Liner lock. Should I try one?

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Do you think liner locks are a good valid lock or not.

Poll ended at Sun Aug 22, 2021 10:24 pm

Yes I think liner locks are good and a safe lock if made properly.
21
75%
No Liner locks are too prone to wear and failing. Thereby compromising safety.
4
14%
I don't know.
0
No votes
I don't care.
3
11%
I only use fixed blades.
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 28

Josh1973
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Liner lock. Should I try one?

#1

Post by Josh1973 »

I have been seeing a lot of knives from Brous, Bestech, WE, Civivi, CJRB, and other companies that are using liner locks exclusively. And I love the designs of some of the futuristic knives made by these manufacturers. However. I have a bad aversion to liner locks that started in the 90's when I had a liner lock fail and cause me a few stitches in my knuckle. And over the years I have had two Rat 1's and even a spyderco resilience that would fail and close from spine whacking the knife on my leg. Or from repeated light EDC daily use. The only 2 liner lock knives I own are the Luzon series and a Hogue EX02. Both of which have a secondary safety. For the most part I use a frame, Tri Ad, or back lock.

I feel like I am severely limiting myself on some futuristic nice knife styles that appeal to me because of the majority being liner locks without a secondary safety feature. The frame lock versions I like tend to cost 2 to 5 times as much money. So I guess what I am asking is are there any members here who like and use liner locks that have not had issues with lock failure from repeated use or had any liner locks last 5 to 10 years as an edc and still maintain good lock up? Or do you think I am justified in my aversion of liner locks without a secondary safety and should be content to stick with the present locks I prefer?

I wanna hear as many opinions from knife nerds, regular joes, blade snobs and non blade snobs as possible concerning liner locks and their experiences with them. If you don't want to share your experiences. Feel free to leave a vote. I also made a poll just out of curiosity and hope some will decide to place a vote on this topic.
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Re: Liner lock. Should I try one?

#2

Post by Wandering_About »

They aren't my favorite but a well made liner lock is fine. They aren't inherently the strongest but can work well if you're not reefing on them badly. Nice to have a choil on knives with liner locks for a little extra safety.
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Re: Liner lock. Should I try one?

#3

Post by u.w. »

Josh.. :)

On liner locks - ultimately, it's Your Choice of course, not the internet's or forum's. Having had some fail on you makes it understandable your hesitation.

I like liner locks personally. The Spyderco Military is easily one of my top, or most, favorite knives. It's a liner lock, and I like that liner lock a lot.

I've had a few "cheap" ones (liner lock knives) that I could overcome, but thankfully have never had one fail on me in use, and cut me.

Interestingly, I have had a few back locks fail on me in use, and one caused me a pretty significant laceration. It was back in the mid 90's, in RR P.R., and I was using it to cut the husk off of a coconut (it wasn't a Spyderco).
I guess thankfully? when it failed and closed, it was on the first knuckle, so the biggest one, and didn't go all the way through - just most of the way through...

I still carry and use back lock knives..

Now
I will say
I learned from that bad experience ( sometimes I'm smart, lol )

And
One of the things I learned is: don't rely on the knife's lock.

kinda like, don't rely on your vehicles safety devices...

or like don't ever rely on a firearm's safety. Always treat all firearms as if they are loaded, and don't have a safety.

I do my best to treat my knives like they don't have locks, if that makes sense.

Another thing I learned is, to look at the lockup of the knife, and safely try it.

If it's a back lock, I look to see how deep the notch is (the knife I had fail on me had a VERY shallow lock bar notch in the "tang" of the blade. I could easily enough overcome it with just my two hands, come to find out).
If liner locks, how far over does the liner go? Can you pretty easily overcome the lock with just your hands? and so-on and so-forth...

If You see knives You want to try out that have a liner lock, check'em out. If they don't pass Your requirements, return it. Pretty easy to do, and just might keep ya from adding yet another scar.

I like liner locks. Weather or not you should get one Is Your Choice and/or Your Decision to make. Be smart about it and hopefully find some new and cool knives to add to your collection :)

u.w.
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Re: Liner lock. Should I try one?

#4

Post by James Y »

To me, It depends on the knife. I know this is the Spyderco forum, but I’m not being biased when I say the best liner lock-designed knife I own is the Military. I have four of them, the first bought 20 years ago, and I have never had one come close to failing or developing blade play. IMO, there are good reasons for this, one of which is the lock mating surface on the blade tang. It’s ground to a relatively gentle concave angle. This makes the lock less likely to slip off the tang during use. At this point, the only liner lock I carry and use anymore is the Military. Of course, YMMV.

I’ve had liner locks from another company (which I won’t mention) come close to failing, because the tolerances were much looser, the locking liners were titanium, and the blade tang mating surfaces were ground at a steep angle. This steep angle contributed to the locks wearing MUCH faster, and made it easy for them to develop blade play and/or to slip off the blade tang during use, or even when applying light pressure by hand to the backs of the blades.

There are many factors that go into what separates a good liner lock from a poorly-made one. As u.w. said, don’t fully rely on the lock. To me, the lock is a backup safely. Also, since most liner locks have no backspring, it is also the only means of keeping the knife fully opened. But I never view ANY lock, whether a back lock, liner lock, frame lock, ball bearing lock, compression lock, axis lock, or Tri-Ad lock as fail-proof.

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Re: Liner lock. Should I try one?

#5

Post by TomAiello »

The liner lock is my least favorite lock. I find it harder to close quickly than the CBBL (my favorite), the comp lock, or even the back lock. I'm sure some of that is just familiarity and practice, but still. In some ways, I'm glad it's my least favorite, because my general aversion to liner locks extends to the RIL, and that saves me a lot of money. I've tried plenty of liner and integral locks, and I always find myself rotating back to other locks. My favorite liner lock (almost the only one that gets time in my EDC) is the Military. Even then, I only tend to carry it when I'm looking for a larger blade for some reason (and the Police 4 usually edges it out).
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Re: Liner lock. Should I try one?

#6

Post by The Meat man »

I like them if they're well made. I carried and used a $25 Kershaw linerlock for over a decade without a single negative incident.
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Re: Liner lock. Should I try one?

#7

Post by jpm2 »

It depends on the knife.

I carried and used a mini afck every day for over 15 years, opening & closing multiple times a day.
I beat that knife pretty bad and it never failed. During the last year before I retired it, I managed to slightly bend the spring bar and mushroom the face of it by beating it through some 4/4 15kv armored cable, something I had done a dozen times in the past, but maybe not as violently. This caused a bit of vertical blade play, but never unlocked itself. I used it this way for almost another year before retiring it. Later I sourced new liners and replaced them, making it good as new again.

My militaries, sages and GB's are are a lot younger, with a lot less use/hard use, so time will tell.
Of those, only one has a lock slip issue that only presents itself when I bump the spine. Coincidently, it's the only one bought used, and possibly why it was for sale. Someday, I might try and fix it.

I've been gifted a few old cheap liner locks that I'm sure would fail. They only stay for sentimental value.

A well made liner lock is my preference due to being the easiest, safest, and most secure to open & close of all lock types. This is very important to me, where a drop would be a lost knife, or injury to someone below.
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Re: Liner lock. Should I try one?

#8

Post by Naperville »

I'm leery of all locks. I prefer fixed blades but folders that have a 3.75 to 5 inch blade are pretty nice.

The only lock that has ever failed on me is a frame lock. In 2019 when people started really talking about testing the HRC of the steels that we are getting as well as testing locks...I cut myself pretty bad. I applied less than 5lbs force to the back of the knife and it closed on my hand.

I do not buy liner locks that often, I prefer frame locks. I've seen too many liner locks that I did not like.
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Re: Liner lock. Should I try one?

#9

Post by kennethsime »

Honestly, I don't love liner locks - there's no quicker way to enquate your knife design with "liquor store knife" than to equip it with a poorly-executed liner lock.

That said, the Military is changing my mind on the matter. A good liner lock, or better yet a frame lock/RIL, is a very nice thing. Go for it, just make sure it's a good one.
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Re: Liner lock. Should I try one?

#10

Post by Bloke »

When I was little I closed a slippy on my fingers. Another time I stabbed a tree and cut my fingers. I still own slippy knives and knives without finger guards.

The only lock I don’t like is the back lock. It’s an inherently difficult lock to produce requiring exacting tolerances and everyone owns a back lock with vertical play and/or lock rock.

I can’t speak of dollar shop knives with liner locks because I don’t own any but liner locks used in knives like the Mighty Military leave nothing to be desired.

That said I use my knives to cut stuff and all the spines on my folders are blunt so I only use the edged side of the blade. I don’t spine whack any knife and partially not a knife that cost me over $AU300. I don’t fidget flick them either and very seldom if ever flick them when opening to use.

In conclusion, I’d say buy a liner lock Spyder with confidence. Use it to cut stuff, don’t spine whack it, pry shite with it and be happy. :)
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Re: Liner lock. Should I try one?

#11

Post by standy99 »

Considering the Gayle Bradley 1 is a liner lock and my favourite knife.

Nothing wrong with them in my book. Just a compression lock upside down really
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Re: Liner lock. Should I try one?

#12

Post by archangel »

I have only a few LL knives cause I don't fancy the lock either. The ones on my new Sage 1 and on my Millie are perfectly good though. So fmpov, you can give a Millie or Sage 1 a try, with confidence. ;)
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Re: Liner lock. Should I try one?

#13

Post by Doc Dan »

I think everyone should experience liner locks so I won't say you shouldn't buy one.

However, you have had common experiences with them already. Even in lock tests they fail easily. They are okay, sort of, for a pocket knife, but not a large harder use knife. My wife will note carry one, not even a frame lock, because of the knives opening in her purse. I have had liner locks and frame locks fail on me doing nothing much. On our small ranch years ago we discouraged people from using these "fail knives". I like a good, strong backlock (this is the strongest lock type) and the CBBL (which is pretty strong). These locks are proven to be bull strong and if you will look at guys who actually use their knives really hard for a living (not youtube heros) they are using backlocks.

So, that is my position and you have already had bad experiences so you need to ask yourself "What does it take for me to learn?"
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Re: Liner lock. Should I try one?

#14

Post by VooDooChild »

1. Fixed blades. No lock to fail or dislike.

2. Its almost always just preference. My buddy likes linerocks. No lock test or horror stories or advice changes that they are his preference.

3. It has been stated that any of the locks can be made stronger, there just isnt really a need to do it. I wouldnt worry that lock type A fails before lock type B. In fact, in a quality knife, the blade is almost always the weakest link.

4. I have seen cheap versions of liner locks/ frame locks/ and backlocks all fail. I have not seen well made versions of these locks fail.

5. Design issues. Sometimes a certain lock is chosen because it allows for the overall design of a knife to be a certain way.

Frankly, I wouldnt worry about using a quality liner lock, or a quality knife with any other lock type.

PS, also the military is an amazing liner lock.
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Re: Liner lock. Should I try one?

#15

Post by JRinFL »

Not my favorite lock and I swore off them for a few years. Then I tried them again and decided they are not so bad. I added some to the collection. However, if I really think I’ll need to push the limits of a knife’s lock, I’ll go with another lock altogether.
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Re: Liner lock. Should I try one?

#16

Post by Sharp Guy »

I think I have more liner and frame locks than any others. I might have more back locks but it's close. Regardless, I've never had an issue with any of mine. I also don't push my pocket knives as hard as some of you
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Re: Liner lock. Should I try one?

#17

Post by sbaker345 »

I'd argue the Military might be the exception, it has a very aggressive liner lock that really feels like it "bites in" for lack of a better word. While other liner locks might feel more like that simply slide into the open space, the Military's liner jams itself in there. Unless you spine whacked it to the point of weakness I doubt it would fail.

However, the Military aside I absolutely will not own a liner lock, I've had cheap liner locks knives close themselves on my hand when stabbing at something, I view liner locks similar to slip joints, It's there to hold the blade open, not lock it in place.
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Re: Liner lock. Should I try one?

#18

Post by Water Bug »

I like both liner locks and frame locks, although I do tend to lean towards the lock back system since that's what I started with and still use. When it comes to folding knives with liner locks or frame locks, Spyderco (liner locks and frame locks) and Chris Reeve (frame locks) are the ones I like the most.
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Re: Liner lock. Should I try one?

#19

Post by Josh1973 »

Doc Dan wrote:
Sun Jul 25, 2021 9:01 am
I think everyone should experience liner locks so I won't say you shouldn't buy one.

However, you have had common experiences with them already. Even in lock tests they fail easily. They are okay, sort of, for a pocket knife, but not a large harder use knife. My wife will note carry one, not even a frame lock, because of the knives opening in her purse. I have had liner locks and frame locks fail on me doing nothing much. On our small ranch years ago we discouraged people from using these "fail knives". I like a good, strong backlock (this is the strongest lock type) and the CBBL (which is pretty strong). These locks are proven to be bull strong and if you will look at guys who actually use their knives really hard for a living (not youtube heros) they are using backlocks.

So, that is my position and you have already had bad experiences so you need to ask yourself "What does it take for me to learn?"
You make a very valid point. No denying that. The only thing I dislike about Backlocks is how hard it is to find a backlock with a futuristic design. I do collect and like a few weird designs that are futuristic. Although most of my knives are more traditional and users. All of the futuristic styles seem to come in Frame or Liner lock variations only. But yes I agree with you.

Maybe one day I will get a small sum of money and have a custom maker make me a futuristic design with the proven back lock format. Seems like Backlocks are becoming more scarce in knives.

Once again. I agree with you Doc.
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Re: Liner lock. Should I try one?

#20

Post by Naperville »

I'm of the mind that if you are not commissioning knives to be made that you should not wait around for some specific attribute to be added. Buy what is available and enjoy it.

I have a Spyderco Military, Emersons and Bokers that are liner locks. They are fine. See what it is that you like or dislike about them relative to other locks that you may have.
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