Who Makes the Best Lockback?

I concur with David Mary David Mary and knarfeng knarfeng , the Tri-Ad is the best, then Spyderco and Buck follow suit perfectly.

I will also add that, at one point in time, Browning hitched up with a Japanese OEM to make some great lockbacks in their folding hunters and edc knives.

Oddly enough, the worst lockback i ever had was a GEC #72. The locking lug was ground too sharp and the blade wedged it open the first time I opened it. I had to file down the locking luck in order to get out to close, after which the blade had massive vertical play. Out of dozens of GEC knives in my stable, this was a rare lemon, but it was a bitter lemon.
 
shinyedges said:
I have a Chinook 4, it's easy to use but... it has blade play up and down that drives me nuts. I don't like wiggle up and down. So it lives in a drawer
Click to expand...

This is what got me away from Seki made Spydercos (not saying Chinook is Seki-made, just that I had that issue on every Seki made Spydie).

ETA: Just looked it up. Country of origin: Japan. 🤨
 
My vintage Delica, and my Endura’s lock up fantastically and are excellent knives I trust. My only 2 Cold Steel folders are 4Max Scout (2 of them), and a Tuff Lite. They lock up like a tank, and I cannot imagine a more stout lock. If beefier/more stout is better- I would say CS Triad. I don’t abuse folders or treat them as harshly as I do my preferred fixed blades, but if I had to, a 4MaxScout would be my pick.
 
I have no experience with Cold Steel knives, but I have found Spyderco Seki made lockbacks to be wonderful and they have made me view lockbacks as perfectly viable for EDC even when compared to super snappy crossbar and button lock knives.

Out of over a dozen Spyderco lockbacks I haven't had blade play or lock rock in any of them. Almost all of them were smooth and easy to one hand close right out of the box. In addition, I appreciate the location of the lock closer to the front of the knife, compared to how a Buck is located in the rear, and all my Spyderco lockbacks are a joy to close one handed. In my experience, I would extend my praise to the Byrd knives that Spyderco produces in China which are variations on some of the Seki patterns. While none of my Byrds have had any QC issues, they do arrive much tighter and stiffer and need to be broken in.
 
knarfeng said:
I have a number of knives with triad locks and have never had a problem with disengaging any of them. I bend my thumb back and use the hard inner section of the joint to depress the release. That section of the thumb is hard, not fleshy. Mine fits quite easily into the depression in the back of the knife where the release bar is. Very easily depresses the release bar.

I agree that triad locks are not "fidget friendly", but then I don't think any lockback is. And I don't fidget with my knives, anyway.
Click to expand...

I totally agree. My point is that if you are used to pulling out a knife with an axis lock, flicking it open, making a cut, and snapping it closed one-handed and without using your finger as a stop, the Triad lock is going to be a bit more work. I tend to like the Axis for the office, and the Triad on the trail. Then again, I have been carrying an XL Voyager to work the last couple of weeks, so I guess a 5.5" blade sporting a lock that can hold over 800lbs works just fine for opening up company Christmas cards :D

I have noticed that both my XL Voyager and Hold Out have smoothed out in terms of the lock sticking a bit when I go to close it after I took it apart and cleaned it up well. They drop shut a lot better, for sure.
 
Out of the ones I've tried, the Lionsteel TM1 feels the most refined. They run it on ball bearings and polish the blade tang, plus the lockbar is wide enough that it's very comfortable to disengage. Add in that it's an integral with 3d handle texturing.

I also have a Bestech Tonic, which has an interesting design where the lockbar has a detent ball that catches on the blade tang, so you can more easily build up pressure to shoot the blade out (with a little takeup at the beginning of the blade's outwards motion).

Cold Steel deserves a spot due to the strength of their lock, but most of them don't feel too refined. The AD-10 is an exception, though, that knife has it all. The aluminum Espadas feel very nice, too, but they really nailed everything on the AD-10.

I'm guessing you're referring to modern knives, since there are a lot of traditional lockbacks out there. The best I've tried in that category are the Case Bose annuals.
 
I always thought that the old school lockup on the traditional "Italian Stilletto" had potential. Who does that sort of lockup on a more modern folder?
 
Any of the TriAds I've bought in the last couple years, which has been several, have been drop shut - glass smooth. I didn't even think such a thing was possible on some of these models I'd owned before, but they're really ironing out some stuff at that Taiwan shop. The newer production folders have been dynamite in terms of QC. Even the humble Voyager, just press the lock with your thumb and it glides down. Even the pressure needed to disengage the lock has come down. Maybe that's an effect of overall better tolerances though. Locks seem strong as ever.
 
jyQWelh.jpg


YpuyDLM.jpg
 
norcalAF said:
Cold steel is the king, Spydercos and bucks are both great though
Click to expand...
Cold Steel Voyager is my only knife to close during use when accidentally struck on the spine. There was no dirt in the mechanism. It was a regular old school mid lock. Spyderco’s stated tolerances for lock back wiggle are unacceptable to me but I’ve never received a lockback from them that wasn’t solid.
 
Last edited:
I'm not a Cold Steel fanboi, but then there was something seriously wrong with your knife. Most Voyager destruction failures I see have the blade snapping off at the handle or breaking at the pivot. Even that ding dong Joe X usually ends up with a loosey goosey triad lock that still locks up after he gets done breaking everything else. The way those triads wear in, they tend to actually get a bit stronger as you use them (to a point).

After taking a couple apart, love or hate CS or Demko's designs, it's a brilliant lock in terms of strength and shock resistance. I'm very much on the side of a lock being considered an insurance policy and that spine whack tests are generally dumb, but unless something is broken on a triad lock, I just don't see how they could fail.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top