Hey All,
I wanted to take a quick moment and answer a question I get very frequently via PM and email, and it goes something along the lines of "What do you mean when you say your framelocks are Integral?"
The origins of the term integral are somewhat muddy. The original R.I.L., or Reeve Integral Lock, was invented by famous knife maker Chris Reeve in the early 90's. Based on the Walker Liner Lock, Reeve's Integral Lock featured a beefed up liner which served as the frame for the knife and featured no scale cover. This allows the users hand to contact the lock bar and in effect keep the knife securely locked while the knife is open and in hand, and help prevent unwanted closure.
As time has gone on, there have been countless renditions of this mechanism, but the term "Integral Frame Lock" is now somewhat archaic. In fixed blades, the term "Integral" refers to the knife, and perhaps bolsters, being forged or milled out of one solid piece of steel. With the introduction of similarly designed folding knives like Scott Cook's Lochsa or the Lionsteel SR-1, the word "Integral" took on a new meaning with framelock knives. "Integral" now refers to the construction of the handle rather than the construction of the lock, and it means that the handle is machined out of one solid piece of material, lock and all.
An Integral folding knife has very few parts. One would think that due to the simplicity of construction, Integrals would be easy to make, but in fact they are astonishingly tricky to perfect. My own Integral design has taken around 10 months to come to fruition, and I don't think that I'm an outlier. However, a polished Integral design is remarkably easy to maintain, extremely strong and offers the end user eternal bragging rights with its off the charts cool factor. The solid one-piece construction is generally considered to be the strongest way to build a framelock, and there's something inherently special about a one piece handle, especially from the design and engineering standpoint. For those of you who enjoy mechanical design, I think you'll agree with me that Integrals are very cool in that respect.
Hopefully this clears up exactly what people mean by Integral, it can be somewhat confusing but I think this will help to shed some light on the differences between the R.I.L. and the modern term "Integral", as well as some of the advantages of Integral knives.
-Will
