My Navaja Caracas Broke :(

[phaust]

I could be wrong here so please don't jump on me but I thought I had read on another thread that the click mechanism was there for effect and would wear out in time anyway but that the knfe was designed to function perfectly happily without it. I guess wearing isn't the same as breaking but if I bought a knife of this design I would be fully expecting the mechanism to wear out. Perhaps not as quickly!

I think you cite a post by Mr. Shempp who said that it would wear in causing the noise to lower in magnitude, but he didn't say it would wear out, i.e., break.

[bh49]

I still want me a navaja. .

And I still get second Navaja :) I know, if something would go wrong :spyder: will take care of me.

I could be wrong here so please don't jump on me but I thought I had read on another thread that the click mechanism was there for effect and would wear out in time anyway but that the knfe was designed to function perfectly happily without it.

you are correct that in Schempp's Navaja, caraca is not functional. I read that with time sound will not be as loud as at the beginning.

[bh49]

I think you cite a post by Mr. Shempp who said that it would wear in causing the noise to lower in magnitude, but he didn't say it would wear out, i.e., break.

you beat me. this is exactly what I meant.

[avoidspam]

Thanks Phaust, I did make a destinction between wear and break but stand eloquently corrected.

I am still curious to sse what this mechanism looks like......

[nirvanero]

Sorry to hear this but maybe it's the price you pay for not having blade-play. The original navajas have a much better sound as the blade itself contacts with the lock, but this can end getting blade-play in the long term so it's difficult to have the best of two worlds.

I always thought this was a curious design as you can open the spanish folders without making the noise. Maybe Navaja's sound mechanism could be stronger, but I don't know if it's possible.

[The Deacon]

IDK, the dude has a pretty strong rep as a knife reviewer on YouTube and he strikes me as someone that is not the type you seem to suggest.

I do not know for sure, but I think that generally that is the way springs break...they work just fine up to the instant they snap. It seems entirely plausible that he woke up, started to open the knife and the spring snapped.

It also seems entirely plausible to me that this could be one in many (an isolated rare occurrence) and not something that everyone needs to freak out about.

Further, Jon is not lamenting or otherwise spewing sour grapes. He seems to be asking if anyone else has experienced this (so far no one reports such) and he seems to be freely taking the hit for voiding his warranty and not seeking handouts or lynch mobs.

I could be totally wrong...I often am.

Well, if you're wrong then we both are. I'd bet money that you're totally right.

[jonUSA,EARTH]

Hey all.

I in no way started this thread to down Spyderco, obviously if you know me I'm quite obsessed with them.And I am not looking for a handout from them.I was just a little heart broken and wanted to kinda share in my misery.
I did indeed wake up to a broken spring, that was not made up.It probably snapped the last time I used it the night before.
I added pics to try to explain what happened as well.

I'm still totally happy with the knife, as i stated the F&F is amazing and I absolutely love the blade shape.It functions perfect still and I will patiently wait for my spring :)

Also, thanks for all the supportive comments.

[Michael Cook]

:spyder: Love that pic of the Duke! :spyder:

[Donut]

Wow Jon, those are some amazing pictures of the spring!

[chuck_roxas45]

Jon, how about taking a small coil spring from a clicky pen or a hair clip then straighten it and shape to match the navaja's spring. Might work in the meantime.

[LAB]

I've read of people making replacement omega springs for axis locks from piano wire or guitar string. You might give that a try. I don't know that Spyderco will send you a new spring. They wouldn't send me a new pivot screw for my Gayle Bradley.

[Ed Schempp]

Thanks for the pictures. Please notice the finish of the liners and the lack of any edge burnishing. Check out the anvil pin which protrudes from the scale and is nested into a pocket in the bolster. Look at the pin. All this stuff is high tolerance machining.

Looking closely at the spring it appears that it was straightened or is possibly a splice in the spring wire. Check out the curvature n the wire at the break point on both sides. The wire is very irregular at the break point. A stress riser from a machine or tool mark is what I expected as the cause of the break and the spring material would not have deformed the cylindric shape of the wire, something did at some point in the process.

If this was a manufacturing problem it is easily remedied. It it is in the production of the spring wire, it should be rare. If the problem is in assembly, there is a learning curve, and this guys shop has my respect.

This is a new model and the feedback loop is good between Spyderco and the maker, this issue will be looked at and dealt with in the usual Spyderco fashion. I'm not asking to have faith but rather look at the track record of the company and the contractor that you are dealing. There is a lot of evidence demonstrating one of the best companies in cutlery dealing with one of the best sub-contractors on the planet...Take Care...Ed

[DMgangl]

I agree with Chuck about the spring from a pen or hair clip. Also a heaver gauge guitar string should be cheap and pretty easy to find. It does suck that the spring broke. I will say this as a nod to Ed, it is very nice to have bolsters with screw construction. You'd be up the creek with out it.

I hope you find a good solution.

DM

[Bill S.]

That's a tiny spring for that big knife.

[Fred S]

i might speculate that the spring bears on the sharp edge where the slot and the hole meet in the bolster. FWIW, the "jewelled" look in the hole is from using an end mill that is smaller than the desired hole diameter and moving the axis of the end mill in the appropriate sized circle to make the hole just the right size.

[unit]

How cool is it that Ed is here commenting?

Ed, Sal, the rest of the crew...pure class!

[Armalite Native]

Totally agree. Thank you Ed for checking this out. I am really digging the idea of electric guitar string if it fails. I wonder if it would change the tone of the ratcheting?! I think I would like mine in the note of E :P.

Considering the number of units on the market this seems like a random incident. I think I understand what Ed means about a splice in the wire? If you have 50 feet of the stuff - somewhere there has to be a join between two smaller lengths yeah? The unit in the post COULD be the unlucky one with the join bit of wire.

For those of us who cannot ship our gear back to Spyderco for repairs it cheers me up to think I could go getto on it. Also its important to keep in mind that the function of the knife is not affected.

[gunnut35]

I hope you find a easy fix for it.
After seeing the pictures, I am almost tempted to remove the spring from my Navaja to make it silent but i dont want to void my warranty. I spent most of my day outside under my shade trees playing with the Navaja and i have decided i need to order another one.

[speedcut]

I think we should not hurry to judge the Taiwan maker because Mr. Schempp said once that this is the only maker of all of them who agreed to make this knife and we are lucky to have the knife made in the first place...just my 2 cents...or euros... :)

[avoidspam]

Fascinating to see those pic's. A lot of detailed machining. Shame the spring broke but I'm guessing the other end of the spring is bouncing off of a fairly round toothed cog on the blade itself? Not really a high stress environment so a fault with the wire itself sounds plausible.