I got this knife as a gift several years ago, I don’t really use it a whole lot but I do like to take it camping and such. However, on a camping trip a year or so ago, it got stuck open.
There is some little wire loop looking thing that seems to pop out of wherever it’s supposed to be and blocks the thumb unlocker from working. I can take a tiny screwdriver or Allen wrench and poke around in there and pop the thing back into place, and then it works and closes just fine. And it’ll be fine for a few times, opens and closes correctly, but after a handful of times that piece inevitably pops back out again and locks it open.
I’ve tried to use a tiny torx bit to remove the sides to see if I can figure out what’s going on, but the screws just spin. The big screw at the hinge unscrews as expected but all the little ones all act like they’re stripped.
What else can I do? Is there some trick to removing the sides? Any help would be appreciated.
Here’s what it looks like opened correctly with the little piece still wherever it’s supposed to be:
And when the piece pops out and gets stuck:
Somewhat useful red circle if you couldn’t see the problem:
Most malfunctions are caused by a bad magazine, try replacing that first
It appears, from the photos online, that what is holding the knife together is the pivot screw at the front (which you said you can take out) and 2 sets of screws at the back. One set right by the glass breaker and one set right behind the belt cutter. You may need to have 2 torx bit screw drivers, one on each side of the pair of screws turning in opposite directions. Likely there is a barrel with threads on both ends in between the two sets of screws and the barrel is free to spin internally. So you have to leverage one screw driver against the other to loosen them.
This knife is an assisted open knife, so perhaps the spring mechanism inside has figured out how to wiggle itself free (or whatever was holding the spring in place has broken). It might be challenging to put it all back together if you can sort out what might be happening.
If you don’t have additional torx bits and a driver, the cost of those is going to be some good percentage of an exact replacement. Certainly there’s value in learning how this thing is put together, but it might not be repairable in a cost-effective way.
Thank you much! Using the two opposite screws against each other makes sense, I bet you’re right. I only have one torx bit that’s small enough but I may see if there’s anything else I can make work for that, a little Allen wrench or something maybe.
Totally agree with your comment about the fix maybe not being cost effective, that’s pretty much where I’m at. I would like to try to fix it if I can, but I’m definitely not attached to it enough to warrant spending any money on a fix when I could put the same money into a better replacement and be done with it.
Thanks again!
The one nice thing about having 2 sets of torx drivers is that now you have 2 sets of torx drivers! 😁 One can wander off into some hidden area of a junk drawer or a forgotten tool box or something and you’ll have a backup!
In all seriousness, if you do get it apart, snap a couple pictures and post a follow-up. There’s good info in a tear-down, even if someone never buys the same knife, it’s good to see how things work.
And if you get to the point where you would like any recommendations for a replacement, post that as well. :)
I found a little torx wrench from a 3d printer that happened to fit perfectly. So I used that, and the bit driver I already had, stuck the thing in a vise, and tried to get it apart. Unfortunately the first screw head stripped itself mostly smooth. It’ll still turn clockwise to tighten but the bit won’t grab anything counterclockwise to loosen. So that’s unfortunate. I’ll maybe give it another shot later, try a different screw, see if I can loosen it up a little without destroying it. I’ll def post teardown pics if I do manage to get it apart.
If you’ve got any recs for something roughly similar in the, say, $25-50 range that’s still decent quality, I’d love to hear them. I do like the size of it, it was a decent little knife for camping and stuff, length and weight and everything felt pretty good for what I needed it for. I liked the thumb lock to keep it open, even though that was this knife’s downfall, it felt safer to use that way than my little Swiss army knife. Don’t need the whole M&P tacticool look necessarily. The glass break and seatbelt cutter were I suppose kind of good ideas for a knife I could just keep in the car door pocket or something, and I do sorta like the idea of “knife, plus extras” as long as the extras make sense, but wouldn’t say I needed them really. (I mean hell, those parts of the knife aren’t broke, so I could still keep the one I’ve got as a dedicated car escape tool, if nothing else.)
In the $25-50 range, the world is your oyster, in the knife world that is for sure. Especially if seatbelt cutter and glass breaker are not requirements. And honestly, most of the glass breaker tips you see on knives don’t actually do a good job doing that. (No experience with your particular knife, just an overall observation).
If you were to look at just KnifeCenter.com and just knives that are in stock today, you get 950+ choices for knives in your price range with blades between 3" and 4" in length.
If you like the combo edge (partially serrated) there are lots of options as well. I don’t think you can filter on that option though so you’ll have to look through.
For trying different lock types (the term for the lock on your knife is: liner lock) you can also filter on the left side. I would highly recommend something with an AXIS/Crossbar lock because they are a lot of fun/very fidget friendly. :) But there are also lots of great knives with liner locks in that list too.
Feel free to ask any questions about brands, styles, etc. once you dig into the list. (Of course, you can buy most of these elsewhere if you have a favorite spot, but the KnifeCenter website is great for filtering/sorting etc. so at least you can get a handle on what’s out there.)
So I looked through that list and have narrowed down to a few choices. I do like the combo blade a lot for camping and outdoors use.
- Kershaw 8100 Funxion EMT, which looks to be a functional replacement for the S&W as far as the extras.
- Ontario Rat Model 1 8849, which is just the knife without the tools, but seems to have great reviews.
- Gerber Highbrow 30-001638 that has the axis/crossbar lock you mentioned. Doesn’t specify the blade length but based on the overall length I’m guessing it’s similar to the others. I can’t find this one on Gerber’s website, which makes me think it may be an older model on clearance at knife center or something.
- Kershaw 2038ST Iridium, which is priced a bit higher than I was really going for but I could probably be convinced if it’s worth it and will hold up well, it does look pretty nice.
I guess my biggest question for all these is, being in the same price range as the S&W, are they “inexpensive” or are they “cheap”? Could any of these be considered anything close to “BIFL” based on an expectation of light/medium duty outdoor use a handful of times per year?
I don’t think you can go wrong with either of the Kershaws. Even among their budget models, Kershaw seems to make a solid knife. I own oodles of knives from them from old to new-ish, cheap to expensive.
Ditto with the Ontario Rat. For what it’s worth, I also have a knockoff (sort of, it’s complicated) of the Rat which I go on about at some length here.
Personally I would give the Gerber a miss, although that’s probably my own bias speaking. Geber is not the entity it once was (some screwball standouts notwithstanding) and it seems these days the majority of their output is low grade Chinese trash. I do like some low grade Chinese trash now and again, but I prefer mine to be cheap enough not to care and at minimum to be honest about itself. The Highbrow in particular seems to run afoul of Gerber Disease, which is a well known disorder to knife aficionados which apparently results in Gerber being pathologically unwilling to admit what kind of steel their low-end knives are actually made out of. It’s hard to take that as a good sign.
Your S&W knife is actually made by whatever faceless Chinese OEM that Taylor Brands, LLC uses to churn out the sum total of their department store and auto parts store bound models. You’re paying a lot for the licensing of the name there, and not an awful lot is left over for the actual knife part of the knife, based on what I’ve seen from all of those that I’ve handled. Your S&W may have retailed for $55 or whatever, but in real terms its actually worth about $15 and possesses roughly the same quality as a modern no-name Chinese knife at that price point. That’s fine and all, but if I’m going to own that sort of thing I’d much rather pay $15 for it than $55…
Thanks much, to you and @cetan@piefed.world both! I think I’ve pretty much decided to go with the Kershaw Iridium, even though it’s a bit more than I was really wanting to spend. Seems like the right move.
Kinda figured as much about the S&W. I guess I’m glad I didn’t spend my own money on it. At this point, unfortunately, whenever I see something like this, branded with a known company logo but outside that company’s wheelhouse, I just assume it’s probably made out of chinesium and should be considered more like promotional swag than an actual company-made product.
I agree with @dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world. The Iridium and the Ontario Rat would be my choices. I have the Ontario Rat 2 (a 3" version instead of the 3.5" that is the Rat 1) and it’s rock solid. A great choice.
I don’t have an Iridium but I do have other Kershaw knives with their crossbar lock (their marketing name being the Duralock) and they’re also excellent.You cannot go wrong with either of those.
And yes, the crossbar lock design has a lot of different marketing names: AXIS lock (Benchmade), Duralock (Kershaw), Pivot Lock (Gerber), Able Lock (Hogue), Clutch Lock (Kizer), Glyde Lock (QSP) etc. But many companies just use the term crossbar lock.
Pinging @dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world for his expertise in dealing with reluctant and/or threadlockered knife screws lol
The usual answer is either a heat gun or a soldering iron tip to heat the threadlocker that is probably in there. But @dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world is not a usual person 😂
This is, alas, a cheap knife. Now it’s doing cheap knife things. I mirror @cetan@piefeed.world’s prediction that the part getting out of place and causing you trouble is the spring for this knife’s spring assist mechanism. It’s supposed to have a hook bent into it that rides in a hole in the blade’s heel. The hook may have snapped off, or your main pivot screw may have backed out to the extent that there’s now too much of a gap to prevent the spring from working its way out of place. Based on the amount of gap I can see I theorize it’s the latter.
You’ll probably find something rather like this lurking beneath one of the scales:
How that goes in is the hook on the end goes in the hole in the blade, and the wiggly part of the spring rests flat inside the pocket carved out for it on the back side of the handle scale. There will be one (or most likely, two) positions in the blade’s rotation where the spring is completely slack and won’t be under tension against either the edges of its pocket or the barrel of the pivot screw, and keeping the blade there when you reassemble the knife will make your life a lot easier.
It’s unlikely any screw in this knife has an anti-rotation flat on it, especially the main pivot screw, so you’re undoubtedly going to need to stick a screwdriver in each side to get any of them undone. Cheap screws are likely to strip when met with cheap screwdrivers, or at least screwdriver tips. I prefer Wiha screwdriver bits since they seem to hold up the longest. The body screws are probably threadlockered as well, and you can encourage them to let go by pressing the tip of a hot soldering iron against them for thirty seconds or so. I’d advise against bringing a heat gun or torch anywhere near it.
T6 Torx and T8 Torx are the two sizes you’ll need most often for taking apart knives. You can buy these online individually for a buck or two a piece of you don’t want to shell out for a full set.
I’d categorize this as a learning experience: This is an inexpensive knife that’s not exactly manufactured to a high degree of quality or care. But the way it comes apart and goes together is indicative of most modern folders which includes better, higher quality knives you might own in the future. If you ever have to delve into one of those, the skills and construction methods you learned from this one will be useful.
Thank you! I sorta figured as much about it being a “cheap knife”. That’s why I’m not too attached to it and am basically at the end of my patience for trying to fix it. If I can get it, great, if not, oh well.
I’ll give the soldering iron trick a shot and see if that lets me open up the body screws. But if that still fails or more screws strip out, I’m just gonna drop the thing in my door pocket and call it a dedicated car emergency tool and shop for a replacement. It does technically open, at least once, and all the little extras are still useful for that purpose.
