Power Lock Demo

[FCM415]

Video of Mr. Janich at the IWA '14 show presenting a few of the recent blades. Beginning at 8:22 of the video, he shows the Tatanka and demo's the Power Lock mechanism with a cutaway model. I know a few were wondering about the lock and how it works like I did so check it out!

[video=youtube;A9ADImyBY0I]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9ADImyBY0I[/video]

[The Deacon]

Very interesting lock. I just hope I never get fat enough to have a back pocket wide enough to hold a Tatanka. :eek:

[polyhexamethyl]

thank you for the video!

[mikerestivo]

I like a large folder. The Tatanka looks comically big. And I still want one.

My mind tells me that the Roc is not a knife that I would like for my purposes. Again, I still want one. It must be the look of it. It looks like a meat cleaver and a straight razor had a baby together.

[Evil D]

Very interesting lock design, but I still wish there was more meat to meat engagement at the tang, as I still feel that's the weakest point, but what do I know lol.

I was more interested in the blacked out Southard, but I'm really torn on the idea because I really like the gray colored Ti.

[Holland]

I love the design of the lock, very innovative

[chuckd]

I was more interested in the blacked out Southard, but I'm really torn on the idea because I really like the gray colored Ti.

I feel the same way. Ideally it would be black blade, black g10 and the regular gray Ti scale.

Also, Mr Janich is pretty dang good with that karahawk!

[Blerv]

Great overview, thanks Mike :) !

Of the lot presented the one that really sings to me is the Roc. I really appreciate the Tantanka, especially with the innovation put into the lock, but it's insanely big. Really glad to see the self-close on the lock.

[Sully]

Interesting lock, very well explained by Mr. Janich. Karahawk demo even seemed to guard against impatient catalog poachers. Really glad you posted this video. Thanks.

[yablanowitz]

Very interesting lock design, but I still wish there was more meat to meat engagement at the tang, as I still feel that's the weakest point, but what do I know lol.

The thing is, it operates as a compression type of lock rather than a tension type like a backlock. When closing force is applied to the blade, it squeezes the toggle between the blade tang and the toggle pivot pin rather than pulling on the little hook on the end of a lockbar. The strength of the compression lock, self adjustment of the ball bearing lock, ease of operation of the mid-back lock and the closing bias of a slipit. Now if I can talk Tom Krein into putting a full flat grind on it, we'll have a winner. Of course, it's still too big to be legal to carry here, but we can't have everything.

[The Deacon]

Interesting lock, very well explained by Mr. Janich. Karahawk demo even seemed to guard against impatient catalog poachers. Really glad you posted this video. Thanks.

Yep, that stack of catalogs may have just seemed clsoer to Mr Janich than they were but, viewing it on my monitor, it took real guts to snag one while he was twirling that Karahawk. :D

[Blerv]

Yep, that stack of catalogs may have just seemed clsoer to Mr Janich than they were but, viewing it on my monitor, it took real guts to snag one while he was twirling that Karahawk. :D

No kidding! Obviously people have tunnel vision that filters out whirling knives :p . Luckily Mike is less jumpy than some, like myself.

[JudasD]

LOVE the video. Thank you Mr. Janich.

JD

[gdwtvb]

Excellent video. I liked the Spyderco pin he was wearing.

Grizz

[Michael Janich]

Thanks, everybody, for your enthusiasm and support. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.

And a huge thanks to Tactical Men for shooting and posting it!!!!

Stay safe,

Mike

[The Deacon]

Excellent video. I liked the Spyderco pin he was wearing.

Grizz

Is that a pin, or a "live blade" Clip-Tool?

[Evil D]

The thing is, it operates as a compression type of lock rather than a tension type like a backlock. When closing force is applied to the blade, it squeezes the toggle between the blade tang and the toggle pivot pin rather than pulling on the little hook on the end of a lockbar. The strength of the compression lock, self adjustment of the ball bearing lock, ease of operation of the mid-back lock and the closing bias of a slipit. Now if I can talk Tom Krein into putting a full flat grind on it, we'll have a winner. Of course, it's still too big to be legal to carry here, but we can't have everything.

Oh yeah, it's easy to see how crazy strong the mechanics of it is. I have no doubt that the lock mechanism itself will survive what the tang won't. You'll either round off that corner of the tang that's engaging the lock or break the tang itself, since there doesn't look to be much meat around the pivot either. I love the lock, but I hate when a great lock design sacrifices strength from somewhere else, then you're just borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.

[Blerv]

Failure had to occur at a certain limit at a certain place. The goal of locks is for the knife to remained in the open position even if the blade itself snaps under the load. Sal said the compression locks in past testing at the point of failure blow apart.

Since there is no such thing as unbreakable they have to look at a well-rounded design that is strong enough per application that normal people doing expected tasks won't see such a failure. In the case of the Tatanka the expectations of abuse are surely higher. Most the people concerned about lock strength have never caused a simple lockback to fail let alone something more robust so it's fantasy more than need.

[gull wing]

Fascinating lock on the Tatanka. I would be crazy to buy a knife that big, but :cool:

Tatanka is that the Sioux word for Buffalo?

[TomAiello]

Who designed the power lock? Or does Spyderco not tell us which designer did which lock? I thought Sal designed the compression lock and Eric designed the CBBL?


The Tatanka is made in Japan, isn't it? Does that mean we can look forward to a Super Blue version? :)