revieving the pressure of pocket clips...?

[1penge]

The spring pressure of the chromed pocket clip of my stainless steel (Seki) Spyderco Worker is in a word, extreme. It is very difficult to fit this knife into my jean pockets & also hard to extract the knife. Even if the handle is smooth & slippery stainless.
This clip has the same (shallow triangle) pattern 3 hole drilling, as found on some of my early Benchmade knives.

What would be the best & safest way of adjusting the amount of pressure that this clip exerts on the handle. I thought of removing the clip, then securing the narrow bit (with the three holes) into a vise jaw, then bending. I have not figured out how to protect the part of the clip that I'd be gripping into the vise jaws. I only want to make very small adjustments & not fatigue the metal. I think I know in which direction to bend.

I'm figuring there would be two places to bend the clip: at the radical bend close to the screw holes, or somewhere along the length of the clip itself. But where to bend & how much?

[1penge]

Ooops! A typo! Title should read: "Relieving......."

[DavidNM]

I would think that simply removing the pocket clip from the knife handle would relieve all of the pocket clip pressure; that is what I do.

If you want to meet using the pocket clip then I would think removing it from the knife and bending it slightly until you get the correct amount of pressure that you desire is the answer.

[sal]

I relieve the pressure of the pocket clip on all of my knives. I personally like a looser clip that much of the market. I will slide a edge under the clip from the end and test it, then I'll make the wedge thicker and thicker until I get just the right amount of bend to get the desired pressure.

sal

[bdblue]

The spring pressure of the chromed pocket clip of my stainless steel (Seki) Spyderco Worker is in a word, extreme.

I haven't had a problem with a lot of clip pressure but I'll suggest if you want to bend the clip out a little bit you need to go carefully and a little bit at a time.

A thin piece of steel can deflect a good amount and spring back to its original position. Then when you reach the elastic limit just a little bit of movement will become permanent. As Sal said you can use a thin tapered wedge under the clip- insert it a certain amount and mark how far you went. Then test it. If it is still too tight then go just a little bit farther, etc. If you don't have a wedge then you could stack sheets of paper of pieces of thin cardboard. Then increase the thickness as necessary.

[Bemo]

Oh yeah I crank on that think until the retention works for me.

[vandelay]

I've done it by sticking guitar picks under the clip until it starts to lose tension. I think I needed 5 1.35mm picks to loosen the lil' native clip.

[Danke]

I just walk into a kitchen counter, hook it on a seat belt or car door and voila; pressure eased.

[Meadowlark]

I just walk into a kitchen counter, hook it on a seat belt or car door and voila; pressure eased.

[DavidNM]

I just walk into a kitchen counter, hook it on a seat belt or car door and voila; pressure eased.

That sounds very effective!

[blueblur]

The few times I’ve over extended my clip and needed to get tension back, I removed it, put it in a vise using spare pieces of wood scrap to prevent marring the clip, and slowly worked the clip a few times. You can get a rough idea how much to bend by laying the clip back on the knife before fully installing.

[1penge]

Thanks all.
So, a tight clip is a common problem. I will try one of the methods described above.
Cheers, 1penge