Military 2 Discussion (Merged)

[skybladefromthe]

The knife will quasi-center but the pivots can't be tightened. It seems ridiculous but maybe Locktighting the loose pivots.
I've tried changing the clip positions, taking off the clip, centering over to the opposite side. But the knife simply favors the one side in the tightened position.

Hi
It's being stubborn but seems like loosening the clip screws made a big difference. At least it's centered before tightening everything. And I could feel the blade moving during tightening of the pivots.
Also there was a slight bend in one of the liners. I tried to correct it.
So I'll try again a little later because I have to run.
I appreciate the detailed help on this. I think I'll at least be able to get it to an acceptable degree of centering now. And the action feels better than ever if I don't get it to tight. Man this one is like walking a tightrope compared to others in my collection.
Many thanks!
skybladefromthe
Oh, and I can't help thinking back to my Jade Milli that was perfect out of the box!

Hi
I have had it apart twice so another won't hurt. I'll check for irregularities. In this case I have noticed that adjusting the main pivot screws, or any of the other screws for that matter, doesn't make any difference to how the blade centers. You just get what you get.
I'm learning a lot from the members. I'll post a follow up to what I find.
Thank you!
-skybladefromthe

I only have one knife in my collection that I can't center, and the construction of that knife makes it pretty much impossible (Rock Lobster).

I loosen all of the screws around the whole knife (clip screws too because they're holding the scale in place against the liner). You don't want to remove them just loosen them.

Then depending on what side your blade is off center, hold the knife (while closed) in your hand and literally bend it like you're trying to break a stick in two. If you watch you'll see that the blade moves left or right depending on which way to bend the handle. You need to bend it so that it pushes the blade in the opposite direction of where it's off center, and then start snugging down screws at the same time. It helps if you have 3 hands lol.

Some people try to wedge folded up paper between the blade and inside scale and that might help but what's happening when you bend the knife is you're shifting all of the parts around in/out of parallel with each other, and you need to bend it so that it's straight and then snug the screws down.

I usually try to bend/press the knife into my thigh and use my other hand to shut down the screws. I'd start with the body screws and then work around to the pivot screws. On a Military I can do this one handed because the handle is so long, just hold it like this and you can squeeze it and you'll see the blade move side to side, then hit the screws with your other hand.





I'm one of the last people you'll hear complaining about blade centering because this has only ever not worked on that one Rock Lobster, and that knife has almost no gap between the blade and liners so it almost doesn't move when I try this method. But I do this all the time with a lot of knives and it works.

I have a 15V Mili 2 that was off center in a way that was almost identical to yours (blade almost touching the handle). I took it apart and removed the liners. The show-side liner was slightly torqued. You couldn't tell until you removed it from the handle. But I straightened it out the best I could and reassemble it. Now, it's not perfectly centered, but it's close enough.



As a side note, when I disassembled the 15V Mili 2, the lanyard tube pretty much just fell right out. That was a nice change from the typical experience of fighting with it to get the liners out

[vivi]

hmmm, maybe I'll try some of those suggestions before sending my 15V M2 back to Golden. Mine rubs against the scales....both with the aftermarket micarta scales and the stock G10 ones.

[James Y]

Do these centering issues happen more on folders with longer blades? It seems to be the case.

Jim

It's at least more obvious the longer the blade is.

Thanks. I would imagine that the added length and weight of the longer blade might possibly make it easier to throw the alignment off(?).

Jim

[Evil D]

Do these centering issues happen more on folders with longer blades? It seems to be the case.

Jim

It's at least more obvious the longer the blade is.

Thanks. I would imagine that the added length and weight of the longer blade might possibly make it easier to throw the alignment off(?).

Jim

If you imagine two train tracks that go straight for miles ahead and one of them is just 1 degree out of parallel with the other, you probably couldn't see it from where you're standing but the further off into the distance you look the further apart the tracks would be. If a Ladybug blade is just 1 degree off center it would be harder to see but on a 4 inch Military blade the tip is further from the starting point and will be further out of center. If you could magically extend the blade and handle another 10 inches the blade would eventually make contact with the liner.

[James Y]

Do these centering issues happen more on folders with longer blades? It seems to be the case.

Jim

It's at least more obvious the longer the blade is.

Thanks. I would imagine that the added length and weight of the longer blade might possibly make it easier to throw the alignment off(?).

Jim

If you imagine two train tracks that go straight for miles ahead and one of them is just 1 degree out of parallel with the other, you probably couldn't see it from where you're standing but the further off into the distance you look the further apart the tracks would be. If a Ladybug blade is just 1 degree off center it would be harder to see but on a 4 inch Military blade the tip is further from the starting point and will be further out of center. If you could magically extend the blade and handle another 10 inches the blade would eventually make contact with the liner.

Thanks. Makes sense.

The worst off-center blade I ever had was on a BM AFCK that I had bought back in 1998. In the case of that particular knife, when looking at the spine of the blade in the closed position, it appeared that either the blade had been ground or shaped crookedly, or it had warped during the heat treat. And when trying to sharpen it, it was like trying to sharpen glass. I eventually sent it back to BM, and they replaced it with another AFCK that was fine.

Jim

[Brock O Lee]

A handful of Militaries (14)...



Half of them (7) are Military 2's. How did that happen?

[vivi]

I'm basically keeping a couple Military 1's around just for nostalgias sake. It was the knife that got me into the brand.

Don't plan to ever carry one again.

[Brock O Lee]

I still carry a few M1's regularly! Here they are.

[vivi]

as much as I love the original I've found myself having zero desire to go back to it after buying my first Military 2. It improved on the first version is exactly the ways I wanted them to. I asked them to make a knife just like the Military 2 back around 2008. So happy with how it turned out.



I had another post where I mentioned a larger choil too,but can't seem to find it with search.

[Brock O Lee]

A minor difference I noticed today when I handled all of them back-to-back. None of the M1's had any lock stick. All of the M2's had a bit of stick...

[8th_Note]

hmmm, maybe I'll try some of those suggestions before sending my 15V M2 back to Golden. Mine rubs against the scales....both with the aftermarket micarta scales and the stock G10 ones.

Theres a guy selling a Crucarta Mili 2 on ebay right now with the same issue. He's asking $190. I'd prob bite at $150.

[Paul Ardbeg]

A handful of Militaries (14)...



Half of them (7) are Military 2's. How did that happen?

You don't f*** about Hans Great collection of Milies

[skybladefromthe]

Haha, I think that might have been me! I changed my mind right after I posted it. The rest of the knife is perfect. So I decided to keep it for now. I'll keep working on it. I'm going to try the blue Loctite. I think I have about 20 Spyderco knives so if one is off center it won't kill me. I wouldn't be able to go to $150 until I use it a few years.

hmmm, maybe I'll try some of those suggestions before sending my 15V M2 back to Golden. Mine rubs against the scales....both with the aftermarket micarta scales and the stock G10 ones.

Theres a guy selling a Crucarta Mili 2 on ebay right now with the same issue. He's asking $190. I'd prob bite at $150.

[Brock O Lee]

…collection of Milies

14 in 14 years… You inevitably end up with a few when you stick around here long enough…

[Drubieg]

For anyone with centering issues with their M2, I posted this a while ago in the chief LW thread... Hope it adds a helpful dimension. As was said somewhere above, sometimes you need to flex the scales/liners.


This is what I’ve done to center blades on my lightweights.

Loosen all screws, apply force (see arrows) to bend knife according to whatever side the blade favors. While applying such force, fully tighten all screws. Back off pivot and lock bar screw as needed to allow smooth action. If this fails to center the blade then fully remove scales and bend them with force applied in the same directions, put knife back together and check centering. Sometimes this over corrects the issue. Take apart, bend and adjust force as needed until centered.

I realize this is a kind of involved guess and check game, and we shouldn’t have to do this. But if you want a centered blade, this process always works for me. Sometimes the scales aren’t perfectly straight from the factory

[skybladefromthe]

This helped me.
I took apart the knife and bent the liner as shown on the diagram. While there is still a favoring to the show side it's better than it was and all the screws are tightened down. The action is good.
I may be able to improve it further if I gave it another try. But I'm ok with it like it is for now.
Thank you,
skybladefromthe

For anyone with centering issues with their M2, I posted this a while ago in the chief LW thread... Hope it adds a helpful dimension. As was said somewhere above, sometimes you need to flex the scales/liners.


This is what I’ve done to center blades on my lightweights.

Loosen all screws, apply force (see arrows) to bend knife according to whatever side the blade favors. While applying such force, fully tighten all screws. Back off pivot and lock bar screw as needed to allow smooth action. If this fails to center the blade then fully remove scales and bend them with force applied in the same directions, put knife back together and check centering. Sometimes this over corrects the issue. Take apart, bend and adjust force as needed until centered.

I realize this is a kind of involved guess and check game, and we shouldn’t have to do this. But if you want a centered blade, this process always works for me. Sometimes the scales aren’t perfectly straight from the factory

[Drubieg]

This helped me.
I took apart the knife and bent the liner as shown on the diagram. While there is still a favoring to the show side it's better than it was and all the screws are tightened down. The action is good.
I may be able to improve it further if I gave it another try. But I'm ok with it like it is for now.
Thank you,
skybladefromthe

For anyone with centering issues with their M2, I posted this a while ago in the chief LW thread... Hope it adds a helpful dimension. As was said somewhere above, sometimes you need to flex the scales/liners.


This is what I’ve done to center blades on my lightweights.

Loosen all screws, apply force (see arrows) to bend knife according to whatever side the blade favors. While applying such force, fully tighten all screws. Back off pivot and lock bar screw as needed to allow smooth action. If this fails to center the blade then fully remove scales and bend them with force applied in the same directions, put knife back together and check centering. Sometimes this over corrects the issue. Take apart, bend and adjust force as needed until centered.

I realize this is a kind of involved guess and check game, and we shouldn’t have to do this. But if you want a centered blade, this process always works for me. Sometimes the scales aren’t perfectly straight from the factory

Glad it helped!

[aicolainen]

I did some 20 pages of catching up on this thread. One of the few perks of travelling is the occasional waiting time to fill.

So many pages spent on discussing which is better of the MM and M2.. and I surely don't want to reignite that discussion. IMO they're both interesting enough.
I owned the MM for a brief moment, and really liked it (sold it for reasons not related to the knife's quality or likeability). I'll definitively get another when I find the right one at the right price.
On paper I like the MM more and I've confirmed I like it in hand, but I also don't want to loose out on the new innovations that the M2 receives. Like a Salt version. So I'll probably end up with both eventually. That will also give me a nice opportunity to compare them.

[skybladefromthe]

I went ahead and ran through Drubieg's liner bending process again and the used a bit of blue loctite to finish it up. I spent a few hours trying different things but this was what ended up working out for me.
Thanks all for the assistance. This is a really good forum!
Here's the result...

This helped me.
I took apart the knife and bent the liner as shown on the diagram. While there is still a favoring to the show side it's better than it was and all the screws are tightened down. The action is good.
I may be able to improve it further if I gave it another try. But I'm ok with it like it is for now.
Thank you,
skybladefromthe

For anyone with centering issues with their M2, I posted this a while ago in the chief LW thread... Hope it adds a helpful dimension. As was said somewhere above, sometimes you need to flex the scales/liners.


This is what I’ve done to center blades on my lightweights.

Loosen all screws, apply force (see arrows) to bend knife according to whatever side the blade favors. While applying such force, fully tighten all screws. Back off pivot and lock bar screw as needed to allow smooth action. If this fails to center the blade then fully remove scales and bend them with force applied in the same directions, put knife back together and check centering. Sometimes this over corrects the issue. Take apart, bend and adjust force as needed until centered.

I realize this is a kind of involved guess and check game, and we shouldn’t have to do this. But if you want a centered blade, this process always works for me. Sometimes the scales aren’t perfectly straight from the factory

Glad it helped!

[Drubieg]

I went ahead and ran through Drubieg's liner bending process again and the used a bit of blue loctite to finish it up. I spent a few hours trying different things but this was what ended up working out for me.
Thanks all for the assistance. This is a really good forum!
Here's the result...

This helped me.
I took apart the knife and bent the liner as shown on the diagram. While there is still a favoring to the show side it's better than it was and all the screws are tightened down. The action is good.
I may be able to improve it further if I gave it another try. But I'm ok with it like it is for now.
Thank you,
skybladefromthe

For anyone with centering issues with their M2, I posted this a while ago in the chief LW thread... Hope it adds a helpful dimension. As was said somewhere above, sometimes you need to flex the scales/liners.


This is what I’ve done to center blades on my lightweights.

Loosen all screws, apply force (see arrows) to bend knife according to whatever side the blade favors. While applying such force, fully tighten all screws. Back off pivot and lock bar screw as needed to allow smooth action. If this fails to center the blade then fully remove scales and bend them with force applied in the same directions, put knife back together and check centering. Sometimes this over corrects the issue. Take apart, bend and adjust force as needed until centered.

I realize this is a kind of involved guess and check game, and we shouldn’t have to do this. But if you want a centered blade, this process always works for me. Sometimes the scales aren’t perfectly straight from the factory

Glad it helped!

Heck yea dude looks great