Spyderco Forums

chuck_roxas45 wrote:Hey Jack, I'm glad that you are 100 percent sure of what you will not ask your knives to do in real life. Some of us are not as certain as you are.

I know what you are saying and agree and I'm not all that sure of what my knife will go through. The exact instance I think we are talking about is where Ankerson (I think) intentionally hit his Manix on the board with the handle at the pivot to see if the lock would fail and the knife would close. The knife failed and the blade did close. The only reason for this to happen in real life IMO is to "miss your mark" when doing light chopping. The actual propper tool for the task would have been a small hatchet. But I have used my Manix to do light chopping and love the fact that it hold up 100% so far. But, I haven't missed (yet) hitting the handle on the wood. If I do miss I can't blame the tool if it fails. Having said all that the Manix2 should have passed that test with flying colors but it didn't. I believe mine would pass the test but I still don't want to do it for two reasons. IF it fails I have a broken knife the wouldn't have been broken if I didn't get a little dumb by performing a test the knife would not normally be asked to do. Even if it passes the test the only benefit would be me knowing the knife WOULD pass the test. As happy as that would make me it's not worth the risk (not to me anyway).

All of this makes me think of the Cold Steel knife test videos. If I'm not mistaken this is the situation; They show how strong their knives are by stabbing cars and all sorts of things including the same test the Manix2 went through and failed. Of course since the tests were done and released by Cold Steel there were no failures. But, if you have one of their knives fail as you test it the same way and send it in for repair explaining that you had stabbed your neightor's car a few times and done a spine whack also, would they replace the knife under warranty? I imagine they won't but don't know for sure.

I have gotten long winded again. Your post wasn't about the Manix or the test or anything other than what I expect of my knives. So, if you took the time to read all of this I appreciate your patience. I'll say I have asked knives to do more thay they are supposed to be designed for. Sometimes intentionally because I didn't have the right tool, sometimes accidentally. I have a few Spyderco knives. All of them are more than capable of anything I'll ask of them (normally). The two I have for hard use are the Manix2 and GB. Do you know what upsets me more than anything about this whole "hard use folder" issue? The fact that I don't work any more and never had Spyderco quality when I needed it most. I would have loved to have a Manix when I did do hard work every day. I envy the younger people who are buying and using Spyderco knives. I don't know how many cheap knives I've thrown away because they broke doing something a Spyderco would have laughed at. :D

I'll stop.

Jack

After a couple of years people still give their opinions regarding the test video. I too watched it before getting my Manix 2 FFG S30V. Perhaps this might show that the mechanics was really improved. Just chanced upon this video showing some guy also doing whacks on the blade on different brands and so happened one of them is a Manix 2 LW Translucent Blue from 00:55 http://youtu.be/4DBbYlog_6Q
Test isn't identical to the "hard use test" but I think it tells something especially when the person in this video seems to be using more force. Not just a thud.

Even I have changed my opinion of this video and see it as a necessary test. Even though spine whacking may be an unrealistic use for a knife I think it's still important to know the limits of anything you plan on pushing hard, and to find the limit you need to surpass it.

I am glad folks like Ankerson and others here do the tests and sacrifice their equipment for the results

3 years since the release of a knife for Spyderco is a very long time. They do their own lock testing as well which doesn't disregard the necessity for 3rd part testing but does speak for their effort to provide safe tools. Statistically they sell safe products but that doesn't mean life can't throw you a curve ball. Always better safe than sorry in use and mechanical empathy. A neglected/abused tool often becomes compromised.

The biggest observation I've seen that might be a rolling change are 1) the ball seems to engage the tang much further into it. This also means there's potentially less wear-life over a long period but I don't think that really matters with this lock, and 2) the tang itself seems to have a sharper edge on the plane that the ball engages. That's a little hard to explain but comparing my new knife with the older M4 sprint there was a very noticeable difference in how that area was machined. I suspect that may also have something to do with whether or not the blade is satin/tumbled or brushed. I think the sharper edge might help to keep the ball engaged, but the two changes together seem to be an improvement because lockup on the new knife is incredibly solid.

But if I were doing what this guy is doing with a blade, it wouldn't be a folder.

I'd be using a fixed blade ... And a larger one at that!

Thinking Becker campanion or bk7, which I own a few of each and have used for what he's doing.

There's no way I'd do this to a folder...even in a survival situation is be looking for smaller wood pieces and I'd not torque it sideways like that.. You'd work it to sliver off pieces...