Spyderco Forums

Pinetreebbs thread got me thinking...

Sal, are any future releases planned for this innovative, cool, ambidextrous, secure, & reliable lock?

If not...may I humbly suggest a FFG G10 Poliwog with a ceramic BB, ala the Sprint CF Dodo!

I personally love this lock. It does take up a lot of room in the handle though so I can see why they may want to steer away from it. I prefer this open BB lock over the caged BB lock. It's not any harder to unlock you just have to get accustomed to it. Just different.

I always did like that big shiny ball bearing. :D

Tom

Eric, Peter Roque and I have redesigned the D'Allara and will be making a newer version with an open ball.

sal

See...ask and ye shall receive. :D

I'd like to see more open BBL locks too. I find them easier to use than the caged BBL. A new D'Allara should be very cool!

sal wrote:Eric, Peter Roque and I have redesigned the D'Allara and will be making a newer version with an open ball.

sal

WOW!
Love my D'Allara's.

sal wrote:Eric, Peter Roque and I have redesigned the D'Allara and will be making a newer version with an open ball.

sal

I'm in for anything Spyderco :spyder: makes in memorium to John D'Allara...the BBL is just cake...

Hope the redesign includes a choil :D

sal wrote:Eric, Peter Roque and I have redesigned the D'Allara and will be making a newer version with an open ball.

sal

Sweet. That always was a great knife.

I'm a choil lover too. I also hope it has a full, well rounded handle to distribute the force and ease the pressure on the palm when, for example, whittling wood for a long time. I've never held one in hand, but from the pictures the original seems to have tendencies in that direction already. I think that's a niche that needs filling.

Never owned one but handled several. My impression was that with sweaty or wet/greasy hands that ball could be a pain to get traction on but I do vastly prefer the look of it over the caged version. It's very unique looking.

sal wrote:Eric, Peter Roque and I have redesigned the D'Allara and will be making a newer version with an open ball.

sal

FFG? Similar/same handle? I'm already in line ...

Gordon

David Lowry wrote:I personally love this lock. It does take up a lot of room in the handle though so I can see why they may want to steer away from it. I prefer this open BB lock over the caged BB lock. It's not any harder to unlock you just have to get accustomed to it. Just different.

That may be true for you, David. However, as someone with "a touch of arthritis" in his hands and a habit of keeping his fingernails quite short, I can tell you that an exposed ball bearing lock is impossible for me to close one handed and somewhat difficult to release even two handed. I'll admit that I don't really care for either version of the ball bearing lock, but the caged one is considerably easier for me to operate.

David Lowry wrote:I personally love this lock. It does take up a lot of room in the handle though so I can see why they may want to steer away from it. I prefer this open BB lock over the caged BB lock. It's not any harder to unlock you just have to get accustomed to it. Just different.

I prefer it myself. That is why I still own my Dodo, Poliwog, and Phoenix.

We made the knife narrower (top to bottom). That was the main issue and considerable effort went into fitting the ball into a narrower format. We plan to make a full liner / G-10 version to test the lock. The 2nd problem was too thick, not in the hand, but in the pocket. So once the lock is proven, we plan to make a slightly rounded handled. Essentially a smaller package with the same blade length. No finger choil.

sal

sal wrote:We made the knife narrower (top to bottom). That was the main issue and considerable effort went into fitting the ball into a narrower format. We plan to make a full liner / G-10 version to test the lock. The 2nd problem was too thick, not in the hand, but in the pocket. So once the lock is proven, we plan to make a slightly rounded handled. Essentially a smaller package with the same blade length. No finger choil.

sal

This sounds like a winner to me. What will be the blade length on this model and steel choice?

Jon

sal wrote: No finger choil.

sal

I'm still in for 1 , however

I'd like to cast my vote for paladin's suggestion of a Polliwog sprint since I missed out on that model the first go around. I'd also be curious to know whether there's a chance for any more Dodo sprints.

Second, I'm curious about the wear characteristics of the ceramic ball bearing lock. Since I assume the ceramic is much harder than any of the steel in the knife, should there be any concern that the ball could wear away along the path it travels in the steel cutout? Or is it a non-issue since the surface of the ball is round and smooth?

Obviously, it must be a non-issue since the ceramic design was used on the new Tusk...I'm just curious about the "why". I'm also curious as to whether it's a change that can easily be substituted on a previous model like the Polliwog where tooling has already been done, or if it's more complicated than that.

timlara wrote: Obviously, it must be a non-issue since the ceramic design was used on the new Tusk...I'm just curious about the "why". I'm also curious as to whether it's a change that can easily be substituted on a previous model like the Polliwog where tooling has already been done, or if it's more complicated than that.

IIRC, forum members have "reverse engineered" some of the older Dodos with the steel BB and replaced them with the ceramic BB. There is a manufacturer who makes the perfect sized ceramic BB.

Insert standard disclaimer here >>> about VOIDED WARRANTY for any such venture...

There is a thread here I am sure about it.

I'll try to look it up...my search skills are not that refined and this will give me good practice... :o

sal wrote:We made the knife narrower (top to bottom). That was the main issue and considerable effort went into fitting the ball into a narrower format. We plan to make a full liner / G-10 version to test the lock. The 2nd problem was too thick, not in the hand, but in the pocket. So once the lock is proven, we plan to make a slightly rounded handled. Essentially a smaller package with the same blade length. No finger choil.

sal

I will go ahead and put my vote in for some orange G10, or some bright lime green.