Swisstool and Leatherman Locks

[gadgetman7]

I just tried something with a new Victorinox Spirit and a Leatherman Blast. I have a lock failure on a Spirit some months ago and quit carrying it. So I got another one last week to try it out figuring that I could always trade it if I didn't like it.

So I took the new Spirit and opened the awl and started chipping ice. I am outdoors a lot and this is a common task for me. The lock on the awl did not hold. I thought that I might have been to hard on the tool so I started to just let it go. Then I thought that I would try my Leatherman Charge. I opened the screwdriver blade and chipped away - the lock held. I decided to downgrade a little so I used my Blast. I opened the small screwdriver and tried it. It held.

This got my curiosity up and I tried the old spine whack. I opened the Phillips screwdrivers on all three and tapped them moderately against a wooden workbench. The Spirit failed but the Leatherman tools held. So I whacked the Leatherman tools extremely hard and they held.

Curiosity farther aroused I hung a twenty-five pound free weight from the Phillips screwdriver on all three. All three locks held fine - in fact with constant direct pressure I could never get the Spirit to fail again - even when I stood on it.

So my question it what is it about the Spirit lock that doesn't hold up to shock but handles constant pressure perfectly? I wonder if the spring that pushes the lock forward  fails under shock?

Any ideas? By the way, I love Victorinox products but this failure is odd to me.

[Leatherman123]

I suppose your theory could be correct.. I have never had a lock failure on any multitool...

[hawkchucker]

Actually the spine whack test never really carried any weight with me. I have never had to Pound the back of a blade, and when you batton wood it has preasure to keep the thing from rebounding.


However.... I have a real use for torquing the blade. i hate to have a failure when the blade is twisted. But to get back to you. IF you spend a ton of time stabbing into something. It seems the Vic lock cannot hold up to the action. Some locks just preform differently. I guess it is just going to come down to a judgement call on weather you trust it.

[Spoonrobot]

This issue came up on Bladeforums a few years ago, I forget what the general consensus was but it was eventually dismissed because it was a multi and not a knife. I can trip some of the tools with the spine whack but haven't had any real-use failures.

I just think it's a general function of having highly polished surfaces and the shorter engagement of the Spirit locks. The locks do seem to handle torque extremely well which is more important in this role than striking forces.

Solution? Put your thumb and index finger on the locking tab when stabbing things, it only takes a little pressure to keep the springs from recoiling back due to out of line forces. 

[gadgetman7]

Actually, I only use the stabbing type motion when I'm chipping ice. I think it's really more of an interesting question. I'm keeping the Spirit since it seems okay for everything but that and I really like the tool otherwise. Anyway I use slip joint SAKs pretty much everyday anyway.

I hadn't thought about the polished surface but that may be the cause. I'll have to play with it some more.

[jzmtl]

I think it's has more to do with the style of lock. It use a bar to wedge against a flat section on back of tool (same as gerber safe-t-plus, and maybe sog's piston lock on their knives), well steel can flex under stress, so the lockbar and handle could flex enough to let the lock release. I had a gerber knife years ago that use the same lock and it doesn't take much to make it fail, so I've never trusted this style of lock since.

[Smitty44]

Get an icepick!!!

[scrappy]

i have definetly had multiple multitools fail on me in regards to the lock but I did not know this about swiss tools. thanks for the info.
an ice pick is one more thing to edc, i don't think so