Reality check against marketing hype.

For this subject I'll focus on the following "design", the 
Cold Steel Triad lock, I read the blurb and it sounds and looks like total marketing BS. If a lock back folder is made with precision machining resulting from proper engineered design, it will not fail. Use some common sense. 

The gimmick lies here. They (Cold Steel) use a stop pin in order to take the downward, (normal forces) of cutting on the blade(like in numerous liner lock folders, nothing new here or revolutionary). Since the back spine of their Triad knife is not designed to be perfectly flush with the pivoting arm of the lock bar, they must machine things a little different here as their diagrams indicate. But why? Because it is easier to produce actually. It is far harder to make a precision fit of the back of the spine with the lock bar, (no matter how good your CNC engineers are) ie perfectly flush over the entire surface. It usually requires some sort of hand finishing to totally make sure the mating surfaces are flush. Hand finishing costs money, this money comes off the profit! I believe this Triad lock system to simply be a marketing gimmick with loads of videos demonstrating how strong this lock is in the opposite direction to normal forces to brainwash the many about how good the knife is based upon the lock and steer away from the blade materials and other key features of what a knife is used for (like comfort, durability and cutting abilities/blade wear resistance etc etc).  

As for the apparent lack of matting of parts in the Triad lock, where it is suggested or rather stated that this leaves room for wear and tear and that it is self correcting??? WTF? It is far easier to put a big thick pin and have a half hearted lock back system than make a precision system in the first place.
In a normal cutting procedure, it is basically impossible for the lock to break (of a well made lock back). The lock bar is under a compressive force, not a bending force. Physics right??? The bolts holding the lock bar are under a bending force (yes they must be good quality parts used here). 

Let's say in this  fantasy world of applying extreme forces to the spine in the opposing direction of cutting, again, if a normal well-made (I emphasise well-made) lock back is used, for failure to occur, the lock bar engagement has to move upwards away from the spine notch. There is no reason why any one who is worth their weight in precision knife making can not and does not design these notches so that these "backward" forces only make the lock bar engage more strongly, ie move towards the knife spine notch. Plus use good quality spring material and shape and design of spring is important. Heck it's done in plenty of good lock back folders! That's not new at all. 

The downside of such a lock design (Triad) is that it now allows for pocket lint and or dust, dirt or whatever to enter the region within the spine notch which is supposed to be there for the "self adjusting" mechanism and also the region surrounding the lock bar pivot. With any lock back knife (the Triad is no exception) small amounts of contaminants easily can prevent proper function. Hence we have open backs and liner locks which also can let in garbage but are also much easier to keep clean and functioning successfully. If one really uses a lot any lock back folder you will have experienced this at some point. If however, one just wants to carry a knife in a clean pocket and it's not a "work knife" but rather a "concealed weapon", well that's their business.

No lock back knife can function properly without proper maintenance, ie cleaning particulate matter and proper high quality lubrication of the mechanism.

One thing Cold Steel are good at and that is publicity stunts and marketing. When it comes to marketing they are the kings of marketing.(ok some of their products are good-some). Now before anyone who is a Cold Steel lover decides to lecture me, please, please think carefully about what i said and read their marketing hype, draw some diagrams and work out where the forces are generated and think of the last time you whacked the daylights out of your folder in completely the opposite direction to cutting something.

Severe shock loads to the spine are unlikely even in the most extreme fantasy cases. The kinds of loads that your hand which holds the knife would be severely damaged whether the blade collapsed or not LOL! We must wise up to marketing hype no matter who the manufacturer is, they all use it to varying degrees to convince us to purchase their products. I'm still waiting for Cold steel to provide me with some data of their "tests" of which I openly publicly challenged them- it was Andrew Demko, actually (about 2 years ago now!), so as I could publish the real forces generated, in order to demonstrate how large they actually are and then equate that with your hand being compressed to mush if you are holding onto a knife and exerting such forces. 




BCT