For many of us linerlocks are an advent of the late80s/early90s; but what if I told you they where older...much older.
How old? I dont exactly know.
But imagine my surprise watching Steve1989MREinfo open a 1944 'USN M-592 pilot survival kit' and pulling out a large Colonial 2blade jack knife with a liner lock from a 'C-1 Survival Vest' at the 10:50 mark
Naturaly I had to learn more so I went to everybody's favorite online fleamarket E-something-or-ranother
and found a couple.
Here's one:
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F352489986196Looking at the pics it is definitly a liner lock with a slipjoint backspring. It seems the lock enguages to the tang front instead of the end. In this it is the same as a Victorinox OH Trekker which enguages to a matching semi-round cutout on the tang front (pic3).
The second blade is a nonlocking slipjoint wood saw (broken on the auction example).
It is a large knife with an intresting design. Its existance makes you ask; "why it wasnt used more?"
Now I do not own one and unless one falls into my hands at a steal I never will. Whether this is the 1st or not I can not say, its just the oldest I've seen. I just thought it was an interisting piece of knife history.
If anybody knows what the 1st liner-lock was please chime in. It has allways been something I took for granted as bieng modern.
Note:
Since I dont own one all pics of the Colonial are hijacked from seller linked above
« Last Edit: November 05, 2018, 12:15:06 PM by Noa Isumi »
I used to be a lot of things, and someday will again.
But for now I'm just a lost jack of trades with neither mastery nor home. ~NoaIsumi