0560 Blem with Weak Detent

R

RJ80

Joined
Aug 13, 2012
Messages
295
I'm looking for some advice from our resident ZT experts. I have an 0560 blem with a weak detent. I know that blems aren't covered under warranty so I'm hoping that you folks can give me some advice on how to get a stiffer detent with this knife myself. I've tried disassembling it and bending the lock bar but of course that increases drag on the blade also. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance.
 
How weak is it? If it is not significant (i.e.-Does not open when not trying to), you probably don't want to try to mess with it. I have, however, heard of Kershaw warrantying Blems before. If you call, you will probably be turned down, but if you send it in, you might have a real chance of getting it fixed. Of course, you could always buff out the four X's :p
 
When you bent the lock bar further in, did it improve the strength of the detent? It will increase the drag on the tang, however a stronger detent will require more force to overcome, and it should still deploy fine.

I'd recommend very slowly increasing the bend in the lock bar in order to achieve a safe amount of detent. Keep in mind that over time, the detent strength just weakens from use, so you won't always have the strong snappy retention that some new 0560s have. As was said, if it holds the blade in properly, that should be fine.
 
Send it to me and I will walk it in. I live within walking distance of the factory and I know my way there. I am not kidding. Email me for my mailing address.
 
ConservativeKnives said:
How weak is it? If it is not significant (i.e.-Does not open when not trying to), you probably don't want to try to mess with it. I have, however, heard of Kershaw warrantying Blems before. If you call, you will probably be turned down, but if you send it in, you might have a real chance of getting it fixed. Of course, you could always buff out the four X's :p
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Please enlighten us on this. I'd love to hear the actual details as they were explained to you.
 
As to blems, I guess the best way to describe the support behind them is as follows.

We sell the blems at seriously low prices. We don't particularly like looking at them when there here, and we seriously don't like to see the returned for any warranty work. There is not enough dollars in them to offer full service once the sale is final.

The deal of the day does have its limitations.

Thanks for your understanding.
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Seems pretty clear to me, no warranty available.
 
...that weak detent may be the very reason it's a blem...come on; you can't ask a repair for the very reason it was "XXXX"ed out for LOL...

blems are highly discounted USER knives...i love'em for what they are and are not...
 
I had a blem 551 I got second hand here on the forums and the guys reputation was pretty good he had over 2,000 post and 40 something feedback score at the time and he told me he sent the blem 551 in to have the lock serviced and resharpened, I think they may of charged him though since it was a blem , It was one of my first transactions on here so I can't remember exact details. It's worth a shot to give them a call but I would for sure offer to pay for said services since yur knife is a blem they may or may not do anything for you, but like i said I would mentioned "hey i will pay for any parts and labor" in my first sentence if I did make the call.
 
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Thanks for the replies everyone. A little more info: Yes, it does have a detent ball in it and I can feel it drop into the hole in the blade, so there is some retention of the blade in the closed position, just not much. It will probably stay closed in my pocket since I carry tip up with the blade tight against the back of my left front pocket. There's no way I'd trust it tip down because of the flipper, it really doesn't take much pressure on the flipper to open the blade partially.

When I tried bending the lockbar it was still difficult to get it to open all the way with the flipper because the detent didn't allow enough force to be applied to the flipper before the blade started to move. While the detent was a bit stronger after bending it didn't make a big difference and there was a lot more friction on the blade. All in all it was worse after I bent the lockbar, so I bent it back so it feels about like it originally did. I know the detent will get weaker as it breaks in, but this is a brand new knife from the most recent factory sale and I hadn't carried it at all before yesterday since I had to wait for some longer screws to come in so I could switch the clip over to the proper side. I'm concerned that as the detent gets weaker the knife will become unsafe to carry in my pocket.

I'm not going to send the knife in. Kershaw seems pretty clear on the fact that there's no warranty on blems. I just finished going back and forth with them a few times on my non-blem 0561 for exactly the same issues, so they've probably already lost money on me this year despite the number of knives I've purchased from them. After they jumped through hoops to make my 0561 right I'm not going to p!$$ them off by sending them a knife that they clearly state isn't warrantied for warranty work. I'm also not going to try to buff the XXXX off of the blade, as far as I'm concerned that's bordering on fraud.

I'll play around with the lockbar a little more when I get a chance to see if I can improve things a bit. Meanwhile if anyone has any more suggestions I'm all ears. Thanks again.
 
I see a couple more people replied while I was typing. I doubt that the weak detent was the reason it's a blem. It's one of the "EL MAX" ones instead of "ELMAX", so the misprint is probably why it's a blem. Pilote, as for the rest of your comment, read the post I was typing while you were LOL'ing.

Allen R., thank's for the suggestion. I think that fixing the knife would involve replacing the titanium lock side because the detent ball was probably pressed in too deeply so it's likely that the price of that part would exceed the savings of buying a blem in the first place. It is something I'll keep in mind though.
 
Let me try to find the guy i got that blem from and see what exactly he got done and if he had to pay for it or not, but i clearly remember him saying zt had serviced the knife.
 
found the guy i got the 551 from and sent him an e-mail i will report back what he says.
 
yep guy emailed me back it had lock up problems and they fixed it for free... he suggested calling them rather than emailing them about it.
 
I have a NON-blem 0560 with an extremely weak detent as well, and it is also one of the "EL MAX" models. Based on that, I don't think either of these is the reason for the it being a blem based on that. I also don't think that the weak detent is caused by the ball being pushed too far into the lockbar. Comparing this 0560 to my other one with a much stronger detent, I think I discovered the problem. On the weak detent 0560, I can feel the ball engage, but looking closely at the knife shows that the ball does not sink completely into the hole. I can see a very small gap between the lockbar and the blade when the ball is in the detent hole. On my first 0560 with the strong detent, the lockbar is flush up against the blade when the ball is in the detent hole. I took the two knives apart, and the one with the strong detent's hole is drilled all the way through the blade, while the weak detent model is only partially drilled. I believe that the detent hole drilled in the weak detent model is either a) not wide enough or b) not deep enough to allow the ball to seat fully within the hole. I've been thinking about sending it in, but I'm on the fence as I like having one of the "EL MAX" versions. The detent is weak enough that the blade will easily open with the slightest nudge on the flipper., and it also does not allow me to build up enough resistance to get the blade fully opened without a heavy wrist flick.
 
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RJ80 said:
Lol,trying to get rid of the X's is way South of the border amigo.:)I would rather have a detent that is slightly weak than overly stiff personally as long as the blade doesn't open by itself.I would think you could make the detent hole a nano tiny bit deeper at the risk of screwing up your knife.:eek: Good luck.
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RJ80 said:
I'm not going to send the knife in. Kershaw seems pretty clear on the fact that there's no warranty on blems. I just finished going back and forth with them a few times on my non-blem 0561 for exactly the same issues, so they've probably already lost money on me this year despite the number of knives I've purchased from them. After they jumped through hoops to make my 0561 right I'm not going to p!$$ them off by sending them a knife that they clearly state isn't warrantied for warranty work. I'm also not going to try to buff the XXXX off of the blade, as far as I'm concerned that's bordering on fraud.
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Good man. I dislike it when people take advantage of a company's tolerance, and generosity.

Also to comment: Kershaw accepting blems for warranty work is not "excellent" customer service. It is generous.
Customer service is treating the customer with decency, respect, and ensuring they get what they paid for within tolerances. Customer service =/= making exceptions on blems, or other non warranty repair work.
 
Interesting. I've attended the annual factory sale for many years and didn't know that the knives sold then were not covered by the manufacturer's warranty. I've never taken a knife in for warranty service, however I did take Taskmaster scissors that I had gifted, new in bubble package, to a co-worker and the pivot came apart in for service and they replaced the pivot in a minute or so with a smile and no mention of warranty was spoken. Here is a link to the warranty info from Kershaw's site: http://kershaw.kaiusaltd.com/faq. It was beyond my imagination that the factory wouldn't try to fix the tens of thousands of things they sell at the festive annual sale to thousands of enthusiasts, irregardless of warranty, no warranty, fee for service or no fee for service. So if it can't be fixed outside of the factory then it can't be fixed apparently. I will ask at the factory if there is any form of service available to blems to make sure.
 
Thanks again everyone. I'll have to check out the detent hole next time I take it apart. I don't recall whether it goes through or not. I just assumed that they picked a hole diameter that would let the ball drop in to their chosen depth and drilled it all the way through. That seems more logical to me than to just dimple it, but then again I'm no expert in folding knife design.
 
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