I had one of the original "Mel Pardue Axis Folder"s as my only user knife for 10 years or so. I almost completely wore the finish off of the aluminum handle and never broke an Omega spring. Other people have had the springs go on their week old knife, others took a few months or years.
I have never had a properly built liner lock "go bad" or fail on me. Either they worked fine from the start, or they didn't and it was obvious and were exchanged for safe knives. My oldest Spyderco Military is 6 years old now and has been used
a lot. The lock is just as good now as it was when I got it.
It seems you are misunderstanding about BKC. The meme of spring braking is as much nonsense as frame lock slips without a warning.
I know that they do not break constantly, but there are consistent reports of people breaking their Omega springs without warning. With a lock that uses a steel (or titanium) bar, if it is going to fail there will almost always be a sign, and once it does "fail" it is usually still useable.
I used to design structural systems (beams, bridges, roofs, etc.) and I'm good at spotting a weak link - the Omega spring is far weaker, and more likely to fail without warning, than a properly tuned frame/liner/compression/puzzle lock made by Spyderco/Benchmade/ZT/Emerson or any other quality manufacturer.
One of the benefits of dual Omega springs is that if one fails, one spring has enough tension to keep the lock open or closed. One of the springs in my Kulgera broke after a few years of use. The blade was able still lock open or keep the knife closed.
Based on a search here, when one Omega spring fails the other usually fails soon after. I like my fingers too much to rely on half of a lock system.
I get that you guys love Axis locks, but it doesn't make me stupid to notice its shortcomings and consider them when deciding on whether or not to spend a couple hundred dollars on a knife.
Adding a safety to a breakage prone knife is a good idea, in my opinion, and might get me to finally buy an Axis lock Benchmade.
