Blade Play

[T.J.]

I just got a new Shaman today and it’s got a fair amount of side to side blade play. The pivot is fully tightened. I’ve noticed that nearly all of my Para 2’s have side to side play as well. Is this a compression lock thing? Kinda disappointed to drop over 200 on a USA made knife that has these issues. Centering is off as well.

[Henry_P]

I’ve never had a compression lock (about 10 knives at this point) with side to side play. If I loosen my knives too much then some side to side play will develop but I’ve never had side to side play with the pivot fully tightened. The only one I’ve had some issues with was my Z-Wear Shaman. When I received it it was off centered and had some side to side blade play. Once I tightened the pivot all the way the blade play disappeared. It doesn’t fully drop close unless I loosen it to where there is blade play. So, I just live with it not being fully drop shut.

[Eliteone2383]

Take it apart and clean it. Should help.

[PeanutButterFan]

Sounds like the washers may be a little too thin.

Try loosening all of the screws then tighten the pivot down first followed by the body screws. If that doesn’t work, tighten body screws first followed by the pivot screw.

I have tried this method on a manix 2 and it seemed to work, although, the manix has a much different contruction. Spydercos bushing pivots can be a little finicky sometimes.

[T.J.]

Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll give them a shot. Overall it’s a really nice knife. The action is great.

[VooDooChild]

It shouldnt have play if your pivot is tightened all the way, you may need to send it in. Is your pivot actually tightened all the way, on both sides?

Heres the deal, Spyderco runs extremely tight tolerances in their knife construction. Its impressive but it can also make getting action/play right difficult.

Tuning a compression lock to where its perfect is a p.i.t.a. Its like a hairs width of a turn between being perfect with no play and dropping shut, or being too loose or too tight. It can be done but it takes a lot of messing with, youre not just going to tighten the pivot and get it perfect the first time.

You may need to send the knife back, but youre probably just missing that perfect sweet spot of pivot tension. You can save yourself a lot of heartache if you are just willing to live with a very small amount of play in some of your comp locks. I can promise you it wont affect knife use or lockup or the overall strength of the knife.

Some models are worse than others depending on size, design, pivot type, etc. Most of my pm2s are perfect or are not too difficult to get perfect. I actually leave a tiny amount of play in my beater pm2 just to remind myself that it doesnt matter. My shamans are more difficult to "tune". A caribbean is very difficult because of its pivot and this thing that happens with its scales if you want it to be drop close with no play.

If its honestly a very small amount of play, like a hairs width of play. That you have to go looking for, (You dont notice it in use but only notice it when you grip the tip and wiggle the handle forcefully) then I say dont worry about it. If its a noticeable amount of play, that shows up in use and you cant dial it out, send the knife in.

Take it apart and clean it. Should help.

Also good advice, although I havent had a new spydie that needed this done.

[Cambertree]

For reference, I haven’t had side to side play in any of my compression lock knives.

Something you may want to consider is the phospher bronze washers can sometimes be burred or kinked at the edges. This is something I’ve experienced with Seki knives, but I don’t think I’ve seen it in a Golden made knife.

I just took my SB Stretch apart last night and it had this issue on one of the washers. I lapped it flat on a 1200 grit Venev OCB pocketstone and then polished them and all the bearing surfaces of the tang sides and action with a strop progression and the action is now smooth and slick and tight.

[Holland]

Cleaning the pivot area has helped me with this issue in the past

[Evil D]

Make sure the pivot isn't just loctited in place and is actually totally tightened. If it's completely cranked tight and there's still play it's probably defective, you should be able to tighten the pivot down to the point of not being able to turn the blade at all.

[Bwana1]

Something you may want to consider is the phospher bronze washers can sometimes be burred or kinked at the edges. This is something I’ve experienced with Seki knives, but I don’t think I’ve seen it in a Golden made knife.

I just took my SB Stretch apart last night and it had this issue on one of the washers. I lapped it flat on a 1200 grit Venev OCB pocketstone and then polished them and all the bearing surfaces of the tang sides and action with a strop progression and the action is now smooth and slick and tight.

That's great advise, I'll keep that in mind for the future.

[T.J.]

Thanks again everyone. It’s not so much play that it’ll drive me nuts. I’ll leave it as is for now, although I’ll probably get bored and try to perfect it at some point.

[Vaugith]

Honestly ive had several comp locks that were perfect out of the box but several that also were either too tight, had poor centering, a pivot screw that would continuously back out, or had side to side play. The worst were my caribbean, g10 rex45 shaman, and Zwear shaman. All I do is use the knife a bunch, take it apart and clean it after it's thoroughly dirty, and try to get the action right upon reassembly. Repeat. After a couple of months, both the caribbean and rex shaman came around to having centered drop shut action with no blade play, and I put some blue Loctite in the pivots and they've been perfect ever since. Still waiting on the Zwear, but I have faith it will get there.

I think some comp locks just need time to break in and let all their surfaces mate.

[T.J.]

I tightened the pivot a bit more with a WiHa ratchet instead of the regular driver. It stiffened up the action a bit, but the blade play is gone. I’m good with it now.