It's wild how many different versions of the compression lock exist

[Guts]

Wouldn't the Yojimbo and Canis fall into this category as well?

Whoops, good catch.

I'm curious what's different about the compression lock on these models to include the LT3, that make them more robust vs say the Paramilitary 2, Para 3, etc. Is it just a beefed up lock bar perhaps?

[p_atrick]

I'm curious what's different about the compression lock on these models to include the LT3, that make them more robust vs say the Paramilitary 2, Para 3, etc. Is it just a beefed up lock bar perhaps?

I only have my Lil Temp 3 LW with me (it is the knife I keep in Dallas when I visit), so I can't do a comparison shot. But yes, the lock bar tab is thicker. I assume that the liners, in general, are thicker all around. By how much? I can't say.

[Wartstein]

...

I believe it was the the large heavy blade of the Szabo Folder itself that necessitated the addition of the spring. While the spring itself is a solution for “self close,” it still seems a bit overly complicated in my opinion. If a knife does not need it to operate safely, it just feels like adding potential failure points for little to no benefit. To me it would only make sense on the Military 2 and even then, it still feels like an unnecessary addition when the knife already functions perfectly without it.

For me, I'd really like to see a comp lock with greater closed retention WITHOUT the need for a spring. I like simple better. Maybe a slightly bigger detent ball that is both tough and extra wear-resistant (won't wear flatter over time). I don't know how that could be done, but then, I'm not an engineer.

Jim

Good points!

Strong(er) self close without a spring needed would be the best indeed!

Actually I personally only read about comp.locks coming open in the pocket, never had that happen to myself - granted, I did / do not carry comp.locks much compared to especially backlocks, but so far my experience with the self close of comp.locks is fine.

[sal]

Hey Vivi,

Talking' Story:

FYI, Spyderco was scheduled to make a knife for Bob Taylor's REKAT company designed by Bram Frank, called the "Escalator". We were going to use Bob's "Rolling Lock' which he invented, A very nice lock invention. After we began engineering the model, Bob Taylor and Bram Frank had a falling out and Bob cancelled the project. We had already begun the project and Bob said didn't want us to use his "Rolling Lock" which we were purchasing from him and had already planned to use on some of our own models. Since Bob stopped the Rolling lock purchase, we suddenly found ourselves making a Bram Frank Model, but with no lock that we felt would fork for the MBC design at the time. Headache.

It took me about 2 weeks, but I was able to "invent" a new lock, the Compression lock, on demand, to use on the model, which was name changed to the "Gunting". Some time after production, Bram and Spyderco had a falling out and the Gunting project was disco'd. Bob Taylor and I are still friends. Funny how history has so many twists and turns?

sal

[ImHereForTheMilitary2]

Hey Vivi,

Talking' Story:

FYI, Spyderco was scheduled to make a knife for Bob Taylor's REKAT company designed by Bram Frank, called the "Escalator". We were going to use Bob's "Rolling Lock' which he invented, A very nice lock invention. After we began engineering the model, Bob Taylor and Bram Frank had a falling out and Bob cancelled the project. We had already begun the project and Bob said didn't want us to use his "Rolling Lock" which we were purchasing from him and had already planned to use on some of our own models. Since Bob stopped the Rolling lock purchase, we suddenly found ourselves making a Bram Frank Model, but with no lock that we felt would fork for the MBC design at the time. Headache.

It took me about 2 weeks, but I was able to "invent" a new lock, the Compression lock, on demand, to use on the model, which was name changed to the "Gunting". Some time after production, Bram and Spyderco had a falling out and the Gunting project was disco'd. Bob Taylor and I are still friends. Funny how history has so many twists and turns?

sal

So that's where the compression lock came from? wow

[James Y]

Hey Vivi,

Talking' Story:

FYI, Spyderco was scheduled to make a knife for Bob Taylor's REKAT company designed by Bram Frank, called the "Escalator". We were going to use Bob's "Rolling Lock' which he invented, A very nice lock invention. After we began engineering the model, Bob Taylor and Bram Frank had a falling out and Bob cancelled the project. We had already begun the project and Bob said didn't want us to use his "Rolling Lock" which we were purchasing from him and had already planned to use on some of our own models. Since Bob stopped the Rolling lock purchase, we suddenly found ourselves making a Bram Frank Model, but with no lock that we felt would fork for the MBC design at the time. Headache.

It took me about 2 weeks, but I was able to "invent" a new lock, the Compression lock, on demand, to use on the model, which was name changed to the "Gunting". Some time after production, Bram and Spyderco had a falling out and the Gunting project was disco'd. Bob Taylor and I are still friends. Funny how history has so many twists and turns?

sal

Thanks for the great story, Sal (as usual)! I never suspected that you invented the comp lock so quickly, or as an emergency replacement for another locking system.

Jim

[z1r]

Actually I personally only read about comp.locks coming open in the pocket, never had that happen to myself - granted, I did / do not carry comp.locks much compared to especially backlocks, but so far my experience with the self close of comp.locks is fine.

I bought a SPY27 PM2 last year at the seconds sale. It was late in the day and I was tired. Afterward, I began to experience some buyer's remorse having noticed that the knife had the weakest detent of any Spyderco I've had. I've carried it a lot in that year and have never had even a hint of it coming open unintentionally. Love the knife, especially for what I paid. My 2 Pfennig.

[z1r]

Hey Vivi,

Talking' Story:

FYI, Spyderco was scheduled to make a knife for Bob Taylor's REKAT company designed by Bram Frank, called the "Escalator". We were going to use Bob's "Rolling Lock' which he invented, A very nice lock invention. After we began engineering the model, Bob Taylor and Bram Frank had a falling out and Bob cancelled the project. We had already begun the project and Bob said didn't want us to use his "Rolling Lock" which we were purchasing from him and had already planned to use on some of our own models. Since Bob stopped the Rolling lock purchase, we suddenly found ourselves making a Bram Frank Model, but with no lock that we felt would fork for the MBC design at the time. Headache.

It took me about 2 weeks, but I was able to "invent" a new lock, the Compression lock, on demand, to use on the model, which was name changed to the "Gunting". Some time after production, Bram and Spyderco had a falling out and the Gunting project was disco'd. Bob Taylor and I are still friends. Funny how history has so many twists and turns?

sal

Thanks for the great story, Sal (as usual)! I never suspected that you invented the comp lock so quickly, or as an emergency replacement for another locking system.

Jim

Indeed, great story. Thanks for sharing! Coincidentally, I'm carrying my LW Para 3 today.

[aicolainen]

necessity sparks ingenuity.
Cool story, Sal. Thanks for the insight!

[vivi]

Sal, thanks for sharing some more insight on the comp locks history. That's really interesting!

Something I neglected to mention is the earlier comp locks had a different system for keeping the knife closed than modern comp locks. I believe you can see this on the Yojimbo 1 and Para 1. It wasn't based on a detent like a liner lock or the current comp lock. The blade was milled out to create a self closing bias.

[olditguy]

Hey Vivi,

Talking' Story:

FYI, Spyderco was scheduled to make a knife for Bob Taylor's REKAT company designed by Bram Frank, called the "Escalator". We were going to use Bob's "Rolling Lock' which he invented, A very nice lock invention. After we began engineering the model, Bob Taylor and Bram Frank had a falling out and Bob cancelled the project. We had already begun the project and Bob said didn't want us to use his "Rolling Lock" which we were purchasing from him and had already planned to use on some of our own models. Since Bob stopped the Rolling lock purchase, we suddenly found ourselves making a Bram Frank Model, but with no lock that we felt would fork for the MBC design at the time. Headache.

It took me about 2 weeks, but I was able to "invent" a new lock, the Compression lock, on demand, to use on the model, which was name changed to the "Gunting". Some time after production, Bram and Spyderco had a falling out and the Gunting project was disco'd. Bob Taylor and I are still friends. Funny how history has so many twists and turns?

sal

I happen to have an old Benchmade Mini Ambush which was probably my first knife ever. Would this be a version of the original "rolling lock"?

[sal]

Sal, thanks for sharing some more insight on the comp locks history. That's really interesting!

Something I neglected to mention is the earlier comp locks had a different system for keeping the knife closed than modern comp locks. I believe you can see this on the Yojimbo 1 and Para 1. It wasn't based on a detent like a liner lock or the current comp lock. The blade was milled out to create a self closing bias.

Hi Vivi,

Very astute, The original method of keeping the knife closed. Unfortunately, it proved to be very challenging in tolerances. We would still like to improve the detent on the lock, We've tried a few things, but nothing yet. One day?

sal

[sal]

Hey Vivi,

Talking' Story:

FYI, Spyderco was scheduled to make a knife for Bob Taylor's REKAT company designed by Bram Frank, called the "Escalator". We were going to use Bob's "Rolling Lock' which he invented, A very nice lock invention. After we began engineering the model, Bob Taylor and Bram Frank had a falling out and Bob cancelled the project. We had already begun the project and Bob said didn't want us to use his "Rolling Lock" which we were purchasing from him and had already planned to use on some of our own models. Since Bob stopped the Rolling lock purchase, we suddenly found ourselves making a Bram Frank Model, but with no lock that we felt would fork for the MBC design at the time. Headache.

It took me about 2 weeks, but I was able to "invent" a new lock, the Compression lock, on demand, to use on the model, which was name changed to the "Gunting". Some time after production, Bram and Spyderco had a falling out and the Gunting project was disco'd. Bob Taylor and I are still friends. Funny how history has so many twists and turns?

sal

I happen to have an old Benchmade Mini Ambush which was probably my first knife ever. Would this be a version of the original "rolling lock"?

Hi Oldtiguy,

I'm not familiar with the model but It could be. When Bob decided not to sell us the Rolling lock, he sold it to Benchmade. I think they purchased the lock from Bob to keep it off the market, but that's just my opinion. We came up with an improvement to the Rolling lock using the stop pin as the rotating pin. Vince Ford came up with the idea. We never used it though.

sal

[vivi]

Sal, thanks for sharing some more insight on the comp locks history. That's really interesting!

Something I neglected to mention is the earlier comp locks had a different system for keeping the knife closed than modern comp locks. I believe you can see this on the Yojimbo 1 and Para 1. It wasn't based on a detent like a liner lock or the current comp lock. The blade was milled out to create a self closing bias.

Hi Vivi,

Very astute, The original method of keeping the knife closed. Unfortunately, it proved to be very challenging in tolerances. We would still like to improve the detent on the lock, We've tried a few things, but nothing yet. One day?

sal

I'll watch closely to any changes made to the detents. To me that's the one drawback of detent based locks, is they can be hit or miss when it comes to how well they stay closed.

I will say my DLC Yojumbos have the best detents out of any compression lock I've tried so far. Pretty stiff to break the blade free of the detents hold, but incredibly smooth past that point. That's exactly how I like them.

[ImHereForTheMilitary2]

I will say my DLC Yojumbos have the best detents out of any compression lock I've tried so far. Pretty stiff to break the blade free of the detents hold, but incredibly smooth past that point. That's exactly how I like them.

My manix has the perfect detent for me. So does the pm2

[mongo1958]

Would you consider the compression lock of the Para3 to be unique? I have read/heard about the difficulties of the lateral force of the lock and FRN scales. While the operation of the lock feels no different than a compression lock in a G10 knife, there are some important engineering differences.

Never mind, see the comments by Guts below; I

From a user perspective, no.

From a manufacturer perspective, yes.

I was very impressed how well they implemented the comp.lock in the almost linerless FRN Para 3 LW (had one for a month). As you both said, felt as smooth and solid in operation as the comp.locks on my PM2 or Kapara.

Why did you let it go?

[mongo1958]

Hey Vivi,

Talking' Story:

FYI, Spyderco was scheduled to make a knife for Bob Taylor's REKAT company designed by Bram Frank, called the "Escalator". We were going to use Bob's "Rolling Lock' which he invented, A very nice lock invention. After we began engineering the model, Bob Taylor and Bram Frank had a falling out and Bob cancelled the project. We had already begun the project and Bob said didn't want us to use his "Rolling Lock" which we were purchasing from him and had already planned to use on some of our own models. Since Bob stopped the Rolling lock purchase, we suddenly found ourselves making a Bram Frank Model, but with no lock that we felt would fork for the MBC design at the time. Headache.

It took me about 2 weeks, but I was able to "invent" a new lock, the Compression lock, on demand, to use on the model, which was name changed to the "Gunting". Some time after production, Bram and Spyderco had a falling out and the Gunting project was disco'd. Bob Taylor and I are still friends. Funny how history has so many twists and turns?

sal

Good story Sal. Thanks!

[mongo1958]

I would like a chance to get one of the SZABO knives. Sal, is there a possibility of another run?

[Netherend]

This is a neat post. I have yet to try a spyderco button compression lock but it seems like it could be the best route forward for the following reasons:

1. It could potentially make the compression lock ambidextrous
2. The button method may be more durable than manual operation since users would engage with the button which would have a fixed pressure/compression
3. A button lock could make certain grips more comfortable in hand by creating more space on top of the knife handle since the cutout for the lock may not be necessary with button operation.

[Wartstein]

I was very impressed how well they implemented the comp.lock in the almost linerless FRN Para 3 LW (had one for a month). ...

Why did you let it go?

I actually never planned on keeping that Para 3 in the first place, unless it would completely surprise me and change my mind.

Too much details would be rather off topic here, but in short: I always found the Para 3 a cool and fun "baby PM2" and as such kind of nice. But overall, compared to other small Soydies, a knife not optimized from scratch for its small size, but carrying over PM2 features that imo don't 100% fit a small model.

So I was surprised how immensely popular the Para 3 got and wanted to give it a fair try myself in the version that should suit my preferences the most: Lightweight and SE

Nice knife, no doubt, very well made and the implementation of the comp.lock in an almost linerless FRN knife is really cool and well done.

But I personally would still take models like the Delica over any Para 3 variant any day of the week, even after really trying the latter.