How to fix blade play/stiff action on CQI Military. (cross post from other forum)

A

AwayFromMySpydieHole

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Jan 30, 2017
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Hi guys, I own a number of the new CQI military's. As in 10+. I've learned a trick (really adjustment) you can do to make your military smooth and solid. Note, not all knives will need this.

***If you have a military that has slight blade play that can only be gotten out by tightening the pivot down so far it makes the knife extremely stiff, chances are your knife could benefit from this.****

There are definitely some that are perfect from the factory. In my experience however, a good portion of the new millies coming out of Golden could benefit from this. I just so happen to have a keen eye for detail and I have a lot of experience with machining/mechanical things - so in my tinkering I found a way to make a great knife better. (if it happens to have this small issue)

I'm a spydie lover of over a decade now. I own literally hundreds of spydies. I have no negative bias towards Spyderco at all. I'm merely pointing out a minor issue that I've noticed and made a video showing you how to correct it. After the correction, the action is very noticeably smoother and the lockup is definitely more solid. No lateral blade play can be detected in any fashion.

This trick has worked on 4 of my own knives so far, so I feel pretty confident that it's a good fix. This video was shot saturday morning with no prep so you're going to hear some real life going on from time to time. Dogs barking, 1 month old daughter pooping and spitting up. This is real life! Haha.


Anyway, watch the video in full. If you do, I'm confident that anyone with a little bit of mechanical ability can do this. It's an easy tweak and yields great results.

This video has step by step instructions as best as I could outline them. It should get you through the whole process without any guess work if you choose to do this. NOTE: Please don't try it if you aren't mechanically inclined. It's easy, but some people just aren't the tinkering type which is totally fine.

I hope this helps someone.
smile.gif





 
Could we maybe get a TLDW for those of us that can't commit to a 25 min video? Maybe just a quick run down of what you did? Thanks!
 
kniferbro said:
Could we maybe get a TLDW for those of us that can't commit to a 25 min video? Maybe just a quick run down of what you did? Thanks!
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Sure! In knives with the issue, the lock side scale liner has a hole that isn't quite big enough for the stop pin to fully insert into. When the knife is all screwed down, this causes the scale to bow slightly in that area which throws all of the tolerances off.

I *very* lightly file the hole for the stop pin so that it can fully insert into the liner as it was intended - as it is on the non locking liner. This allows the knife scales to sit perfectly parallel which makes the knife SO much smoother and more solid. Every one I've done has become a free dropper with no blade play.

Hope this helps, but the video goes into a lot more detail and shows exactly what to do. As well as visually illustrates the issue. :)
 
AwayFromMySpydieHole said:
Sure! In knives with the issue, the lock side scale liner has a hole that isn't quite big enough for the stop pin to fully insert into. When the knife is all screwed down, this causes the scale to bow slightly in that area which throws all of the tolerances off.

I *very* lightly file the hole for the stop pin so that it can fully insert into the liner as it was intended - as it is on the non locking liner. This allows the knife scales to sit perfectly parallel which makes the knife SO much smoother and more solid. Every one I've done has become a free dropper with no blade play.

Hope this helps, but the video goes into a lot more detail and shows exactly what to do. As well as visually illustrates the issue. :)
Click to expand...
Awesome thanks! I tinker a lot and find a lot of these little "tips and tricks" my self. I'll open up one of my new Millies tonight and see whats up!
 
kniferbro said:
Awesome thanks! I tinker a lot and find a lot of these little "tips and tricks" my self. I'll open up one of my new Millies tonight and see whats up!
Click to expand...

Cool. An easy way to check on your knife is by looking at the stop pin. You should see the stop pin sitting "proud" of the scales on both sides of the knife. On all of the knives I've seen with the issue, the stop pin is proud on the non locking side and inset into the locking side.

When fixed, the stop pin is proud on both sides. Hope this helps.
 
Should use a nylon spudger to pry (vs screwdriver tip), a Delrin punch (firearm takedown tool or similar) to push the stop pin out. Tape the blade when working on the knife. General safety rules since you are posting this for a wide audience (e.g. unthreading screws while the knife is on the table and not in your hands with the blade fully exposed). Otherwise, a nice public CQI contribution.
 
adamlau said:
Should use a nylon spudger to pry (vs screwdriver tip), a Delrin punch (firearm takedown tool) to push the stop pin out. Tape the blade when working on the knife. General safety rules since you are posting this for a wide audience (e.g. unthreading screws while device is on the table and not in your hands with the blade fully exposed). Otherwise, a nice public CQI contribution.
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I broke one of my delrin punches for my ARs trying to get the pin out on the first one. Ditched that idea and went to the screwdriver.

The rest, people will need to take some personal responsibility for their own safety. I'm comfortable with how I did it, some might not be. :)
 
Sorry to say this, but a new military shouldn't come like this. Never had any problems with my old model, perfect from factory, except some apex problems, which will go away in time or easily can be fixed on an angled sharpener.
I'm really disappointed in this, its not a knife kit, it is supposed to be a knife, and a good one.
 
jacktrades_nbk said:
Sorry to say this, but a new military shouldn't come like this. Never had any problems with my old model, perfect from factory, except some apex problems, which will go away in time or easily can be fixed on an angled sharpener.
I'm really disappointed in this, its not a knife kit, it is supposed to be a knife, and a good one.
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It is a good knife though! This is a fix for the anal retentive folks out there who want the action to be PERFECT. You can't expect perfection (in my humble opinion) from a mass produced 170 dollar knife.

99% of the knife is perfection. There's just a small issue on SOME examples so I made a video showing how to fix it. Don't be afraid to order a military, especially a new CQI millie. They are amazing knives!
 
I agree, AwayFromMySpydie, it was my favorite knife, and still is, in some ways, since 2007 or so. It wasn't perfect, but i loved it. The IWB carry, the light aspect for the size, and the way it cut trough things. But hey, i am in Europe, it will cost much more for me to buy a military than it is for you guys, i believe. I don't expect perfection, but hey, i want things to be a bit smoother, like my old military was, right out of the box. I remember i paid back then 210 euro or so for it, and was completely satisfied, even there were apex problems, as towards the tip, the apex was double compared to the other side. But hey, it cut..and it cut well.
 
Hello guys, with CQI from Spyderco I should expect more, it's not right!
I have own 6 old model millie (different orange, black, serrated and plain, titanium... etc), and had no issue. Now I have the 204 limited edition with the described problem.
Maybe from a china made knife of 20 bucks, you don't have big expectations, but from a limited edition knife.......
 
solo_flx said:
Hello guys, with CQI from Spyderco I should expect more, it's not right!
I have own 6 old model millie (different orange, black, serrated and plain, titanium... etc), and had no issue. Now I have the 204 limited edition with the described problem.
Maybe from a china made knife of 20 bucks, you don't have big expectations, but from a limited edition knife.......
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It was absolutely not my intention to dogpile on Spyderco, so I would like to keep the thread positive and happy if we can. I understand your angst if you do have one with the issue, but take some comfort in the fact that it is a very easy fix and your millie will be 100% after you're done!

Or, you could just choose to ignore it altogether and use the knife as it came, because they still work just fine! It's all personal preference, I just wanted to make the video for the people out there like me who enjoy tinkering with things and want to make a great knife even better. :)
 
Solo_flx, i get what you say, hope you get it fixed soon :D
AwayFromMySpydieHole, thanks for the video and your time though, it sure made some sense and some clarification to the whole issue.
 
i guess Spyderco's tolerances are not as good as we thought they were?

my next spyderco will probably be a military, so hopefully i dont have this issue. i may go for the CF/TI s90v version, but who knows for sure.

Thank you for the video!
 
Interesting. My Blurple Mili does not have this issue. It did come with lateral blade play that disappeared after I tightened the pivot. It's still smooth although not a free dropper.
 
I presently have three CQI designed Military knives,,, all are perfect and free dropping with very centered blades.

Apparently the stainless insert has some manufacturing issues with Q.C. on the pivot hole diameter.
Thanks for the video with explanation for fix.

Regards,
FK
 
Mo2 said:
i guess Spyderco's tolerances are not as good as we thought they were?

my next spyderco will probably be a military, so hopefully i dont have this issue. i may go for the CF/TI s90v version, but who knows for sure.

Thank you for the video!
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Spyderco's tolerances are consistently great, over the whole range, so I really don't feel like what you said is totally fair.

There are SOME knives out there that have this issue. Maybe I just so happen to be unlucky and I got many of them? A few other people in this thread have said all of their knives are just fine.

Could this be improved by spyderco? Sure. Did the knife function just fine before the fix? Yep. This is just for those people who want it *perfect*.

Spyderco is still the best knife brand there is, and has been for a long long time.
 
AF said:
Interesting. My Blurple Mili does not have this issue. It did come with lateral blade play that disappeared after I tightened the pivot. It's still smooth although not a free dropper.
Click to expand...

Thanks for chiming in man. I'm curious, is your stop pin proud on both sides of the knife? Meaning can you feel it sticking out of the liners on both sides?

Thanks. :)
 
AwayFromMySpydieHole said:
Spyderco's tolerances are consistently great, over the whole range, so I really don't feel like what you said is totally fair.

There are SOME knives out there that have this issue. Maybe I just so happen to be unlucky and I got many of them? A few other people in this thread have said all of their knives are just fine.

Could this be improved by spyderco? Sure. Did the knife function just fine before the fix? Yep. This is just for those people who want it *perfect*.

Spyderco is still the best knife brand there is, and has been for a long long time.
Click to expand...
i agree that spyderco are great tools and they overall have great tolerances. i was just being tong in cheek. everyone has some issues with QC or tolerances now and then. Eric runs the factory, im sure Sal will bring this up to him and his team and they will work better at making them perfect.
 
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