Why does Michael Walker get credit for liner lock?

19-3ben

19-3ben

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Jul 27, 2015
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I was fiddling with one of my old slipjoints (electrician's pattern) and as I was disengaging the locking tab for the screw driver, a thought crossed my mind.

Why in the world does Michael Walker get so much credit for inventing the liner lock when a spring tab that pops over to wedge itself behind the tang of a a folding knife is something that dates back decades prior to him "inventing" it?

It seems like he was the first to put it into a modern styled folder, so props to him for that... but inventing? Seems like a strong word. I'd say it was more like a small evolutionary step, or a tweak of something that already existed and was well established.

Mind you I don't know everything about it, so it's possible there's stuff he did that I just plain don't know about. It's why I'm asking here. Edjumakate me. Does he really deserve to be considered the father of the liner lock? Or was he merely a guy who applied existing techniques and knowledge at just the right moment in time, as the world was moving toward modern and tactical folders?
 
Walker added a detent so that the leaf spring didn't have to serve the dual purpose of lock and holding the blade closed. He also made the mechanism significantly stronger.

That said, by all accounts he doesn't feel that he invented it, so much as refined it which is why he didn't seek a patent.

Basically, he didn't come up with the concept, but if you encounter a liner lock on a modern knife it's almost certain to be the Michael Walker design. Given that, I think it's pretty fair to refer to as the father of the liner lock and credit him with the invention of the modern version thereof.
 
I believe he refined it by adding the well known ball detent system. Yes, surely he didn't invent the concept, but the linerlock that we see in many modern folders today are due to his own pioneering of the original concept.

The "linerlock" on old slipjoints aren't nearly refined as what is available today.

Edit: beat me to it IM:D
 
Ahhhhh.... ok. That makes a lot of sense. Credit to him for his part. thanks for explaining.
 
Henry Ford didn't "invent" the assembly line from scratch, either. Everything has antecedents.
 
same question why does chris reeves get credit for something walker did long before but just didnt patent it?
 
Not sure if refinement keeps you from a patent. AG Russell added an opening stud on Pat Crawford's frame lock and got the patent as his based upon the "refinement" but he also got to the patent office first. It takes money to patent.

The Reeve lock is just a liner lock w/o a scale, not different enough to patent.
 
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"modern" liner lock. The ones from before he was born were apparently not "modern," for different values of "modern." (e.g., Navy Lifeboat knife and Cub Scout utility knife - both from before Walker was born)
 
brownshoe said:
Not sure if refinement keeps you from a patent. AG Russell added an opening stud on Pat Crawford's frame lock and got the patent as his based upon the "refinement" but he also got to the patent office first. It takes money to patent.

The Reeve lock is just a liner lock w/o a scale, not different enough to patent.
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It doesn't, demonstrable improvement on a patented design can get a new patent. However, neither of those knife designers applied for one.

As for the framelock, it almost unquestionably could have been patented due to the fact that the Walker Linerlock wasn't.
 
Thomas Linton said:
"modern" liner lock. The ones from before he was born were apparently not "modern," for different values of "modern." (e.g., Navy Lifeboat knife and Cub Scout utility knife - both from before Walker was born)
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Bernard Levine is of the opinion that the "Walker Liner Lock" is different and that it was an innovation. His opinion is what we go by in the Traditional Forum when we differentiate between "classic" liner lock as being traditional and open to discussion and the "Walker" liner lock as being modern and outside the realm of Traditional.

Michael Walker made the first modern Linerlock in 1980,
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http://www.knife-expert.com/liners.txt
 
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