First Spyderco: Manix 2 LW, pivot tightness/blade play issue. Is this normal for the model?

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metaphoricalsimile
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First Spyderco: Manix 2 LW, pivot tightness/blade play issue. Is this normal for the model?

#1

Post by metaphoricalsimile »

I bought my first Spyderco and did quite a bit of research before settling on the Manix 2 LW. It fell within my budget and had a locking mechanism that looked pretty ideal, and a blade size and shape that was what I was looking for, since my EDC is a tiny knife and I wanted something bigger for a lot of the handy-man work I've been doing lately.

So the good thing is that I love how light it is, and the blade shape is indeed very ideal, and the CTS-BD1N steel has been seeing some pretty heavy use without chipping or rolling (although I am careful not to abuse my pocket knives, they are a cutting tool only). Other than a burr it had out of the box that I was able to remove very easily with a stone, it has stayed quite sharp and I am more impressed by the steel than I would expect to be.

My big problem with the knife, however, is that I can't tune the action such that it is both easy and smooth without blade play. If I tune the screw tightness to have a very free-swinging blade with the lock disengaged, it has a very significant amount of blade play. If I tune the blade to have no side-to-side play the blade is way too stiff to flick open or closed. I have thus far settled for *some* blade play, and a blade that requires some wrist action to one-hand open reliably.

Am I doing something wrong, or is this how they are supposed to be, or should I actually look at sending this knife back to spyderco?