Para3 lightweight stiff

[Blafedude02]

Hi all,

I received my paramilitary 3 lightweight and was shocked by how sticky and stiff the knife was. This was my first spyderco knife and I'm a little disappointed. I tried to loosen the center and compression bolt but that made this issue worse. Is this issue a one off or is this expected?

[Dodge]

Sounds odd to me. I suggest you contact Spyderco and send it in. Mine came butter smooth with no blade play at all.

[JonLeBlanc]

If I may, I'm by no means an expert on the Para3 LW because I don't own one, but this is a good topic. It seems like with a compression lock model one might reasonably expect there to be very little "stiffness," but I have had a PM2 that was quite stiff when I first got it. That was the S110V version. It worked itself smooth over a period of maybe a week through regular opening and use, and became very drop-shutty lol. Perhaps yours just needs a little time and use? Or maybe there IS something up with the scales or pivot etc? I'd recommend giving it a little more time before taking the next step of sending it in, although that could become necessary.

[sal]

Hi Dude,

Welcome to our forum.

Sounds odd to me. Did you buy it new? You may need to send it to us?

sal

[awa54]

the shorter, lighter blade in the PM3 makes it less flick-able than a PM2, but it certainly shouldn't be stiff. Mine was a bit less slick than the full liner G10 scale versions I own when it was new, but still very acceptable and has smoothed out nicely to be almost the same as the "heavyweight" version.

[Ric]

Hi.

Where exactly is it stiff?
Only at open or close also?
Try to wash it in soap water. The blow dry and lube with oil.
Open and close it 200 times....

Normally it should get smoother after a few weeks of use.

[Ruudr]

I had the same thing. After disassemble the knife twice it is one of the most smooth knives I have. And make sure the lock face is clean.

[JuPaul]

Hi all,

I received my paramilitary 3 lightweight and was shocked by how sticky and stiff the knife was. This was my first spyderco knife and I'm a little disappointed. I tried to loosen the center and compression bolt but that made this issue worse. Is this issue a one off or is this expected?

Definitely not an expected issue. I've had 2 para3 lw models, and both were easily flickable and drop shut out of the box, no significant blade play. Both did have off-center blades which couldn't be corrected without ruining that action, though, but since they worked great otherwise I didn't worry about it.

[D-Wade]

I’ve got the plain Para 3 and the serrated version, both are drop shut smooth and almost flick open on their own. But.....I just got the black coated one in last week and it’s stiff. I’m thinking the coating up against the frn is causing some friction. It’s stiff enough that I can’t flick it open and you can forget about it dropping shut. I’ll probably try backing the pivot off a hair or just use it and let it break in over time. I’m realistic and know that not every knife out of the box will be perfectly adjusted. After getting the Sage 5 lw in and playing with it, I hope sal adds another washer and that pivot bushing to the Para 3 lw. The Sage lw is just amazing.

[soulspy]

It sounds like there's grit leftover from the factory. Hot soapy water and scrub. Blow remaining moisture out and then lightly oil.