detent as EXTREMELY strong on my particular Sebenza.
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If you say so. The strength of the detend shouldn't matter though, as once it is past the detent and opened a little bit the blade should be smooth enough that it will swing without that much resistance.

I bet I could flick it open, and if not I'd adjust the pivot so that I could. If it is that tight all the way through its swing, well, I guess I don't know what, thats not how I like a knife to be, and that is not the way any Sebenza that I have ever seen is.
 
Well, if anyone wants to try it, I find that hoilding the knife pivot down and wrist flicking into reverse grip overcomes any level of tension. It's the most forceful way to open a knife that I've done so far. If you want a frame/liner to shift over as quickly as possible, do a couple of those. I've practiced it a little just to see if it is a viable way to draw a folder into icepick. It's very doable, but the hand position for the draw is a little funky. I do it to my axis locks just for fun. I also use my ring finger to flick open into reverse grip.

then I just pick up one of my balisongs, since I'm getting silly anyway.
 
It is that tight, the entire time that the ball touches the blade. Not just when the ball is in the detent. Once the ball ceases to touch the blade, the knife swings open very easily.
 
FWIW, once my small Sebenza was broken in, I was able to flick it open using the thumb stud, although I've done it only a few times. I think the detent on mine would also be too strong to allow an inertial opening, but I'll give it a try over the weekend.

Also, after almost 2 years of steady use, the lockbar still covers 50% of the tang, just as it did when it was new.
 
ginshun said:
I bet I could flick it open, and if not I'd adjust the pivot so that I could.
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The tension doesn't change when you adjust the pivot on a Sebenza. You can tighten the screw all the way. It's because of the bushing in the pivot.
 
For what its worth, none of the Sebenzas I've ever seen, and none of the three I had were able to be flicked open with the thumb either. I always assumed it was because either my thumb wasn't a good shape for that kind of thing, or that the bushing kept it from being possible (which is the explanation I've seen time and again). I would say this is one reason you're cautioned against flicking open the knife, because its not designed to be flicked open with the thumb and thus you'd need to add some wrist action.
 
I can easily flick open my Sebenza with my thumb. Very little wrist action. The bushing has nothing to do with flickability, and, if anything, it would only make it easier and smoother.
 
Buzzbait said:
It is that tight, the entire time that the ball touches the blade. Not just when the ball is in the detent. Once the ball ceases to touch the blade, the knife swings open very easily.
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Buzz,
Have you noticed any wear, on the ball-detent or the blade?
 
allenC said:
Buzz,
Have you noticed any wear, on the ball-detent or the blade?
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None whatsoever. When I first purchased it, I even cycled the knife 2000 times, in a vain attempt to break in the ball detent. Since then, the knife has probably been cycled a couple thousand more times.

At one point, I decided to really jam the lock bar into the open position, to see if the frame lock would deform badly. I spent the night opening the knife as hard as possible, and then white knuckling the knife in my hand. The lock bar got stuck many times, traveling almost fully across the blade, to the point where it was very hard to release. After the first hour, there was noticeable movement in the natural seating position of the lock bar, in relation to the blade. But after the first hour, the natural seating position halted its movement, and hasn't moved since.

The Sebenza is definitely designed and manufactured for the long haul. There are some things that I don't love about the Sebenza, but long-term durability is definitely not an issue to me.
 
Buzz,
Did you try disassembling and reassembling your sebenza after it had moved? It may be that all the parts were seated at their furthest point (which is why CRK advises flicking the knife after reassembly to seat the parts). If the lockbar goes back to where it was before the "workout" you gave the knife, then no real amount of wear took place.
 
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