Locks.......minus the bagels......

[Ray S]

After doing a post of various iterations of the Buck 110 lock back I started rummaging through pictures of the different types of blade locks. As most know the locking blade folder has been around for about 200 years give or take.There have been many different approaches to the problem of keeping a folding knife from closing on your fingers while engaged in working.
The most common type(at least the oldest that I know of) uses a bar spring loaded rocker that works by pressing down on a tab protruding from the spine of the knife.The other end of the bar engages(disengages) a notch in the tang of the blade allowing it to be rotated to the closed position(see the Sabre Skeleton knife  posted).Pressure on the bottom side of the tang holds the blade in the closed position.The tab can be located just about anywhere along the back but it is usually toward the back for added leverage.
Some other variations include:
an external back spring that also engages a notch in the tang and can be disengaged by either pulling on an attached ring to lift the spring or a folding rocker lever that also lifts the spring. This method is common to navaja patterns and other French knives.
Another locking method is peculiar to the Frenck Opinel knives whereby a rotating bezel locks the blade open and requires turning back to close it.
Of course the most popular(and least expensive to build)is the modern liner lock whereby a piece of the liner is bent so as to engage the back of the tang when the blade is opened.To close it is pushed aside allowing the blade to close.
There is an old German knife that when opened the blade is pushed rearward slightly and engages a pin through the handle keeping it from closing. The blade must be pulled slightly forward to close the blade. A modern version of this is used on Timberline knives designed by Bud Neely that have a spring inside to let the blade slide backward to lock.
A really unusual one was popularized(I don't know whether he invented it or not)by knifemaker Barry Wood and introduced on Colt knives in the 1970's.It was a bit complicated(I show the sequence on a floating fish knife)but basically it required pulling the handles slightly apart to disengage a pin holding them in line and rotating one handle.as it rotated another pin engaged the tang of the blade and allowed it to rotate with the handle.As the blade came to the full open position the handle continued to rotate until it aligned with the other handle and the pin. Reverse the procedure to close it.
Another method was utilized by Gerber of a Paul Pohlmann design. To open you grasp the two buttons located on the blade pivot and squeeze them together which allows the blade to be rotated to the open position. Reverse to close.I show it and a custom knife that uses the two buttons but has a sliding blade.
There are many others and I will try to show a few of them in the pictures. This will take several posts to accomplish so please be patient while I post them and then feel free to comment. Hope you enjoy them.

[Ray S]

Page too
#1 Asbro Germany Open blade and slide back slightly to lock open.
#2 A pair of Timberlite knives that operate essentially the same as #1 except they are spring loaded.
#3 A military OTF knife with a folding lock on top.
#4 Anton Wingen OTF knife with a slightly different latch.

[Ray S]

Page tree
Rotating handle knife

[Ray S]

Page fore
#1 A small knife that opens by pushing the slide button forward.Tang is toothed and engages a toothed rack.
#2 Knife unlocks by depressing the ball bearing on the side.
#3 Folding scalpel with slide locks from the 1870's.
#4 Gerber Bolt Action.Slide lock is on the side.

[Ray S]

Page five
#1 Gerber Paul.To unlock squeeze the buttons on either side of the front.
#2 Custom slider;squeeze the buttons to open and close.
#3 Huge Chines made knife with side locks on both sides. Center blade doesn't lock.
#4 Stanley utility knife.Squeeze both buttons on back to close.

[Ray S]

Page sihks
#1 A Christy slide blade.To unlock push button sideways.
#2 Navaja with lever lock and toothed tang that allows blade to be locked in various open positions.
#3 Deer foot folder with lock at extreme rear of knife. Hard to operate.
#4 lock bar is the manicure blade in the closed position. Depress to unlock master blade.

And that is just some of the myriad ways of keeping a blade from closing on your fingers.

[SteveC]

Excellent post Ray !   

[Aloha]

 

What a great selection of locking knives.  I'll have to come back again and again and again. 

[Ray S]

And just to show that the locking back knife isn't a new idea,a few examples from about 1860 on up.
#1 Marked,"Barneria" with the image of a severed pig's head,this French made lockback likely dates from around 1840-1850. I base that on the,"pique work"(small pins inlaid in designs)which was only popular during that time period.
#2 Edward Barnes & Son folding dirk ;sometime prior to 1901 according to Goins.
#3 Geo.Wostenholm Celebrated Cutlery folding dirk circa 1860.
Wm. Greaves & Sons folding dirk in business from 1816-1870.

[Ray S]

A few more.
#1 Geo.Wostenholm lockback circa 1870.
#2 Northfield Cutlery Co. lockback 1858-1919
#3 Remington Daddy Barlow circa 1930's
#4 Southington Cutlery Co.1867-1905

[ezdog]

All I can say here is that it is  "Lox"  and now I am hungry!

[SteveC]

All I can say here is that is it "Lox"  and now I am hungry!

I do believe it was a play on words by Ray  .

[ezdog]

I do believe it was a play on words by Ray  .

OK but....

[Ray S]

I do believe it was a play on words by Ray  .

Correctimundo my friend! word play is something my bride and I enjoy immensely;especially "homophones"(I believe that is the term for words that sound alike but have entirely different meanings).Another variation is mis-pronounciation of words such as,"putting the "ack scent" on the wrong "sill arbel".

[ezdog]

Correctimundo my friend! word play is something my bride and I enjoy immensely;especially "homophones"(I believe that is the term for words that sound alike but have entirely different meanings).Another variation is mis-pronounciation of words such as,"putting the "ack scent" on the wrong "sill arbel".

The work of a cunning linguist indeed.


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[Ray S]

The work of a cunning linguist indeed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Haven't been called that in awhile! My ex wife used to call me a,"rectal cavity" on occasion(most of the time".As I would reply:" If the Foo schitz;where it".

[Borg]

The folding scalpel is real nice, bet that thing is sharp 

[theonew]

Wow, super cool and interesting

But we do need bagels