Your opinions on the compression lock.

I really love the design of the compression lock, but having never used one I feel like it could never be my EDC knife. The lock is so...weird. I admire its ingenuity and simplicity but I'm too used to frame or axis locks as my EDC.
 
shangchi108 said:
Not sure how you would qualify that. How will you know that anyone else on any other forum will be more or less objective?

I'm a diehard Spyderco fan, but I can't stand liner locks. I don't care who makes them or how well made. I don't like them, and therefor I don't like knives with liner locks even from my favorite knife company.

That said, I like the compression lock and feel that it is the most secure lock that Spyderco has produced and certainly one of the strongest locks in the world.

For what it's worth.
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Thanks for your input. To a lesser extent, I feel the same way about backlocks. I've just learned not to like them that much over the years.

I didn't mean to condemn all people viewing the Spyderco forum as diehards or unable to be objective, I just posted in the General Discussion forum hoping the most varied group of people would see it and share their opinions. Since people viewing manufacturer specific threads tend to be fans of that manufacturer, I wanted to cast a wider net by posting in General Discussion.

It is also worth noting that I did not know the compression lock was exclusively Spyderco's (correct me if I'm wrong, of course), so when originally posting, I thought I might get some opinions on compression locks on other knives. Knowing what I know now, I may have just posted in the Spyderco forum after all, since they are the only company that uses the lock.

I know it's not a perfect science, I was just posing the question in a way that I thought would be the best way to get responses, positive or negative, from all over the map. That's all.
 
yablanowitz said:
Inertial openings, i.e. snapping your wrist to flip the blade out rather than thumbing it open with the hole or stud is what I was talking about. The method you describe for your Grip would also qualify. You are essentially pounding on an anvil (the stop pin) with a hammer (the blade) every time you do that. Eventually, it will peen the surfaces down. The Axis has quite a bit of travel to take up the slack being created, but it will eventually run out of travel, leaving you with vertical play. It may not happen in your lifetime, but it is certainly possible.

As far as lockbacks go, the spring pushes the lockbar toward the pivot pin of the blade, taking all the clearance out of the pivot when at rest. When pressure is applied to the edge of the blade, such as when cutting, the blade is pushed in the opposite direction against the spring, and the clearance between the blade and pivot pin is moved to the opposite side. The smaller the clearance between blade and pivot, the less vertical movement will be felt. When the clearance between the pin and the blade is reduced to zero, so is the movement, including the rotation of the blade around the pin. At that point it's called friction fit. There may only be one one hundred-thousandth of an inch of clearance on a high end, hand-fitted custom, but there has to be some for the knife to fold. On a production knife, I would guess around five ten-thousandths of an inch to be about the minimum practical clearance. The length of the blade multiplies that greatly, so a relatively small clearance at the pivot can be felt at the blade tip.
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Wow! Thanks for the clarification, that makes much more sense now. (Of course, I had to read the second paragraph two or three times, but that's besides the point)

Appreciate it!
 
dip_n_ride said:
No, I think I understand what you're saying. The lock was functional, you just didn't happen to like how it functioned. That makes sense. Did you just not like how it felt in your hand when you gripped it? I know that on certain liner locks, you can disengage the lock when gripping the handle in the right (wrong) way. Is that the case with the compression lock as well?
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You understaood me perfectly!! That is correct that I did not care how it feels in the hand. The compression lock does not come uudone unless you want it to.
 
T.K.C. said:
You understaood me perfectly!! That is correct that I did not care how it feels in the hand. The compression lock does not come uudone unless you want it to.
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Perfect, exactly the kind of feedback I'm looking for. Thanks!
 
dip_n_ride said:
Wow! Thanks for the clarification, that makes much more sense now. (Of course, I had to read the second paragraph two or three times, but that's besides the point)

Appreciate it!
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I wasn't sure how clear that would come out to most folks. My father is a mechanical engineer, and I have been fabricating odd parts for special purposes pretty much my whole life, as well as working on machinery. I'm better at figuring out how to make something work than I am at explaining how I did it.:o
 
SkinnyJoe said:
Why?






At least 5 characters
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The common liner lock places the end of a long, thin strip of metal against the bottom of the blade tang to hold it in place. The compression lock wedges a piece of metal between the blade tang and the stop pin. Think of a door in your house. The liner lock is like putting your finger against the edge of the door next to the hinge to hold it open, the compression lock is like sticking a brick between the door and the jam to hold it.
 
SkinnyJoe said:
Why?






At least 5 characters
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Reliability: Harder to get the lock to fail by using the knife in various grips and applying pressure to different areas of the handle. When carving wood and twist prying the strips off it's possible to disengage certain liners locks for example. Other situations can cause the same thing. I've never had this issue with compression locks.

I've also had a few liners locks fail the spine whack test ( Only lock type I've had do that), two fold when applying pressure to the spine with my palm. That said, I've had never had a Spyderco liner lock fail either of these two tests, though I have had the first problem noted with a 440V Military.

Strength: Look at how the pressure is applied to the lock bar in each design. It would take much more force to break the compression lock than a liner lock.
 
Love the compression lock, but I've read some posts about it wearing towards the opposite side of the tang faster than the average liner lock. I personally didn't experience this and this lock is one of my all time favorites.
 
I know you said you wanted opinions from users and not Spyderco, but I think it's worth noting that Spyderco's president has posted that when they do destructive testing that a frame lock will fail long before a compression lock will.
 
elkins45 said:
I know you said you wanted opinions from users and not Spyderco, but I think it's worth noting that Spyderco's president has posted that when they do destructive testing that a frame lock will fail long before a compression lock will.
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It absolutely is worth noting. Thanks for letting me know! That's actually pretty impressive.
 
It's tied with the Axis for favorite lock, it just flat works and the Para Military is tied with my 615 for favorite hard use folder. Get the PM, you'll really like it!
 
I really like the compression lock on my Para. I find it very easy to use, and I like it better than my axis locks.
 
I've beat on my Para for quite a while now and it has held up exceptionally well. It has seen work duty, camping duty, EDC duty and has done everything that I have asked it to. I'll give you some of my Pros and Cons that I have come up with after using the knife for a while.

Pros-
- Great handle design. Big enough to be hand filling but flat enough to not feel bulky in the pocket.

- Flat ground blade is a great cutter.

- Premium blade steel with either CPMS30V or CPMD2 option.

- Open design is extremely easy to clean.

- Compression lock can easily be opened and closed with one hand.

- "Grippy" G10 slabs that stay grippy even while wet.


Cons-
- Alot of the knife sticks out of the pocket when clipped. (Not a negative for some as it makes it easy to get into use.)

- Blade tang sticks out pretty far from the handle when closed. (Kind of a pet peeve of mine.)

- Tip down carry only. While I don't always consider this a negative on this knife I do. Having a lanyard hole on a knife where the lanyard will be buried in the bottom of my pocket is not how I like my knives to be carried.


I will say overall the Para is one of my favorite knives along with my Benchmade 520 and CRK Small Reg Sebenza. There are others I like too but these three are the ones I always seem to be carrying.

Here is a couple of pics I already had uploaded. Nothing like some SpyderPorn. On the last pic you can see the gouges on the spine from striking on a firesteel.

para_1024_c.jpg


para_1024_a.jpg
 
gmarthur said:
Cons-
- Alot of the knife sticks out of the pocket when clipped. (Not a negative for some as it makes it easy to get into use.)

- Blade tang sticks out pretty far from the handle when closed. (Kind of a pet peeve of mine.)

- Tip down carry only. While I don't always consider this a negative on this knife I do. Having a lanyard hole on a knife where the lanyard will be buried in the bottom of my pocket is not how I like my knives to be carried.
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Send it off to STR and for a few bucks get a tip down, deep carry titanium clip. You can't go wrong.
Paratipup.jpg
 
I only have one Spyderco with the compression lock and that is an old Salsa. I can't say that it has a tremendous amount of pocket time but it has been a very solid and reliable lock. It took a little bit of time for mew to get use to the release on the Compression lock but after about five minutes of playing around with it I got it sorted out.

I wouldn't hesitate to get another Spyderco with the compression lock.
 
Probably the most effective lock from the standpoint of simplicity, ease of use, and particularly reliability. I love the concept. I don't love that my Paramilitary came with blade play that has gotten worse and worse, and the liner wore quickly. One of these days I'll send it back to Spyderco.
 
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