What lock will WEAR fastest of these:

[pinhead]

I agree with what the others have said about the quality of materials and design will be the biggest factors in what wears quickly. A poor quality lockback will probably wear out faster than a good quality linerlock and so forth. I have seen some quality linerlocks with liners about as thick as a lot of framelocks and I really like that. On the other hand I have seen really thin linerlocks that looked flimsy and that my experience with them was they wore out really fast too, probably because every time the blade was engaged/disengaged it took another little bit of the metal off the precious too-little-to-begin-with liner off. Quality of material and design is king. All other things being equal I personally prefer a framelock because it seems to me, and this is with no particular scientific evidence to back this up, they should just about last forever when done right to begin with. A stout linerlock is going to be as good or almost as good as a framelock assuming the parts are well matched in terms of both hardness of metal and mating the pieces.

 

[yablanowitz]

Hi fellow forum members and users.

What lock will WEAR fastest of these:

1- liner lock
2- Lock back
3- Frame lock
4- Axis lock

I am not asking which lock is stronger. I am talking about wear.
Thanks.

The one you use the most.

There are way too many variables at work to answer the question any other way. A good liner lock will take longer to wear out than a poor framelock. A well made, properly maintained and used lockback can last longer than a dirty, inertia opened and frequently spinewhacked Axis lock. Initial build quality, maintenance and use have more to do with the lifespan of the lock than the type of lock does.

 

[Cynic2701]

I've had a liner lock basically become useless - though probably because I put too much pressure against it and bent it. Truthfully, it was a rather cheap POS knife, and I was trying to see what would make it fail.

I had an Omega spring from a BM 943 fail; but I replaced it with a guitar string and it's right back to normal. However, part of the innovation of the Axis lock is that for the contact surfaces of the Axis bar to the tang of the blade to wear each other out is virtually impossible: you'd have to open and close that lock so many times that I think it would be unlikely for the lock interfaces to fail within several lifetimes. A chain being only as strong as its weakest link, the most likely pieces to fail are the Omega springs.

I do have, however, a BM 710 that has 4 year old Omega springs and it still has basically the same tension as the day I got it - and with no springs breaking.

 

[Haakon]

I think the fastest to wear out is going to be the $2 lock back in a bucket at the checkout counter at the hardware store. That's about the only kind I've personally seen wear out. I have 20+ year old lockbacks from SOG and Schrade that are as tight as when I got them, 10+ year old Spyderco liner lock that still works great (little bit of blade play), I've only had Axis lock knifes for less than a year - so far they haven't worn out.

I think it's going to be how cheaply and poorly made the knife is that determines how fast it wears out more than the lock type.

 

[3Guardsmen]

A .050 thick, Titanium liner lock will wear much faster than a hardened, stainless steel liner lock of the same size.

In theory, the Axis lock (not counting spring breakage), will last the longest/wear the slowest of the lock types mentioned.