First Spyderco- Tenacious- Got Questions!

[Daniel Henkel]

Hey guys! So I’m pretty new to the world of knives, I just got into it this year. I have a couple of Civivi knives, but I just got my first Spyderco yesterday, a Tenacious. I have a couple newbie questions about it, since I’m not sure what’s normal when it comes to these knives.

First, the action is pretty stiff. I assume that’s normal and will just loosen up over time, but I wanted to make sure it’s not a concern.

Additionally, when the blade is closed, it moves from right to left. I’m also unsure if that’s something to be worried about.

Thank you for taking the time to consider my questions, and help a newbie out!

[endura3]

Hi Daniel, the stiff action is pretty expected for a new example of the Tenacious (and most other knives that aren't on bearings), and it will loosen with use and repeated openings/closings. You can also adjust the pivot with a T8 torx screw if need be.

A degree of side-to-side play is also expected when the knife is closed - almost all my knives exhibit this on some level.

These answers both depend on how severe each issue is of course. For example, if your action is stiff enough that it's challenging to open and there's enough side to side play that the blade is easily coming into contact with both handle scales, that could be a sign that something is off. But if both are relatively minor, I think that's pretty expected and the stiffness should resolve as the knife wears in.

[mongo1958]

Hey guys! So I’m pretty new to the world of knives, I just got into it this year. I have a couple of Civivi knives, but I just got my first Spyderco yesterday, a Tenacious. I have a couple newbie questions about it, since I’m not sure what’s normal when it comes to these knives.

First, the action is pretty stiff. I assume that’s normal and will just loosen up over time, but I wanted to make sure it’s not a concern.

Additionally, when the blade is closed, it moves from right to left. I’m also unsure if that’s something to be worried about.

Thank you for taking the time to consider my questions, and help a newbie out!

Hello Daniel and welcome to the Forum.
I have a Tenacious as well. I purchased it new from Knifeworks. The action of "my" Tenacious is not stiff at all. In fact, it is light and quite fast. The blade is rock solid closed as well as open. You may need to make some adjustments to the pivot screws and add a drop of light oil to the pivot. Do you have a set of Torx bits? You may need them to make adjustments to the pivot screws. The most common sizes in the Spyderco's that I have are T-6, T-8, T-9, and T-10. You can find these on line. You might even find a set at Harbor freight or maybe Lowes or a hardware store.
My Manix 2 Light Weight was very stiff when I first got it. Now the blade has loosened up and the action is very good now with out and play in it.
Have a blessed day.

[sal]

Hi Daniel,

Welcome to our forum.

sal

[Daniel Henkel]

Hi Daniel, the stiff action is pretty expected for a new example of the Tenacious (and most other knives that aren't on bearings), and it will loosen with use and repeated openings/closings. You can also adjust the pivot with a T8 torx screw if need be.

A degree of side-to-side play is also expected when the knife is closed - almost all my knives exhibit this on some level.

These answers both depend on how severe each issue is of course. For example, if your action is stiff enough that it's challenging to open and there's enough side to side play that the blade is easily coming into contact with both handle scales, that could be a sign that something is off. But if both are relatively minor, I think that's pretty expected and the stiffness should resolve as the knife wears in.

Yeah, it's not very severe, and it's already loosened up a bit. Thanks so much for taking the time to help me out!

[Daniel Henkel]

Hey guys! So I’m pretty new to the world of knives, I just got into it this year. I have a couple of Civivi knives, but I just got my first Spyderco yesterday, a Tenacious. I have a couple newbie questions about it, since I’m not sure what’s normal when it comes to these knives.

First, the action is pretty stiff. I assume that’s normal and will just loosen up over time, but I wanted to make sure it’s not a concern.

Additionally, when the blade is closed, it moves from right to left. I’m also unsure if that’s something to be worried about.

Thank you for taking the time to consider my questions, and help a newbie out!

Hello Daniel and welcome to the Forum.
I have a Tenacious as well. I purchased it new from Knifeworks. The action of "my" Tenacious is not stiff at all. In fact, it is light and quite fast. The blade is rock solid closed as well as open. You may need to make some adjustments to the pivot screws and add a drop of light oil to the pivot. Do you have a set of Torx bits? You may need them to make adjustments to the pivot screws. The most common sizes in the Spyderco's that I have are T-6, T-8, T-9, and T-10. You can find these on line. You might even find a set at Harbor freight or maybe Lowes or a hardware store.
My Manix 2 Light Weight was very stiff when I first got it. Now the blade has loosened up and the action is very good now with out and play in it.
Have a blessed day.

I do have a set of Torx bits! I'll need to get some oil though. It's already started loosening however, so it may be fine. Thanks so much for the help!

[Daniel Henkel]

Hi Daniel,

Welcome to our forum.

sal

Hi! Thank you very much!

[BornIn1500]

Is it the lightweight or the G10?

[Daniel Henkel]

Is it the lightweight or the G10?

Oh! Forgot to specify. It’s the G10.

[Daniel Henkel]

So I applied some KPL and loosened the pivot screw, and now it’s much smoother!

The only thing is, the more I loosen the pivot screw, the more off center the blade is when closed. So to have it at a comfortable looseness, the blade almost rests against the side of the right scale when closed. It’s still solid when deployed however, so it’s probably not much of a problem.

[PaloArt]

So I applied some KPL and loosened the pivot screw, and now it’s much smoother!

The only thing is, the more I loosen the pivot screw, the more off center the blade is when closed. So to have it at a comfortable looseness, the blade almost rests against the side of the right scale when closed. It’s still solid when deployed however, so it’s probably not much of a problem.

Hi Dan, Tenacious was my first Spyderco that I purchased as soon as it hit EU distributors shelves. That old one in G10 is long gone but I purchased new one in Lightweight version just a few days ago. Action was stiff and gritty so I completely disassembled the knife (I rarely do that to my knives) and cleaned the pivot area and washers. Washers and pivot area were full of some kind of gritty dust, perhaps steel dust? Who knows. After cleaning I applied just a humble victorinox knife oil, assembled knife together, applied blue loctite to all screws that I tightened and then started to loosen pivot pin (main pin on which blade rotates) just slightly so knife can be opened but it is still centered. Loosened that one up so it feels like to pieces of glass moving on top of each other and started to play with the knife few hours later. Now action is smoother and it will get more after some time.

So, basically issue might be as well with some kind of dirt between blade and washers\washers and liners.

[araneae]

Centering may require loosening screws other than the pivot. If it concerns you, try loosening the other screws, then tightening a little at a time on all the screws until you get the desired action and centering. It takes some finesse sometimes.

[kontei]

I was not so happy with my Tenacious, too. The clip screws are trashed once you screw them out, the spydie-hole is too small imho, and the blade steel is a steel I don't want to have at a 80-90€ knife (price in Europe). When I compare the Tenacious or the honeybee/grasshopper to Colorado/Seki equivalants (Para/Manbug for example) I see very huge differences in quality. But as I said, that of course has a lot to do with European prices. For 45€, my opinion would not be the same.