Spyderco Forums

bearfacedkiller wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 25, 2017 7:21 pm

The only thing it has in common with a liner lock is that it uses a liner. Other than that it actually functions much more like a axis/cbbl/bolt action lock. It is really a hybrid between the two styles.

A liner lock has a force vector that runs the length of the handle. The liner moves over and engages a ramp and when you try to close the knife the force pushes straight down the lock bar. That means that the modes of failure are likely to be either the lock bar bending or slipping off the ramp.

A compression lock has a force vector perpendicular to the handle of the knife. The liner moves over and a tab engages the ramp by wedging between the ramp and the stop pin. When you try to close the knife the tab that has wedged itself in there is squeezed between the ramp and the stop pin. The modes of failure with it are likely to be either the liner slipping off the ramp, the tab being crushed or the stop pin being blown out of the handle. Much like the axis lock wedges a horizontal bar into a ramp, the bolt lock wedges an inline bar into a ramp and the cbbl wedges a bb into a ramp the compression lock wedges a tab into a ramp. They all wedge an object between a ramp and a solid object above the ramp.

Unlike the liner lock which puts no force on the stop pin when trying to close the knife all these other locks do and all these other locks put the force upward perpendicular to the length of the knife. When you try to close a compression lock there is no force put on the length of the liner. Just on that tab.

Like the liner lock the comp lock lacks a bias towards closing which the bolt/axis/cbbl all have and instead relies on a detent ball. Besides the use of a liner that is the other thing it shares in common with the liner lock.