[HiWayMan]

What does everyone feel is the strongest lock type on a personal defense knife? I prefer the traditional lockback as the full blade width is bearing on the lock bar. Liner locks seem somewhat lacking in this regard. In the traditional jack knife category I much prefer the Whittler design where the primary blade (prefer Wharncliffe) bears on both springs of the smaller blades.

 

[Rob72]

Fixed. :biggrin:

Well, for folders, it honestly depends as much on the maker, as the design. I don't frequently find myself hanging from cliff faces, suspended by my wedged-in-a-crack blades, so most decent, middle/upper-end liner locks are fine for me. I'm not a big fan of frame locks(production), as most tend to be disengaged by my grip, with moderate twisting. I have not tried the Sebenza's, tough. My EDC's are: Kershaw Leek or Boa; MT Terzola, BM TSEK, and a couple of www.hideawayknife.com offerings.

 

[P95Carry]

I am not a knife afficionado but my main carry Knife is a Buck mayo TNT - and that has what I imagine you'd label the ''liner lock''. The lock on this is a very powerful spring steel and certainly needs very positive action to move it enough to disengage.

Once open - the spring bar is well across blade base and also is machined to such a fine tolerance that there is no backlash at all. I have confidence in it.

 

[duckhunter]

Check out CRKT (Colombia River Knife and Tool). I carry one of their M16-13Z folders at work and I really like it. It has a lever that pins the liner lock in place when you need the blade to be more secure. IMO you would probably break the blade before you defeated the locking mechanism.

Off of their site - they call it the "LAWKS."

"All models feature the patented* Lake And Walker Knife Safety (LAWKS®), which effectively turns the folders into fixed blades when actuated."

http://www.crkt.com/m16mil.html

 

[Tangle]

Benchmade axis lock.

 

[maclean3]

I prefer framelocks and carry an older Benchmade 750SBT Pinnacle as my edc. Benchmade's axis lock comes in a close second, preferrably the Mel Pardue designs.
Jack

 

[rocky]

I feel confident with my liner locks. If you are using the knife correctly I don't see how it can fold on ya.

 

[maclean3]

Rocky: With a quality knife I'm sure the liner locks are plenty strong enough to withstand normal use. When I was much younger I had a cheap Wally World Special linerlock fail on me and it sliced my first three fingers pretty badly. Ever since then I've gotten sort of paranoid about using them.

I'm sure Benchmade, Emerson, Strider, etc. make rock solid linerlocks but luckily there are plenty of lock back, Axis, framelocks and even autos to choose from that I'm safe inside my phobia and don't have to expose myself to any further trauma. :biggrin:
Jack

 

[raevan]

if I carry a knife for personal defence it is a fixed blade. folding knives are good for everything else. actually the best knife for personal defence is the one you have with you. In this day and age any quality folding knife will have a good enough lock for most purposes. I f you want a folding knife you can hank from go with Cold Steel.

 

[Betty]

I don't use my knives for much other than light duty cutting, so my liner locks are good enough.

I am impressed with the lockback on the Cold Steel Voyager, which is strong as a tank. I admit I don't think I'll be dangling off cliff faces with it. :biggrin:

One of the worst liner locks goes to a Camillus CUDA - it was thin and flimsy, and it would disengage when tapped point-down. I couldn't trust the thing, and the knife (a gift to me) stayed in its box.

 

[scbair]

"Normal" folders:
Good framelock (Cuda Maxx, Benchmade Skirmish) or
"Axis"-type (Benchmade Axis Lock or SOG Arc Lock).

I've never tested one to failure, and I'm no engineer. I suspect you would shear the pivot bolt or snap the blade before either would fail.

That said . . .

BALISONG! I believe a substantial balisong (Benchmade 42, for instance) is just about foolproof and failproof. If only it were legal to carry . . .

 

[shannon]

The strongest locks are button locks, and frame locks. Frame locks are simular to liner locks but the diff. is that a fram lock is thicker and has more material in contact with the actual blade. Button locks are mostly found on auto knives like the Microtech UDT, although some manual knives have used button locks.

 

[dpesec]

I carry my SOG Trident. Never had to use it, but the lock appears to be fairly sturdy.

 

[Hydra-shokz]

I like the Benchmade axis lock

 

[maclean3]

Ah, the 722 - fine choice! That was the first Benchmade I ever bought. Mine's a BT model and lives in my range bag now.
Jack