I saw an interesting video on Youtube in which a couple of locks of different types are tested:
[video width=425 height=344 type=youtube]4KmHfbG7z7g[/video]
The way they jump to conclusions sucks, so take these with a grain of salt. I found it more interesting to see that the brands I generally consider as better (Spyderco, Kershaw) have stronger locks than some budget knives.
Interesting video. I am really disappointed to see them destroy good knives, especially where the science was so poorly applied. It was obvious in the side-view failures that they didn’t take any care to place the load at a precise distance from the pivot point. The numbers they gathered had very little connection to the reality of the inch-pounds of torque applied.
That said, I don’t doubt the bottom line results. Lock-backs are stronger than liner-locks or frame-locks. I’d just prefer that they’d run tests with less than a two-to-one margin of error in their measurements.