A little help please...

MaxFisher · Mar 31, 2006

So, recently a thread was started regarding converting the Heat to manual. I was wondering if anyone out there who had removed the spring of theirs (or a Blaze or Sizzle) would be willing to post a picture of the spring and possible a short description of how it sits in the knife. I've been curious to the workings of Camillus's assisted mechanism for some time. I've owned and disassembled assisted openers of other companies to see how they work but as of yet I have not owned a Camillus. Any help anyone could provide would be much appreciated.

In case anyone is wondering, my curiousity of these things is based on my experience as a mechanical engineering student and i wish to compare the strengths and weaknesses of the different mechanisms.

Psychopomp · Apr 12, 2006

Hi Max.

The first picture here is of the knife, in manual form, and the spring.

You can see where the holes on the sping line up with the lower two pins of the handle

This is the clip side (if the knife is set up for right pocket carry) scale with the spring in place. Note that the spring goes on top of the spacer.

It's a quick and easy conversion, and a whole lot of fun if you enjoy tinkering with things.

Of all the AO mechanisms out there, this is by far the simplest and probably the least likely to fail.

EDIT TO ADD: here's a few quick pointers for fellow tinkerers. First, take the pocket clip off. You can get to everything with the clip still attached, but it makes life really difficult in reassembly. Second, remember the order of the washers. The thin washer goes on the lock side scale and the thick washer goes on the other side (that'll save you some hassle... took me a few tries to learn that one).

MaxFisher · Apr 13, 2006

Thank you Psychopomp! I honestly didn't think I was gonna get a reply to this thread. That is by far the most simple A/O mechanism I've seen yet. Now, one question, what keeps the knife closed? It appears that there would be constant pressure on the blade from the spring, so what is it that keeps the blade from being opened at any time?

But, honestly, thank you. With what appears to be an outstanding mechanism I'll have to get my hands on one of these models very soon.

Psychopomp · Apr 13, 2006

MaxFisher said:
Thank you Psychopomp! I honestly didn't think I was gonna get a reply to this thread. That is by far the most simple A/O mechanism I've seen yet. Now, one question, what keeps the knife closed? It appears that there would be constant pressure on the blade from the spring, so what is it that keeps the blade from being opened at any time?

I hadn't really looked too deeply in this forum for a while. I had some time on my hands yesterday and did some reading and found your thread. Since I felt like a little tinkerin' I decided to open the Heat up and take some pictures. Converted mine back to AO in the process (hence the first picture of the knife and spring

).

To answer your question. There is almost constant pressure on the blade from the spring and that pressure works differently depending on the location on the blade tang that the spring is in contact with. There is a ball detent holding the blade closed.

I say that there is almost contant pressure on the tang because past certain points the opening mechanism relies on enertia to continue the opening. The spring will not kick the blade open below ~20 degrees (with the knife horozontal), the spring pulls the blade back in. Past the 90-95 degree point the blade swings freely. The action is very quick and very strong so the chances of a failed opening are near zero despite momentum having to carry the blade open from a little less than half it's opening arc.

Pressure from the spring and a good ball detent keep the knife safely closed. There is no safety lock on this series and it doesn't need it. I've never had an accidental opening except a few times when it was dropped on a hard floor.

MaxFisher · Apr 14, 2006

Thank you again sir. For the record, when I said the thing about constant pressure from the spring, I was refering to when the blade was in the closed position, not the travel of the blade to the opening position. Of the A/O's I've disassembled this one reminds me most of the Kershaws. Bucks and SOG's use coil springs that Put constant pressure and then they find a way to keep the blade closed another way. With Kershaw's torsion bar the knife is kept closed by the fact that when in the closed position the pressure from the spring on the blade is not in the proper direction to open the knife. The real downfall of the Kershaw method although it is one of the simplest is that the torsion bar is, well think of it like the brake pads on your car. Something that is designed to need to be replace every so often. And, I don't know about everyone here but I play with my A/Os a lot so I can really go through those torsion bars. The good thing about it is that Kershaw will send them out to you to replace yourself if you feel confident enough to do the work. Now, Camillus's mechanism seems to work the same way as Kershaw's in that it only follows through so much of the blade opening and then let's Inertia take over but it seems to be much more solid and less prone to needing replaced regularly.