I've never looked at a D'Allara, probably because the lock doesn't appeal to me. But ANYTHING with a CBBL would get my attention. Its similarity to Benchmade's AXIS lock is what brought me here in the first place.
With all due respect, to me the CBBL feels like a Gen 1 Glock trigger, gravelly and heavy whereas an Axis lock knife feels like a perfectly tuned Colt Python.
To each their own, but to me this is really different:
- The CBBL feels reliable and strong to me while it still can very easily be operated with just one finger (thumb or index finger)
- The Axxis lock feels somehow "flimsy" and "undefined".
In my experience this also translates to
a) that the CBBL does a clearly better job of keeping the knife closed in pocket and
b) in fact Omega springs broke on me two times, while the CBBL (spring) seems to be pretty indestructible.
I've broken 4 Omega springs and zero cbbl springs. I've owned the same number of knives with each lock type and put far more use on the cbbl knives.
The axis lock is reminds me of Alfa Romeo cars. To quote Jeremy Clarkson "Alfa builds a car to be as good as a car can be. Briefly.” Yup that covers it.
I like my D'Allara a lot. The blade shape is great and I am big fan of the ball lock. The ball provides the pressure to keep the blade shut. It's a brilliantly simple, effective, and elegant mechanism. They lockup on ball locks is fantastic.
Agree some scalloping around the scales would be helping. A little contouring in place of the flat scales would be nice, but not critical. It is heavy. The way to lighten it is remove the backspacer, but then it would be a different knife. The weigh is not an issue for me. I would prefer different steel. A Cru-Wear version would be nice. Or go crazy and do V15 or K390.
With all due respect, to me the CBBL feels like a Gen 1 Glock trigger, gravelly and heavy whereas an Axis lock knife feels like a perfectly tuned Colt Python.
To each their own, but to me this is really different:
- The CBBL feels reliable and strong to me while it still can very easily be operated with just one finger (thumb or index finger)
- The Axxis lock feels somehow "flimsy" and "undefined".
In my experience this also translates to
a) that the CBBL does a clearly better job of keeping the knife closed in pocket and
b) in fact Omega springs broke on me two times, while the CBBL (spring) seems to be pretty indestructible.
I've broken 4 Omega springs and zero cbbl springs. I've owned the same number of knives with each lock type and put far more use on the cbbl knives.
The axis lock is reminds me of Alfa Romeo cars. To quote Jeremy Clarkson "Alfa builds a car to be as good as a car can be. Briefly.” Yup that covers it.
In my case it was two times (and actually three Omega springs).
To me the Axxis lock does not even feel nice in use.
Granted, it is even "easier" (like in "less force needed") to operate than the CBBL.
But to me this (the Axxis lock) feels somehow "flimsy", "undefined", "TOO easy to operate / too little resistance", and I can operate the CBBL easily anyway too, even with just one finger.
To be clear: I´d say the exact same thing if the Axxis lock was a Spyderco lock (so this is not against Bemchmade as such) and understand that some/many exactly like the supereasy operation of it.
Top three going by pocket-time (update March 24):
- EDC: Endura thin red line ffg combo edge (VG10); Wayne Goddard PE (4V), Endela SE (VG10)
-Mountains/outdoors: Pac.Salt 1 SE (H1), Salt 2 SE (LC200N), and also Wayne Goddard PE (4V)
With all due respect, to me the CBBL feels like a Gen 1 Glock trigger, gravelly and heavy whereas an Axis lock knife feels like a perfectly tuned Colt Python.
To each their own, but to me this is really different:
- The CBBL feels reliable and strong to me while it still can very easily be operated with just one finger (thumb or index finger)
- The Axxis lock feels somehow "flimsy" and "undefined".
In my experience this also translates to
a) that the CBBL does a clearly better job of keeping the knife closed in pocket and
b) in fact Omega springs broke on me two times, while the CBBL (spring) seems to be pretty indestructible.
I've broken 4 Omega springs and zero cbbl springs. I've owned the same number of knives with each lock type and put far more use on the cbbl knives.
The axis lock is reminds me of Alfa Romeo cars. To quote Jeremy Clarkson "Alfa builds a car to be as good as a car can be. Briefly.” Yup that covers it.
In my case it was two times (and actually three Omega springs).
To me the Axxis lock does not even feel nice in use.
Granted, it is even "easier" (like in "less force needed") to operate than the CBBL.
But to me this (the Axxis lock) feels somehow "flimsy", "undefined", "TOO easy to operate / too little resistance", and I can operate the CBBL easily anyway too, even with just one finger.
To be clear: I´d say the exact same thing if the Axxis lock was a Spyderco lock (so this is not against Bemchmade as such) and understand that some/many exactly like the supereasy operation of it.
Yeah, I wasn't trying to knock Benchmade. I'm sure all sliding bar locks that use Omega springs suffer from similar issues. The fault is in the spring type. In a coil spring, the compressive force is spread over many coils, with an Omega spring, there is only one loop and all of the compression in concentrated at center of the spring. Eventually the metal will fatigue and fail far more quickly because of this. All of my Omega springs have failed in the same way, they fold in the middle where they flex the most.
It's fine if you look at springs as wear items that need to be replaced periodically, but there are just too many lock types that don't require this kind of maintenance for me to bother with that style of lock anymore. Benchmade will replace them under warranty, so all it costs is postage and time, so that's nice. Now that the patent is expired and everyone and their brother is making knives with this style of lock, I wonder if those other manufacturers will be as accommodating... I certainly wouldn't gamble my money on it.
My experience with omega springs was with a SOG. I like the knife, but one day the operation suddenly felt different, it quickly completely failed and became loose. Disassembly showed me two broken springs. I believe that one spring snapped initially and this lead to the failure of the other after a few more cycles when I didn’t know what was going wrong.
I would probably already own more of that style of knife, if not for that experience. Maybe I will try again, but I’ve found the CBBL on my Manix to be much more reliable and robust. I definitely prefer it and have no issues with manipulation.
That’s why I’m all for a chance at a knife I know will closely align with my preferences like an updated D’Allara.
rex121 is the king of steel, but nature’s teeth have been cutting for hundreds of millions of years and counting :cool:
