PSA: Pakkawood Police 4 blade hits backspacer/backspring

[Harkwit]

Had a bit of a nasty surprise yesterday when I got my new police 4 out of the box from Knifecenter. After a few opens and closes (and not necessarily hard closes either; not really easy to do on a backlock), I noticed the blade had two very noticable chips/flattened dents on the middle of the edge. Looking inside the knife, I saw two deep gouges in the top of the backspacer and the middle of the backspring.

I took the knife apart and noticed (with one side of the scale off) that the blade rests against these components while closed. I'm guessing the factory either A. didn't take enough blade off when sharpening, or B. flattened down the tipped edge of the finger choil too much to where it doesn't contact soon enough.

I ended up having to sharpen away a decent little chunk of the edge to stop it from making contact, which isn't super ideal, but better than dealing with a return process. Just want to throw this PSA out there in case anyone recently acquired this knife, and this isn't an isolated incident. (Which it very well could be, don't want to make any bold claims there.)

Pics are below. First shows the indentations in the spacer and spring (blade smacking against them), second pic is post-sharpening to give you an idea of what it'll need to look like to stop this. (Not bad, honestly.)

[Evil D]

[Sharp Guy]

^ Haha that's exactly what I was thinking

[Harkwit]

Eh, my fear was that I'd go through the hassle, pay return shipping, etc. just to get another knife with the same problem. I like the knife substantially otherwise and if a bit of sharpening fixes the issue, then so be it.

[TomAiello]

I've never seen that on the K390 G-10 Police 4. Does anyone else have any other Police model that's showing this kind of issue?

[Evil D]

Eh, my fear was that I'd go through the hassle, pay return shipping, etc. just to get another knife with the same problem. I like the knife substantially otherwise and if a bit of sharpening fixes the issue, then so be it.

It may keep dinging the edge. As you sharpen it more the edge will slowly move away from the back spacer. Another option would be to take it apart and grind a wee little groove where the blade is making contact to give it a bit more clearance.

[p_atrick]

I have a P4LW and do not have this issue.

[jpm2]

My urban k390 had this issue. I relieved the marks on underside of spring/backspacer, sharpened it up and good ever since.

[Harkwit]

Eh, my fear was that I'd go through the hassle, pay return shipping, etc. just to get another knife with the same problem. I like the knife substantially otherwise and if a bit of sharpening fixes the issue, then so be it.

It may keep dinging the edge. As you sharpen it more the edge will slowly move away from the back spacer. Another option would be to take it apart and grind a wee little groove where the blade is making contact to give it a bit more clearance.

That's how I fixed it, and what's shown in the 2nd picture. I took a 50 grit stone and shaved away at the edge until I couldn't get it to hit the backspacer anymore, then sharpened it properly from there. Probably lost about a year of life on the edge, but that's the price you pay for convenience in the face of adversity!

[sal]

Hi Harkwit,

Sorry for your issue. I've not had that issue on any of my P4's., including the Knife Center version.

If it bothers you, you can send it back . did the sharpening solve the issue?

sal

[SubMicron]

The thing with buying a knife from Knife Center is that if you have a problem, just call them. This is their exclusive and Spyderco might not even have inventory on hand to issue a replacement.

Knife Center will email you a shipping label that you can print and use to ship it back to them. They'll receive it and ship a new one.

I think they have a 60-day policy.

[Harkwit]

Hi Harkwit,

Sorry for your issue. I've not had that issue on any of my P4's., including the Knife Center version.

If it bothers you, you can send it back . did the sharpening solve the issue?

sal

Hi Sal!

It's alright; I figure it's probably just a lemon, but I wanted to toss out the warning in case other people had experienced the same thing.

Sharpening did fix the issue, but I had to sharpen away a fairly decent bit of the edge (Good hour with a 50 grit, gave me a workout) to do so. Not ideal for edge longevity, but not the end of the world. Knifecenter won't take it back sharpened (which I can't fault them for), so I'll live with what I've got. :-) Would like to get one of the FRN K390 models when they come out, so maybe that'll end up replacing this anyway.

[Harkwit]

The thing with buying a knife from Knife Center is that if you have a problem, just call them. This is their exclusive and Spyderco might not even have inventory on hand to issue a replacement.

Knife Center will email you a shipping label that you can print and use to ship it back to them. They'll receive it and ship a new one.

I think they have a 60-day policy.

In my experience, Knifecenter makes you foot return shipping, but I didn't bother in this case since I was able to fix the issue. No ill will towards them in this case.

Glad to hear this is apparently an isolated incident, though. :-)

[TkoK83Spy]

Looks like you did a good job with that edge though.

[bearfacedkiller]

I would have just returned it since these are still in stock at KC and there is no way I would have accepted paying for shipping on the return.

Second, I probably would have ground down the backspacer and not the blade but it doesn’t look like you thickened the edge up much at all. All that matters is that you sorted it out!

You have a very even lamination line there! I may have actually fixed it myself just to keep a blade the even. :D

You seem pretty easy going. Welcome to the forum! :)

[Harkwit]

I would have just returned it since these are still in stock at KC and there is no way I would have accepted paying for shipping on the return.

Second, I probably would have ground down the backspacer and not the blade but it doesn’t look like you thickened the edge up much at all. All that matters is that you sorted it out!

You have a very even lamination line there! I may have actually fixed it myself just to keep a blade the even. :D

You seem pretty easy going. Welcome to the forum! :)

It's not terribly symmetrical. The lamination line on the lock side is much closer to the edge than on the show side. I also don't have great tools to grind down the backspacer, and plus it was also hitting the backlock spring which I can't really do much about. :')

To be totally frank; one of the biggest reasons I didn't return it is because it's literally my only decent knife that isn't a Ganzo. I had to downsize exponentially thanks to financial hardship, and rather than pay return shipping and wait two weeks for a replacement, just decided to take matters into my own hands.

It is what it is. I've also been on the forums for a few years now; just don't post very often. :) Thanks though!

[Cambertree]

Nice job on the fix, Harkwit.

My K390 P4 doesn’t have that issue.

Out of curiosity, had any material been ground off the kick when you got the knife? (The area at the front of the lower finger choil that contacts the backspring, and regulates the height that the blade sits above the backspring and backspacer, when closed.)

If not, then you are probably right, that not enough material was taken off the blade in the factory sharpening. So in a way, you might not have really lost edge life, as it’s possible that that excess steel shouldn’t have been there in the first place?

Darby, I think I would have ground the backspacer back too, if that was the only point where there was blade rap. But the blade was hitting the backspring too, and taking any material off there would have affected the spring tension.

Harkwit, what do you think of the knife otherwise? Thanks for posting your fix to the issue.

I had a HAP40 pakkawood DF2 pass through my hands recently, on the way to a friend, and it was a really well made and beautiful knife.

I hadn’t noticed this P4 version also uses a wire clip.

[Harkwit]

Nice job on the fix, Harkwit.

My K390 P4 doesn’t have that issue.

Out of curiosity, had any material been ground off the kick when you got the knife? (The area at the front of the lower finger choil that contacts the backspring, and regulates the height that the blade sits above the backspring and backspacer, when closed.)

If not, then you are probably right, that not enough material was taken off the blade in the factory sharpening. So in a way, you might not have really lost edge life, as it’s possible that that excess steel shouldn’t have been there in the first place?

Darby, I think I would have ground the backspacer back too, if that was the only point where there was blade rap. But the blade was hitting the backspring too, and taking any material off there would have affected the spring tension.

Harkwit, what do you think of the knife otherwise? Thanks for posting your fix to the issue.

I had a HAP40 pakkawood DF2 pass through my hands recently, on the way to a friend, and it was a really well made and beautiful knife.

I hadn’t noticed this P4 version also uses a wire clip.

Not by me; but the kick looks slightly flatter than I'm used to seeing on knives with this style of choil. That was one of the potential causes I hypothesized in the initial post, and something that strikes me as a more likely culprit. It almost looks like a tiny piece of it might have broken off at the factory. Maybe Sal could speak on if this is a replacable defect through spyderco directly, but as long as it doesn't get any worse, I reckon it works alright.

Beyond that, the knife's alright. There's a few spots on the blade with strange chamfers and passable finishing work. The scales are great, if they do have some very subtle gaps. Action is pretty nice for a backlock, and the tension is a bit high, but nothing I can't survive with. Then there's the lamination line being much steeper on one side compared to the other.

Beyond these gripes, it's a nice functional thing and I hope it'll serve me decently. :)

[JMM]

I have two P4 G10's / K390 and one of he new P4 Pakka's and none of them exhibit this behavior, glad to hear you were able to resolve it yourself. Please update us if the issue returns. :)

[sal]

Hi Harkwit,

It would have to go back to the shipper. We don't have inventory.

sal