Seki City back lock quality in 2022?

[cabfrank]

I wonder how long the molds last, and if the Endela ones have been replaced yet.

[Flash]

If a $15 dollar lock knife doesn’t have lock rock then I expect a $100+ knife to not have lock rock.

If I’m sold a $100 knife with even minimal lock rock, then it goes back to the shop for either an exchange or a refund.
I don’t care if the manufacturer has adorned it with the latest wonder steel - I refuse to accept poor QC at this price point.

Lock rock and blade play might not be safety concern but it concerns me I’ve been mis sold a knife that should’ve been added to the “seconds” QC reject pile.

Hopefully Seki has solved these issues and can assume it’s now safe to buy from the latest Spy27 line up without feeling like you are getting stitched up with a knife that’s skipped quality control?

[8th_Note]

If a $15 dollar lock knife doesn’t have lock rock then I expect a $100+ knife to not have lock rock.

If I’m sold a $100 knife with even minimal lock rock, then it goes back to the shop for either an exchange or a refund.
I don’t care if the manufacturer has adorned it with the latest wonder steel - I refuse to accept poor QC at this price point.

Lock rock and blade play might not be safety concern but it concerns me I’ve been mis sold a knife that should’ve been added to the “seconds” QC reject pile.

Hopefully Seki has solved these issues and can assume it’s now safe to buy from the latest Spy27 line up without feeling like you are getting stitched up with a knife that’s skipped quality control?

I have a SOG Twitch II that has zero lock rock, but if you bump the spine with anything beyond minimal force the lock fails. I have never seen or heard of a Seki back lock failing

Would you consider the SOG to be a higher quality knife?

[Flash]

If a $15 dollar lock knife doesn’t have lock rock then I expect a $100+ knife to not have lock rock.

If I’m sold a $100 knife with even minimal lock rock, then it goes back to the shop for either an exchange or a refund.
I don’t care if the manufacturer has adorned it with the latest wonder steel - I refuse to accept poor QC at this price point.

Lock rock and blade play might not be safety concern but it concerns me I’ve been mis sold a knife that should’ve been added to the “seconds” QC reject pile.

Hopefully Seki has solved these issues and can assume it’s now safe to buy from the latest Spy27 line up without feeling like you are getting stitched up with a knife that’s skipped quality control?

I have a SOG Twitch II that has zero lock rock, but if you bump the spine with anything beyond minimal force the lock fails. I have never seen or heard of a Seki back lock failing

Would you consider the SOG to be a higher quality knife?

I would consider a high quality locking knife knife to suffer from neither lock rock nor lock failure.

[vvs]

Would you consider the SOG to be a higher quality knife?

I have no SOG in possession, but some CS AD-10s - my primary hiking tool amongst ARS folding saw. And this topic is reality: all Seki made backlocks in my possession has vertical blade play while open. I don't care is it lock design or something, CS nailed it. Ultimately I decided not to use them (bunch of endelas, my favorite Spyderco design) for force cutting, set them to something 15dps 80/100 micron CBN finish for those toothy aggressive cutting and leave them as an almost perfect light and (20CV) stainless EDC.

[Mat_ski]

As I said earlier in this thread never had issue using my seki backlocks for hard use.

Also I never noticed any blade play until I read about it on this forum. It is not noticeable in normal use. I have to push down on the knife’s spine near the tip when it is open to observe it. Of all the Seki’s I own Stretch k390 is most noticeable.

However, I find that the salt variants have no blade play that I can notice. I have had dragonfly salt for a while, that is rock solid. Today I took delivery of green salt 2 and it is also rock solid.

[vivi]

just checked my kids dfly salt out of curiosity. no luck.

https://dubz.link/v/995e3c

rock bar moves visibly with 3-4lbs of pressure on the edge.

[Jayrod1980]

I have a few Seki City backlocks, and all have a tiny bit of lock rock. My Golden Native 5 has none. I still love the Seki lineup, but curious that after 40 years it hasn’t been eliminated. Perhaps the Native doesn’t have that issue because the bar is much thicker compared to the stock of the blade. I have no idea, still the Stretch 2 XL and Leafjumper in K390 are two of my favorite Spyderco knives I own.

[dsvirsky]

This has been pointed out before, but no one seems to pay attention. From Sal himself, on February 1, 2001:

"A very slight vertical play in lockbacks is fairly common if they are engineered for strength."

viewtopic.php?p=20526&hilit=Engineered#p20526

[Wartstein]

This has been pointed out before, but no one seems to pay attention. From Sal himself, on February 1, 2001:

"A very slight vertical play in lockbacks is fairly common if they are engineered for strength."

viewtopic.php?p=20526&hilit=Engineered#p20526

That´s very interesting.

Since this quote is 24 years old now, I wonder what @sal would say today...?

To be clear and again: The slight Seki backlock lockrock does not bother me at all, but I don´t believe that the Golden backlocks - who in my limited experience tend to have less - are "not as strong" resp. would sacrifice strength in order to achieve less lock rock...?