Some questions about my kiwi

[Capt. Carl]

I recently bought a kiwi for myself after gifting one to my grandfather a few years back and loving it. It's a great knife but mine has some things that seem odd to me compared to the one I had handled before. The blade sticks in the closed position and is difficult to flick closed. In fact, at the top of the blade's arc when opening it has a slight bias to open. In the other one I handled, the blade falls when you press the lock. The knife also has some vertical play and lots of horizontal play in the closed position (this might be normal).

Is this normal for this knife or was the one I handled before just exceptional? I'm trying to decide if I should send it in for warranty, but I don't want to be an annoying nitpicker. I LOVE this knife design, in fact it's my favorite spyderco. I carry only traditional slipjoints and one of the reasons I bought the kiwi was that it carries like one and is one hand opening. I was also looking forward to the easy closing but this one has a resistance than other spydercos.

[monsterdog]

I would send it in for warranty, my Kiwi has perfect closed bias and no wobble.

[Capt. Carl]

Thank you monsterdog.

[The Deacon]

Horizontal blade play in the closed position is quite normal for midlocks. I have a lot of Kiwis, all their blades can be moved side to side while the are closed. So can the blades of darn near every other midlock I own. Vertical play is decidedly abnormal for a Kiwi, but so is a blade which falls freely. Like most other Moki built midlocks, they tend to be stiff, rather than flickable.

[Capt. Carl]

Is the vertical play even a warranty issue? I don't want to lose my awesome knife for weeks and pay 5+ dollars for nothing.