My blade nearly fell out!

[Doc Dan]

The blade on my "Teal" Endura S30V nearly fell out, today. There was not a lick of lock tite on the pivot screw. It nearly fell out and went rolling. Only my seeing it and holding the knife up in both hands prevented any disasters. I've only had that happen once before, and that was a knife from a competitor.

Spyderco, a little blue is always appreciated. Not a lot and not red, just a little blue.

[JRinFL]

That happened on my blue PITS and when I took my new PITS down to tune it, I noticed no locker on its pivot screw either. Whether it's blue or purple locker (no red!) the pivot needs *something* to keep it from backing out.

[JSumm]

This may be a Seki thing. I have had a few of the Seki models where the pivot screw came out of the box very loose. Like some that you can tighten with your fingernail. For those, I started removing the pivot screw as soon as possible after getting it in hand and adding blue loctite.

[carrot]

It's gotten to the point where I always take every screw out of a brand new Seki and dab some blue Loctite on.

I nearly lost a DF2 Salt because the clip screw rotated right out!

I'm not sure why this seems to be a Seki problem, but I've never felt so strongly about using Loctite on any other make.

[VooDooChild]

Yeah, Seki has gotten bad about this. Some of my older seki knives seem to hold the screw in place better, not sure if they have loctite or not since I havent disassembled them.

[sandalian]

I'm glad that yours didn't lost.

I lost my Cat two weeks ago while herping (searching for amphibians and reptiles) with some colleagues.
Four hours walk across paddy fields and empty lands in the night, and the Cat is no longer in my right pocket.

The caveat was a flashlight that sometimes I stored in the same pocket. I should have carry a holster for my flashlight.

[James Y]

It seems to mostly be a thing with newer Seki models. I’ll admit it hasn’t happened to me … YET … but the only screw on a Spyderco that’s ever started backing out on me so far was the lock bar pivot on my Endela. Luckily I noticed it early on and blue Loctited it. Oddly enough, the screw that backed out already did have some blue Loctite on it, so I don’t know why it backed out, but it hasn’t backed out after I cleaned it, re-Loctited it, and put it back in.

I wonder if it’s happening because some newer, lazy guy at the G. Sakai factory in Seki is being slipshod about properly Loctiting the screws. Because it wasn’t even an issue in my older, torx-screw Seki knives.

Many people around here might think it’s no big deal, but I say it is. Because not everybody out there knows about torx drivers, Loctite, etc., and most consumers are not knife afi’s who frequent this or any knife forum. Most will buy a knife expecting it to perform correctly right out of the box. Then they go to work, or camping, boating, etc., with it, and sooner or later discover that one or more of the screws fell out, to be lost forever. Then that gives a terrible impression of the knife and the company.

Jim

[SpyderGrill]

Here we go again, one complains about no lock tite and one complains they cant get the knife apart.

Doc Dan, your old enough to notice, and 13,000 posts, if a pivot screw is coming loose. No need to start a thread to create drama.

Add some locktite and move on

[jegred2]

It’s not just Seki, My UKPK Salt I just got had no loctite on the pivot when I got it and it was loosening. A dab of loctite and tuning it to the right tightness made the centering and action very good. I’ve had an Endela come w/o loctite and nearly had the pivot come out, but noticed the blade itself loosening up.

[prndltech]

Yup. Happened to me.

Every seki knife gets some loctite as soon as I take it out of the box

[TkoK83Spy]

Loctite must be a premium over there or something. I don't even like many Seki knives, therefore I don't or haven't owned many...I've had this issue with both a Delica and Dragonfly as well.

[vivi]

happened to my Military, Para 2 DLC and a few others. not a seki exclusive issue.

[JRinFL]

Yeah, it's a known issue with a known solution. But! We are now paying more than ever and now having to do some of the work ourselves. Something is not right in that equation. These aren't discount products where you expect to do some work to bring the standard up. No one needs to white knight for Spyderco, they welcome our feedback even when it is not praise.

[Mushroom]

What’s ironic is this apparent lack of thread locker is likely the result of so many complaints about them actually using thread locker. If I recall correctly, that was a hot topic on this forum at one point.

Now they’re getting negative feedback for what sounds like the complete opposite thing, no thread locker at all.

It might seem like they’re in a no win situation but there’s a happy medium in there somewhere and I’m sure Spyderco is capable of finding that.

It might not be as simple as saying just use a little bit of blue Loctite either. The facility in Japan might use a completely different type of thread locker. Loctite isn’t the only brand and the colors they use aren’t universally used by other brands brands.

[JRinFL]

I believe people were complaining about the use of permanent thread locker, not the presence of any locker. There are plenty of suppliers of thread locking compounds designed to allow for adjustment and reassembly, so no new ground is being broken.

[Mushroom]

The complaints were about permanent threadlocker and too much thread locker being used from what I remember. None the less the complaints were about them using thread locker.

It probably is as simple as requiring the production facility to use some type of low strength thread locker. I wasn’t trying to suggest the solution would need to be groundbreaking.

[JSumm]

Yes, previous Red Loctite, permanent, or equivalent had to be heated otherwise screws would spin and spin. Blue Loctite or equivalent can be easily broken to disassemble, but holds enough to keep from backing out. There is a happy medium. None on Seki. Is China still using Red or Permanent?

[Araignee]

How about Spyderco furnishing a free vial of threadlocker with each knife, for starters ?

This would at least alleviate some of the supplementary cost for those who would want it on their screws.

Then later on and after polling customers regarding their use of the vial, Spyderco could eventually direct their suppliers to use threadlockers during assembly.

[Rymanz]

How about Spyderco furnishing a free vial of threadlocker with each knife, for starters ?

This would at least alleviate some of the supplementary cost for those who would want it on their screws.

Then later on and after polling customers regarding their use of the vial, Spyderco could eventually direct their suppliers to use threadlockers during assembly.

This would be way more expensive for Spyderco instead of applying it themselves...

[kennethsime]

Many people around here might think it’s no big deal, but I say it is. Because not everybody out there knows about torx drivers, Loctite, etc., and most consumers are not knife afi’s who frequent this or any knife forum. Most will buy a knife expecting it to perform correctly right out of the box. Then they go to work, or camping, boating, etc., with it, and sooner or later discover that one or more of the screws fell out, to be lost forever. Then that gives a terrible impression of the knife and the company.

Almost sounds like an argument to go back to rivets!