Spine whack testing: valid or not?

Is it a fair practice?

  • Yes, it's a valid test.

    Votes: 23 18.0%

  • No, it's a pointless and stupid test.

    Votes: 58 45.3%

  • It's more complicated than a simple "yes" or "no" answer.

    Votes: 47 36.7%
  • Total voters
    128
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To clarify a bit on my earlier post...

I think it's sorta silly to start wailing away on an inverted folding knife, but a couple of quick raps on wood or similar to check it's lock up is not a big deal.

I've had many folders get junk inside like sand, dirt, dust, lint, fertilizer, guts, wood shavings, mud, tape residue, etc. that have interfered with lock up.

I have also had locks fail in what I consider reasonable use, especially knives that have body flex.

I don't use slip joints for anything other than light duty, as I know for me personally, I will either mess up the pivot or have one snap closed.

Saying that....I don't recommend creating some sort of abusive regiment wailing away on the spine.
 
These ‘tests’ are garbage. They’re only there because the idiots doing them can’t come up with anything more entertaining to waste their bandwidth on. If you really want to see how much force a locking mechanism can handle before it fails, put a force gauge on it so you can actually measure the force on it where it fails. Of course that’s nowhere near as exciting as the Neanderthal act of beating the piss out of one inanimate object with another.
 
I've had a folder close on me from inadvertently hitting the spine. After that failure I tested my folders, I can make some of them fail by hitting them against my palm. Not cool.

The point of the lock is to keep the blade open against opposing forces, otherwise get a slip joint and cut a pumpkin and watch the handle fold when it binds up in the thick exterior.

Aimlessly beating the spine of the knife is abuse, ensuring the knife doesn't close if it meets an inadvertent hit to the spine is not. Plenty of folders can handle hard wacks to the spine.


But as noted above, fixed blade is the answer.
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Danny Linguini said:
These ‘tests’ are garbage. They’re only there because the idiots doing them can’t come up with anything more entertaining to waste their bandwidth on.
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I think we are forgetting something here.....
As I recall, this ridiculous "test" was first heavily promoted some years ago by a certain "larger than life" individual on many of his outlandish videos to demonstrate how strong his knives were.....and now there are many people who take this stuff as gospel. At least LCTs tests were somewhat uniform....
 
Delgadonine said:
I could throw a loaded gun on the ground and it could fire off a round. Not a bad a gun, just a negligent misuse of it. Thats the 'spine test' to me.

Use a tool correctly and it lowers the chance of failure or injury. 'Correctly' comes from education and experience. Not abuse, misuse or negligence.
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No. If you throw or drop a gun and it goes off, it is either defective or a bad design.
 
DMG said:
No. If you throw or drop a gun and it goes off, it is either defective or a bad design.
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Or we live in a Hollyweird world.
 
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Arathol said:
I think we are forgetting something here.....
As I recall, this ridiculous "test" was first heavily promoted some years ago by a certain "larger than life" individual on many of his outlandish videos to demonstrate how strong his knives were.....and now there are many people who take this stuff as gospel. At least LCTs tests were somewhat uniform....
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Ah, the key word there is ‘somewhat’. How many people do you know can strike an object with another object at the same exact velocity two or more times? Even dropping a weight on it will be more consistent than a human strike. Maybe I’m splitting hairs here; but if you’re telling me I should base my decisions about buying knives on some attention whore swinging a club at them, I’m gonna ask for a bit more reliable and objective testing methods.
 
shinyedges said:
The point of the lock is to keep the blade open against opposing forces, otherwise get a slip joint and cut a pumpkin and watch the handle fold when it binds up in the thick exterior.
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As an avid pumpkin carver who often uses slip joints to carve them, I can say that lock backs are nice.
It's kind of what I've always known a lock back was really for- preventing an accidental closure.
Lock backs let me cut the pumpkins in ways I can't with a slip joint.
 
When I used to cut excess vegetables up from the garden for the pigs, I used whatever knife was one me. When all I had was a sak in my pocket I always chuckled at the toughness of squash, pumpkin etc. Having the handle fold because the blade bound up gets annoying. That said I still love me a slippy
 
Had a chance to handle a custom folder, made by a well regarded maker. No Spin Wack, however if you pushed with your thumb on the spine of the knife, nothing happened, until you pushed a second time and then the blade would close. I could see a lot of times when you would be pushing on the spine of the blade when cutting something, release, push again and now the blade closes on your hand? The knife was sent back to the maker, got it back and it still did the same thing. No idea why? John
 
shinyedges said:
When I used to cut excess vegetables up from the garden for the pigs, I used whatever knife was one me. When all I had was a sak in my pocket I always chuckled at the toughness of squash, pumpkin etc. Having the handle fold because the blade bound up gets annoying. That said I still love me a slippy
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If you've never tried one- try a Mora Flex knife.
Not the burliest fixed blade in the world, but it zips through anything with a hard rind.
 
elasmonut said:
Define "whack" . Everyone I've whacked with whacks different, are we whakin by hand or with a tool? How hard a whack is too hard?, or how many times should it be whacked? What are we whakin against? Why wack on folders anyway?
Ive got better things to whack on. Whack too much on anything and it will eventually fail.
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I'll just hold the handle near the pivot and rap the spine against my knuckles a couple of times to simulate a light accidental bump and show me if it has any tendency to shift easily.
BTTLBRN said:
This thread has stayed surprisingly serious - kinda - longer than I expected.

A spine whack does introduce shock to the locking mechanism of a knife that is different than what would be during normal use; most notably there is no hand on the handle when the forces are applied. This is probably most notable in a frame lock as an example.

That said, certain makers do themselves employ these tests to evaluate the validity of their work.

Example -


Skip ahead to 13:45 or just watch the whole thing, it's a great video.
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Wow, he's giving it significantly more grease than I would have expected, and a ton more than I ever would.
 
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