A dumb question about assembly/disassembly.

[TheGiant80]

Although I’ve been a Spyderco fan for years, I’m just now getting to the point where I plan on breaking down and cleaning my knives. I watched Eric Glesser’s (super helpful) video about maintaining the Shaman, and had a question for the more seasoned members of this-here forum.

As Eric was reassembling the blade, I noticed he applied loctite a couple of times in the process. I remember he had to break the factory-applied loctite when he first opened the thing up as well. My question is this: when you folks put your knives back together, do you apply loctite every time? Sometimes? Never?

As always, any input is appreciated. I’ve got a micarta/M4 Shaman inbound that I’m almost too excited about, and I’d like to be prepared if it requires some dialing in before it goes in the pocket. Cheers!

[BLUETYPEII]

I’m not one to disassemble my knives but there is this guy Nick Shabazz who is very good IMPO at disassemblely and reassembly. He’s a fan of this loc-tight glue stick (blue) check out the video see what you think.

He’s a Spyderco fan and does a lot of videos of them

https://youtu.be/4-iipW3rI9w

I ordered some of the blue loc-tight glue stick online for a couple of loose pivots and other knife screws. It works great in my experience. Holds good and breaks free easily.

Hope this helps.

Bluetype2

[ladybug93]

i use the same blue loctite stick based on his recommendation. it's good to go.

[Ramonade]

I don't apply Loctite on every folders. And when I apply Loctite, it's mostly on the pivot.
The compression locks often bring me a lot of pain in fine tuning the action, especially on knives like the PM2 and Para 3. On these, I find the best action I can and then Loctite the pivot (+ the stop pin screws on the PM2).

However, the Sage 5 LW or Ikuchi aren't that problematic, I just tighten everything and it works without any issue. On these, I don't bother to put any loctite.

As for the body screws, depends on the knife. I've never had any screw backing up on the N5 LW, but it happened on my Endela. So it's kind of a case-by-case situation.

If you really rarely disassemble your knives, I'd suggest to Loctite everything without worrying about it. Blue Loctite is really easy to break off (sometimes it does it itself, even if you let it cure for 24h). I recommand buying a "stick", instead of the liquid, it's really easier and faster to use.

Cheers!

[BLUETYPEII]

One other thing… the great thing about the blue loc-tight glue stick compared to just regular loc-tight is it doesn’t get everywhere. It’s super easy to get it on just the threads of the screws.

[Chuck James]

All my Spyderco knives get this straight out of the box....I don't like loose parts or screws.

[Evil D]

For me it depends on the knife and "where I am with it". When I get a new knife, chances are really good that I'll be using it, testing it, potentially modifying it, and taking it apart and putting it back together several times. In this stage I don't bother, because I'll just be taking it apart again probably the next day.

Once the honeymoon is over and the knife settles into long term user mode, and after I'm sure I don't plan on modding it any further, that's when it gets greased and Loctited.

[JSumm]

I think it depends on the knife. For Seki made, I always use loctite on the pivot, but don't find it necessary elsewhere. The pivot on those tend to get looser. A couple of weeks ago I disassembled a Gayle Bradley 2. Did not use loctite and so far, the pivot seems fine.

[Wartstein]

The vast majority of my Spydies are Seki FRNs, and whenever I dis - and then re-assemble one (not too often though) I apply blue loctite to every screw (pivot-, lockbar-, body-, clip-). I see no disadvantage in doing that, but it prevents potential losses.

[cabfrank]

I think the blue loctite stick is the way to go. Regardless of disassembly, which can be a can of worms, when I find a loose screw, I take it out, loctite it, and put it back in. If it got loose in the first place, it probably will again.

[cabfrank]

By the way, not at all a dumb question.

[Osok-308]

Although I’ve been a Spyderco fan for years, I’m just now getting to the point where I plan on breaking down and cleaning my knives. I watched Eric Glesser’s (super helpful) video about maintaining the Shaman, and had a question for the more seasoned members of this-here forum.

As Eric was reassembling the blade, I noticed he applied loctite a couple of times in the process. I remember he had to break the factory-applied loctite when he first opened the thing up as well. My question is this: when you folks put your knives back together, do you apply loctite every time? Sometimes? Never?

As always, any input is appreciated. I’ve got a micarta/M4 Shaman inbound that I’m almost too excited about, and I’d like to be prepared if it requires some dialing in before it goes in the pocket. Cheers!

Thanks for the question, I'm starting to get to the point where I also break down my knives. It's always good to see people who are on the same journey asking questions. I personally haven't used blue locktite on knives, but I've used them on screws for high stress tools and it has not let me down.

[soc_monki]

I only ever loctite the pivot. Everything else is clean. Only ever had the pivot work loose on me, a clip once, but I think I didn't tighten it down enough in the first place.

[cjk]

The only screws that I've had start to back out were ones which held in something that moved. For example, I've never felt like I had to loctite the 3 backspacer screws on a Delica.
The ones I felt I need to loctite have mostly been the pivot and sometimes the lock bar on Seki models. It hasn't been totally confined to Seki models though. I have had a pivot screw loosen on a Sage 1 and a G-10 Para 3 also. I've never had a screw back out so far that it fell out.
Usually I do not use loctite unless the particular knife has showed me that it needs it.
I have been "fighting" with my normal bladed K390 Delica which seems to have a pivot screw that wants to loosen. Not sure why. I've considered pulling it apart and swapping in the pivot barrel and screw from another Delica to see if that issue follows the knife or the screw. On the other hand, my K390 Delica wharncliffe has been absolutely perfect and I carry it 5x as often as the other.

Edit: I have occasionally had a clip screw loosen as well.

[TheGiant80]

Thanks for the great advice folks!

[derangedhermit]

Today I just sat down for a few minutes because I noticed the backlock pivot screw (not the blade pivot screw) on my Endura was sticking out, and I used the blue Loctite stick on it. While I had the knife kit out, I checked my new Stretch 2XL and noticed the blade closure was not nearly as crisp as my Endura, so I loosened the blade pivot a tiny bit, and Loctited that too. That fixed it. My experience has been that if the blade pivot screw is not fairly tight, it will back out, and I have actually lost one Spyderco blade pivot screw.

I think that having a slightly loose blade pivot screw secured by Loctite to get proper folding knife operation is poor engineering, though. You should be able to tighten fasteners securely and have the knife operate smoothly without a primary dependence on loctite.