Washers in Salt 1?

justinl · #1

Heya, I just took out the blade in my Salt 1 (torx edition) to clean out a bit of sand I suspected got into the pivot area. When I did I didn't find any washers. Now I was under the presumption that there were teflon washers in there, but what I thought were washers was really just raised portions of the FRN scales. So are the salts supposed to be washerless?

majornub · #2

I think I heard that somewhere. I have a salt 1 coming in the mail and i will check it out when it comes, but i think they leave them out to make the knife simpler to clean.

Joe Internet · #3

I don't think that they would leave them out to make cleaning easier, since Spyderco discourages disassembling their folders (it voids the warranty).

In this case, it's probably an ease of manufacturing issue, since it's been stated in the past that the reason for switching to screw construction on the Salts was to make them easier to manufacture. Since the Salts are linerless, it makes sense to mold the washers into the FRN to make assembly easier. There might be a bit less smoothness than teflon, but probably not enough to warrant concern.

pl4stic · #4

The handles are still the same, the "washers" are molded into the handle.

justinl · #5

I should mention the action has not been very smooth at all. Loosening the pivot screw loosened the pivot but introduced side to side play. I don't have experience with teflon washers so I can't/couldn't compare, but my washerless salt isn't nearly as smooth as my delica with phosphor bronze. Not a complaint mind you, functionally I love the knife, lock up is nice and I can deal with a bit of stiffness in the pivot.

cosmo7809 · #6

I think the FRN UKPK also features no washers and having the FRN act as a "washer" with raised circles.

Here is a picture to better understand http://www.spyderco.com/forums/showpost ... stcount=43

justinl · #7

yep, that's exactly what I saw on the salt. Thanks pl4stic and cosmo.

pl4stic · #8

Is your lockbar screw overly tightened? That could be why the action is not smooth. Also if the lockbar spring is more stiff than normal, the lockbar will put more force on the end of the blade and there will be more friction resisting the opening, thus making the opening action less smooth.

justinl · #9

thanks pl4stic, that did help a little bit. It's not buttery but it's not bad now.

pl4stic · #10

Cool.