Backlocks and back spacers

[Popsickle]

I was billed for mine today, so it should be on it's way soon. I'll let you know how mine is once I get it. It will definitely be next week though.

I'm looking forward to the possible answer tomorrow at some point. I put the chinook 4 in my pocket to see if maybe the situation was maybe being overblown given a new lock I had not handled before..... unfortunately it also is quite easy to move in my pocket as well. Pulling it from my pocket I could feel the blade move into the handle. I'm also seeing spots in the back spacer start to form where the knife is contacting it. I love the knife as its very comfortable and its just a crazy awesome design..... but this is really bugging me. I have not carried the knife other than handling it at home nor have I used it for anything.

[Popsickle]

Well, hmm. I just checked my new-today Chinook 4.
With just a gentle thumb -and-index-finger pinch (less force than for popping a bubble wrap pocket) I felt the blade "bottom out."

I then checked with a 7x loupe and a light while repeating the pinch, and could see contact. Opening the blade, two small flats were plainly visible. This was the first two and only two times I opened and closed the knife (of course closed a third after pix).


Here is a quick pic which shows one shiny flat, though not very well.



While I usually only use power grasp on a closed Spyderco folder with the Jot Singh and Assist models, for some of their intended purposes, I think that normal EDC handling and activities with the Chinook 4 might also produce this effect unintentionally, without any power grasp per se. hmm

Is yours still having trouble?

[farnorthdan]

Mine came yesterday, also not flush in the lock area but it doesn't really bother me, it almost seems like it's part of the design, but what do I know. The blade does push down into the frame but mine doesn't seem to be making contact.

Perfect centering and great grind, this is my first Chinook, very impressive piece.

[Popsickle]

Mine came yesterday, also not flush in the lock area but it doesn't really bother me, it almost seems like it's part of the design, but what do I know. The blade does push down into the frame but mine doesn't seem to be making contact.

Perfect centering and great grind, this is my first Chinook, very impressive piece.

I'm hoping maybe mine was a lemon. I absolutely love the design, and yes it seems the lock seating is by design. The absolute only thing I'm concerned with is the blade contacting the backspacer. It's a fantastic knife, and it will be going into my EDC upon return.

I shipped mine to warranty today and hope to hear back from them soon!

[nicked.onaut]

A few photos may help clarify :



Power Lock, closed. I don't mind that it is not flush with the scales.


Max deflection during opening:


Open and locked:


Press this amount for blade to unlock:


Blade closed/neutral position:


Applying gentle pressure to the spine of the closed blade produces this much deflection, to the apparent end point of blade edge contact against the back spacer (and possibly the lockbar?):



At this point, the PowerLock components have this much deflection:


Looking internally for any signs of contact which correlate with the edge flattening/rolling:


This is easier to see with a loupe (I used a 7x) than to capture in a pic (my lack of skill). Also, by backlighting the blade edge within the channel, and slowly pressing the spine, you can observe the light leak at the edge blacking out at the areas of contact. Kind of tricky to finagle, and no way could I get a pic of that.

In closed position, when the spine is pressed the lockbar and the blade pivot toward each other. I'm not sure if the sweep of the belly is then contacting the lockbar at the line marked by the right lavender stick, but the blade does show some mild flat 'n shiny in the area which seems to correspond. Still, I'm not certain what made that line. (Yes, I know I could sweep the area with a Q-tip and see if it is reproducible, along with some 'blade-marker' tricks, but I don't want to manipulate the knife more than the five or six times times I have already opened and closed it. At this point.)

The left lavender marker show the area of the backspacer which clearly contacts the blade (Indeed is the end-point/limiter). This is visible with a loupe when back-lighting in the channel and pressing the spine; an old Gen1 Maratac AAA in med mode in this case.



In all other respects, I like this new Gen Chinook..

MTK
--30--

[Popsickle]

A few photos may help clarify :



Power Lock, closed. I don't mind that it is not flush with the scales.


Max deflection during opening:


Open and locked:


Press this amount for blade to unlock:


Blade closed/neutral position:


Applying gentle pressure to the spine of the closed blade produces this much deflection, to the apparent end point of blade edge contact against the back spacer (and possibly the lockbar?):



At this point, the PowerLock components have this much deflection:


Looking internally for any signs of contact which correlate with the edge flattening/rolling:


This is easier to see with a loupe (I used a 7x) than to capture in a pic (my lack of skill). Also, by backlighting the blade edge within the channel, and slowly pressing the spine, you can observe the light leak at the edge blacking out at the areas of contact. Kind of tricky to finagle, and no way could I get a pic of that.

In closed position, when the spine is pressed the lockbar and the blade pivot toward each other. I'm not sure if the sweep of the belly is then contacting the lockbar at the line marked by the right lavender stick, but the blade does show some mild flat 'n shiny in the area which seems to correspond. Still, I'm not certain what made that line. (Yes, I know I could sweep the area with a Q-tip and see if it is reproducible, along with some 'blade-marker' tricks, but I don't want to manipulate the knife more than the five or six times times I have already opened and closed it. At this point.)

The left lavender marker show the area of the backspacer which clearly contacts the blade (Indeed is the end-point/limiter). This is visible with a loupe when back-lighting in the channel and pressing the spine; an old Gen1 Maratac AAA in med mode in this case.



In all other respects, I like this new Gen Chinook..

MTK
--30--

That's exactly what mine did. Hopefully we will hear something back soon after they get my knife in warranty and take a look at it. I agree that this new gen chinook is great other than this minor issue which I really hope was either a bad batch or atleast a minor oversight and gets fixed appropriately. We won't know more until next week, unless Sal gives some type of update before then.

[Bloke]

Dan I really like that knife stand! :cool:

I'm just a little undecided weather the 52100 Millie or Chinook best compliments it? :p

[farnorthdan]

Dan I really like that knife stand! :cool:

I'm just a little undecided weather the 52100 Millie or Chinook best compliments it? :p

Thanks bloke I thought maybe everyone was getting tired of the day planner on my desk so been going with the sample jar to spice things up a bit. :D

[KingRat]

A few photos may help clarify :



Power Lock, closed. I don't mind that it is not flush with the scales.


Max deflection during opening:


Open and locked:


Press this amount for blade to unlock:


Blade closed/neutral position:


Applying gentle pressure to the spine of the closed blade produces this much deflection, to the apparent end point of blade edge contact against the back spacer (and possibly the lockbar?):



At this point, the PowerLock components have this much deflection:


Looking internally for any signs of contact which correlate with the edge flattening/rolling:


This is easier to see with a loupe (I used a 7x) than to capture in a pic (my lack of skill). Also, by backlighting the blade edge within the channel, and slowly pressing the spine, you can observe the light leak at the edge blacking out at the areas of contact. Kind of tricky to finagle, and no way could I get a pic of that.

In closed position, when the spine is pressed the lockbar and the blade pivot toward each other. I'm not sure if the sweep of the belly is then contacting the lockbar at the line marked by the right lavender stick, but the blade does show some mild flat 'n shiny in the area which seems to correspond. Still, I'm not certain what made that line. (Yes, I know I could sweep the area with a Q-tip and see if it is reproducible, along with some 'blade-marker' tricks, but I don't want to manipulate the knife more than the five or six times times I have already opened and closed it. At this point.)

The left lavender marker show the area of the backspacer which clearly contacts the blade (Indeed is the end-point/limiter). This is visible with a loupe when back-lighting in the channel and pressing the spine; an old Gen1 Maratac AAA in med mode in this case.



In all other respects, I like this new Gen Chinook..

MTK
--30--

I just noticed that yours is missing the three threaded clip holes on the presentation side. farnorthdan's picture has them.

[farnorthdan]

Something else I discovered is that the pivot screw and both lock screws were very loose, and very sensitive to how tight they need to be. Too tight on any of the 3 screws will bind things up real bad, so I decided to add a drop of blue locktite to each and discovered that all 3 have little washers, never seen that before.

[Wrathhog]

This type of thing is beginning to be a little too much for my liking. Beginning to wonder if anyone tests their own product anymore.

[Popsickle]

This type of thing is beginning to be a little too much for my liking. Beginning to wonder if anyone tests their own product anymore.

have there been other Spyderco issues? Nothing I have heard of. No one is perfect, and if a design mis- que has happened..... I hope they correct it, because it is one awesome blade. I have many other blades to carry to tide me over til I get some sort of a response.

[JenWrath]

Glad I saw this before pulling the trigger on it. Will get the Police 4 first while giving the guys at Spydie time to work this out.

The washers on the screws are likely to help balance how the tension is on the lock.

This is only the second time this lock has been used by them and presumably in much larger production quantities than the Tatanka ever was, so while I want to throw out criticisms, I really do understand it. The first couple weeks our stores switched to an updated order system, some stores got 3x the product and some got barely any product - the store numbers and volume numbers got mixed up. You wouldn't think that would happen in a multi-billion dollar company, in their highest earning district...yet there we were. Trial runs in smaller locations, trial runs in bigger locations, stress tests in various ways and it still happened.

[farnorthdan]

This type of thing is beginning to be a little too much for my liking. Beginning to wonder if anyone tests their own product anymore.

Don't get me wrong, out of the over 200 Spyderco knives I've purchased, only 3 have been mildly disappointing, the rest, wonders of modern production knives.

Having to tweak a spydie from time out of the box is not a big deal to me and having to on the Chinook was well worth it for such an epic knife. Of course others feel much differently and that's ok with me too.

[KingRat]

I finally got mine today. I can flex the blade in towards the back spacer, but it does not appear to be contacting anything. I cannot see a flat on the edge, nor any marks on the back spacer or lock spring.

It is much lighter than I imagined; closer to the Military, while my old friend K2 is a brick.

[Donut]

This type of thing is beginning to be a little too much for my liking. Beginning to wonder if anyone tests their own product anymore.

have there been other Spyderco issues? Nothing I have heard of. No one is perfect, and if a design mis- que has happened..... I hope they correct it, because it is one awesome blade. I have many other blades to carry to tide me over til I get some sort of a response.

The first run of the Squeak had the same problem. You could press on the spine, it would give a little and the edge would touch the internals. The following runs didn't have the problem. You would press on the spine and it wouldn't give at all.

I don't know how serious of a problem it is, I still have and use my first run Squeak. I don't press on the spine when the knife is closed often and if I do, it doesn't become "so dull it won't cut".

[Popsickle]

This type of thing is beginning to be a little too much for my liking. Beginning to wonder if anyone tests their own product anymore.

have there been other Spyderco issues? Nothing I have heard of. No one is perfect, and if a design mis- que has happened..... I hope they correct it, because it is one awesome blade. I have many other blades to carry to tide me over til I get some sort of a response.

The first run of the Squeak had the same problem. You could press on the spine, it would give a little and the edge would touch the internals. The following runs didn't have the problem. You would press on the spine and it wouldn't give at all.

I don't know how serious of a problem it is, I still have and use my first run Squeak. I don't press on the spine when the knife is closed often and if I do, it doesn't become "so dull it won't cut".

Warranty called and offered to either sharpen the blade or issue a credit. Due to other details I was also made aware of I took ththe credit and have a new Spydie Chef incoming :)

[farnorthdan]

What other issues if you don't mind sharing.

[Donut]

Warranty called and offered to either sharpen the blade or issue a credit. Due to other details I was also made aware of I took ththe credit and have a new Spydie Chef incoming :)

Spydie Chef is pretty epic if I don't mind saying.

[ConspicuousConsumption]

Warranty called and offered to either sharpen the blade or issue a credit. Due to other details I was also made aware of I took ththe credit and have a new Spydie Chef incoming :)

Spydie Chef is pretty epic if I don't mind saying.

SpydieChef is my grail (until I get one I’m sure so I haven’t bought one yet). Not to derail the thread...