Manual Button Locks?

DrRollinstein

DrRollinstein

Basic Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2018
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The Protech Mordax that recently went up on massdrop has piqued my interest in something like this. The Mordax is crazy cool, but months away from release and a bit out of my range at the moment.

Basically, are there other knives in this category, and preferably in the 100-200 dollar range?
 
The only one that come to mind at the moment are the hogue ex## series button lock manual knives. I had a freeman 451 blf that I sold in the exchange that was every bit awesome. I only got rid of it because I had two, but are priced 230+ depending on steel variants
 
The Protech Cambria is their first manual button lock flipper. It''s a shame it doesn't get more publicity, but it has a great action, blade geometry, clip, and it's very light for a knife with a 3.5 inch blade. It falls within your price range, so you can check out a Protech if you want.

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Silent H said:
The Protech Cambria is their first manual button lock flipper. It''s a shame it doesn't get more publicity, but it has a great action, blade geometry, clip, and it's very light for a knife with a 3.5 inch blade. It falls within your price range, so you can check out a Protech if you want.

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Completely forgot that they had done one before. Sick. I have 3 protechs so i'd have no issues getting another. And ill look at the hogues too.
 
The Klötzli Swiss Border Guard comes to mind (although it's out of your preferred price range). I always wanted to try one of these. Klötzli is a bit of a dinosaur, but their craftsmanship is quintessentially Swiss, and I've always liked Dietmar Pohl's designs. Image courtesy @Armadew
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vanadium said:
The Klötzli Swiss Border Guard comes to mind (although it's out of your preferred price range). I always wanted to try one of these. Klötzli is a bit of a dinosaur, but their craftsmanship is quintessentially Swiss, and I've always liked Dietmar Pohl's designs. Image courtesy @Armadew
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Wow, that is a gorgeous knife. Good size and materials, ill definitely have to keep it in mind for the future.
 
Freeman Outdoors 451 flipper

A little over your limit but imo an amazing folder in every way
 
Crkt and real steel bothe make a great button lock that works w dual action and you cant beat the price. Cant remember the model names. Hogue button lock will not release the blade to open, only to close+, but boy does hogue make a great knife. I'll post some pics when I get home if I remember.
 
DrRollinstein said:
Completely forgot that they had done one before. Sick. I have 3 protechs so i'd have no issues getting another. And ill look at the hogues too.
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Protech also has a tr4 manual. Also check out the spartan pallas.

The Freeman 451 is on my short list though.
 
I also have a CRKT Tighe Rade, and the action is great for the price, however the rest of the knife isn't great. The cutting geometry, ergos, and texture on the handle are all ugly. But if you want a cheap button lock with a good action (i.e. a fidget toy) you can find it for really cheap online.
 
Im pretty sure I saw Spyderco was making one. The button was working a compression lock. Cant remember the name.
Okay so did my research. The Spyderco Smock. Its not out yet. Seeing places offering preorders.
 
There is a good and bad about Pro-Tech's button locks that made me contact them when I got my TR-4 manual.The contact point for the button lock barrel on Pro-Tech is machined completely across the back...not halfway or a stopping point like what I see on a Hogue,Gerber, and Freeman.Looking down inside my TR-4 though the button lock barrel...the lock-up is rock-solid/play free...but the barrel only rises a little.So I contacted Pro-Tech.

According to Dave Wattenburg(the owner) at Pro-Tech...everyone else is designing their button locks wrong.The reason for Pro-Tech's much lower barrel rise is for more room for the button lock to self-adjust from wear it takes on.As the steel wears around the notch area, the barrel extends out further.The manufacturers making a dead end on the back for the barrel to extend only so far...I could see vertical play forming on the blade from lock wear. Pro-Tech's design I see the barrel extending further and further from wear.Until one day the barrel pops out from extending too far across and separating from the spring contained under it from not having that dead end to block the barrel.

To me Pro-Tech's design is about fighting the annoyance of future blade play...but not a superior design when you think about it.A Gerber has vertical play from fast/unprecise manufacturing but it works if you don't have much money.Hogue and Freeman have the precision of Pro-Tech with a question-free design for the button lock.
 
115Italian said:
Im pretty sure I saw Spyderco was making one. The button was working a compression lock. Cant remember the name.
Okay so did my research. The Spyderco Smock. Its not out yet. Seeing places offering preorders.
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A compression lock operated by a button? Now thats an interesting knife.

Im pretty tempted on the Freenman to be honest, it looks like a beast.
 
BenchCo Spydermade said:
Crkt and real steel bothe make a great button lock that works w dual action and you cant beat the price. Cant remember the model names. Hogue button lock will not release the blade to open, only to close+, but boy does hogue make a great knife. I'll post some pics when I get home if I remember.
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I am very curious about CRKT's Deadbolt Lock which is a large button style lock designed within the pivot region...


They seemed to have abandoned their LAWKS design on current models since their run-in with Cold Steel.The guys at CRKT were always open-minded about other lock designs so hopefully they'll have something fresh to bring to the table.Even though there's no money for Lynn Thompson to be made this time through the wording of 'virtual fixed blade'...I'm sure he'll have Andrew Demko test the Deadbolt Lock.
 
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Here is a real steel Griffin, crkt tight rade and hogue x5. Crkt has the best functioning button lock. Real steel has the best deal for a great user, with the sandvik steel, but lacks grip. The hogue is a bit of a monster but its like a pocket chef's knife. Flipper a bit stiff tho.
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Someone ought to mention William Henry Knives, but it ain't gonna be me.
 
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Frotier76 said:
I am very curious about CRKT's Deadbolt Lock
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Aye; it’s a shame the knife they decided to debut the lock with is $120 and uses 1.4116 steel. Legitimately not even as good as 8Cr13MoV. What a joke.

Anyway, I haven’t seen Benchmade get a mention yet; They had a H&K model (Nagara?) that operated a lot like a button-compression lock. I think William Henry and AG Russell does some button locks as well. Additionally, Spartan Blades and Kizer Tangram have a few button locks between them. That’s all that I can think of that hasn’t been mentioned already.
 
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