I'm having an issue with US made Spydies

[ThomC]

I don't believe in trying to tell someone how to use their property but trying to tell me that taking my knives apart to clean or maintain them is necessary will get an argument out of me everytime. I have Spydercos over 20 years old with half of that in my pocket daily that have never needed to be taken apart. If you feel the need to take yours apart no argument from me though. Just don't say it's needed or necessary . They aren't firearms and have completely different needs and designs. That isn't a valid comparison.

I see Spyderco and any other manufacturing companyas being in a bad position over this kind of thing. They can and do get complaints no matter what they do. To think someone can put together and fit knives all day every day and only get the perfect amount of loctite on every screw means you aren't taking into account the imperfection in people. No matter which side in life you're on try to remember there is another side.

Might not be something you have to do, but it is a necessity for me at times. I've been unable to get all the sand and salt rinsed out of my Pacific Salts pivot before. With non-salts I've had rust build up so bad in the liners I made a Para 2 unable to lock until I scraped out gobs of rust with a toothpick.

If I don't take them apart they'd end up with significant issues over time, not limited to a non-functioning lock.

I'm always impressed by that picture. I'd get it if the blade had rust on the pivot and washer contact areas, but the state of the liners makes me wonder if you're not sweating battery acid :D
Though my former Millie did have spots of rust on the liners when I got it, must've been sitting in a musty drawer. It had lint and dust build-up in spots when I serviced it a couple of days ago before sending it, but nothing that bad.
Maybe you're too active for the stainlessness of the liners to handle :cool:
Though the full and non-recessed liners probably don't help in keeping rust at bay

[vivi]

Good news, tried a neighbors soldering iron and managed to loosen up the stripped screw. Now I can put it on the back side so I don't have to look at it :D

I think I've got this problem fixed now, that helped a lot.

[GarageBoy]

To be fair, knives were pinned for decades and people lived with it.

You hear stories of buck 110s and old slipjoints being used for a lifetime.
Is a wash and some oiling enough?

[sal]

Hi Advan, Vaugith, Trav,

Welcome to our forum.

sal

[Zive]

Glad it worked out for you, Vivi.

Screws on my NC Rex45 were also very tight. Thankfully my bit set came with a little ratchet tool which gave me the leverage to loosen them, but it was more difficult than most models to unscrew.

[vivi]

To be fair, knives were pinned for decades and people lived with it.

You hear stories of buck 110s and old slipjoints being used for a lifetime.
Is a wash and some oiling enough?

I've rusted slipjoints to where I couldn't open them without pliers. Opinels and Leatherman Micras crusted over in rust. Even managed to rust some keys and split rings in my time :p

Salts were one of the things that caught my eye early with Spyderco. Corrosion proof steel is a bigger game changer for me than the edge holding jump between 440C and K390.

[Trav64]

Way too much loctite.

WAY too much.

I've disassembled four US made Spydercos recently. Siren, Chief rex45 and two Manix XL's. All had screws slathered in white loctite.

The Siren had tons of white loctite on all the screws. I had to boil water to soak it to get it to release. It was the most difficulty I've ever had taking apart a knife.

The S30V Manix XL had so much loc-tite it broke my torx bit, completely warping the head. Stripped a pivot screw in the process of trying to take it apart. It was honestly so bad trying to take it apart the first time I thought about selling it for that reason alone. Again I had to boil a pot of water to make the screws even consider the idea of rotating.



Tonight I tried to disassemble my Chief. I couldn't. Not with the tools I have. I managed to get the blade out, but I couldn't remove the stop pin by wrapping rubber around it and pulling it with needle nose pliers. Had to give up with that. Couldn't remove the steel backspacer because the rear body screw stripped as soon as I tried to do anything with it. This was after soaking it in boiling water before even attempting anything, based on my experiences with other US models.



This is starting to become a problem for me. I don't like the idea of breaking my tools trying to take apart my pocket knives. Never seem to have this issue to japanese models. My Police 3 is so easy to service I can take it apart in my sleep.

If you have a soldering iron, you can use it to heat up the screw a bit and that will loosen up the thread locker. Just start with low heat and work your way up, hope this helps.

I'm going to have to buy one just for this purpose.



When they're using such big gobs of white loc-tite its spilling out on to the scales it makes me wonder what's going on. You don't need to use that much, ever.

It's a good investment for sure, hooe it solves your issue, it is weird that they use so much, should only need a small dab.

[Dragoon]

I'm sorry you are having that issue.

Last week I fully disassembled my Native Chief in Rex-45 and did not have any issues removing the screws. Mine also had white loctite, so perhaps it is a matter of the amount applied at the factory and consistency between each knife. Is loctite applied by hand at the factory?

[Cricket Bite]

There are those who enjoy the journey and what makes a knife a knife. Then are those who only want what it can do for them. A good read is "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". If you have not read it will give you an interesting perspective not he world.

[M Sea]

Got lucky, swapped scales on one of my Military’s and had minimal Loctite on all screws this time. No worries.

[Abyss_Fish]

Just checked my new(ish) native lw, no loctite on any of the screws but they’re properly fitted.

I think the only spydies I’ve owned that have had loctite have been taichungs actually, mostly the lightest stuff and most of it falls behind the liners. A pain to clean out but no damage to the knife itself. I wonder if it’s a recent wave of new stock or something, I take apart every new knife I get but other than my recent frn native I haven’t gotten a new spydie since the Watu.

My hope is that that’s the case, just a bad day at the factory.

[nerdlock]

Well, I never thought I would see the day that I would encounter this problem, but my Para3 LW Spy27 accidentally fell into a puddle of dirty water, and started to develop a gritty action in the pivot area. I tried to disassemble the knife and everything went smoothly until I came across the show-side pivot screw...it was loctited so hard, that I managed to deform the torx interface. Not only that, the screw is still stuck on the pivot. I still cannot fully disassemble the knife for cleaning. I guess my luck regarding this issue could only last so long. I already emailed Spyderco customer service about this, hopefully something positive will come out of this.

[Josh1973]

Why are you taking them apart? There is a warranty process in place.

I prefer Spyderco keep doing what they are doing, like securing the product at the factory so I don't have to. The idea that we need to disassemble them later on and tinker with them is part of the overall, weird obsession over what are no more than pocket tools, similar to the steel bs. If we could kill that obsession, maybe the massive price inflation would come back down.

The warranty process has been altered so that disassembly doesn't void it anymore.
Maybe some of us are interested in learning and understanding firsthand how our tools work, or just like to do basic maintenance without sending the knife back or being able to do so (like overseas Spydie fans).
You've never taken apart a tool to clean it before ?
I won't even touch on the "steel bs".

Problem with disassembly is that many customers mess up their knife /product or lose a part then blame the company for their ignorance. Demanding a refund and leaving bad reviews on the manufacturer. Failing to specify that their actions were the cause of the problem. And thereby creating a larger problem than they originally had. 99 times out of 100 a knife does not need to be completely disassembled to maintain or clean. I have cleaned every knife I own without disassembly.

And no I do not take apart my knives that cost me $150 to $300. I send them to Spyderco and deal with the wait period. I own some knives from Europe myself. And I knew beforehand that if it needed maintenance from the manufacturer. That the wait period and longer shipping wait times were part of the game and risk I accepted before I purchased that knife/item overseas. I made that choice and that is on me.

If you are interested in disassembling knives to learn about the internals. Then so be it. I would suggest watching knife disassembly videos. Buying quality torx bits/tools. and using cheaper budget or used beater knives to practice on for a few years before attempting to work on higher cost knives. And even then I would still prefer and recommend to send the higher cost knives to the factory and deal with the wait time. Just know that if you mess it up. It's on you and not the company.

[vivi]

guess im 1 out of 100

viewtopic.php?p=1360015

some of us need to take our knives a part. seems silly to be so bothered by that.

[Josh1973]

guess im 1 out of 100

viewtopic.php?p=1360015

some of us need to take our knives a part. seems silly to be so bothered by that.

I am not bothered at all with what you do with your purchases. Your money your choice. Some of us disagree with the thought that knives need to be disassembled in order to clean. If the product is defective. Then it should be sent back to the manufacturer regardless of wait time. Have a lovely day in France sir. Stay safe.

[vivi]

guess im 1 out of 100

viewtopic.php?p=1360015

some of us need to take our knives a part. seems silly to be so bothered by that.

I am not bothered at all with what you do with your purchases. Your money your choice. Some of us disagree with the thought that knives need to be disassembled in order to clean. If the product is defective. Then it should be sent back to the manufacturer regardless of wait time. Have a lovely day in France sir. Stay safe.

Did you not take a look at that link?





If I didn't clean that knife out it would have eventually stopped functioning. I have seen locks stop working and pivots seize up due to excessive rust build up like this.

[JRinFL]

My lack of need to disassemble for lubing and cleaning should not prevent you from disassembling as you see fit. My default position is, if you cannot disassemble it then you do not own it.
Spyderco does need to address the uneven application of thread locker on their knives. I have not run into the issue so far, but that’s no guarantee that I won’t in the future.

[ThomC]

guess im 1 out of 100

viewtopic.php?p=1360015

some of us need to take our knives a part. seems silly to be so bothered by that.

I am not bothered at all with what you do with your purchases. Your money your choice. Some of us disagree with the thought that knives need to be disassembled in order to clean. If the product is defective. Then it should be sent back to the manufacturer regardless of wait time. Have a lovely day in France sir. Stay safe.

Unfortunately, with certain steels, disassembly is almost mandatory to fully restore a knife to its factory-fresh form.
I've bought a couple of used Spydies that, having not been properly maintained, needed a vinegar bath, a scrub and oiling of the internal parts.
Tool steels are prone to that obviously, but that applies to S30V and VG-10 too.

I think Vivi's post is a prime example of why the end user needs to be able to maintain his or her own knife.

Needless to say, that opinion of mine applies to other types of tools and items : would you rather be able to service something you use and need everyday or part with it for an indeterminate amount of time and miss what could be a crucial part of your routine ?
As an example, as a guitarist, changing strings, cleaning a guitar and servicing electronics is a key part of owning an instrument.
We can't all afford duplicates of certain items.