A Spyderco Warranty Question

VermontEdge

VermontEdge

Joined
Jun 10, 2015
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Alright so I know that this can turn into an argument easily and I really don't want that to happen.

I know that disassembly of a Spyderco knife voids the warranty. Some people say that damage from disassembly voids the warranty, and not just the act of disassembly in itself.

In either case, my question is this:

Say that I take a knife apart to clean and lube it, maybe once a year or so. Say I open up a knife and, for example, there's a problem with a washer or something. My understanding is that, since I took it apart, it's no longer under warranty. This means I wouldn't expect for Spyderco to fix the problem under warranty.

However, if I take a knife apart and find a problem, can I still send it in and pay to have it fixed, or pay for a new part? I can accept the voiding of a warranty when you take a knife apart, but I'm kind of hoping that, down the road, if I find something wrong with a knife when I take it apart I could still choose to pay some amount of money in order to have the problem remedied.

Would really appreciate anyone's thoughts!
 
Generally yes. The problem in most of these threads is when people want a voided warranty fixed for free. Bottom line if there is a problem send it in don't disassemble it.
 
If it's a model currently made in Golden, definitely. If it's an older model, or a model made elsewhere, it would depend on whether they have the part, or a broken knife of that model from which they can salvage the part. It is my understanding that, with few exceptions, Spyderco does not stock parts for the models made overseas. Warranty issues on such models are normally resolved by replacing the defective knife.
 
So the general understanding is that if you take apart a Spyderco and subsequently void the warranty and then, down the road, you have an issue, you could still pay to have it resolved?
 
VermontEdge said:
So the general understanding is that if you take apart a Spyderco and subsequently void the warranty and then, down the road, you have an issue, you could still pay to have it resolved?
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I'd say it's going to depend on the issue, and the model. Lost/damaged washers and screws, a broken ball cage, lost ball, or spring on CBBL model, possibly. Other issues, far less likely. There's no one size fits all answer to this. If you take your knife apart, you're rolling the dice.

VermontEdge said:
Also, what about knives bought second hand, like on the exchange?
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Same as above.
 
Rather than worry about possible scenarios, the point to remember is to not take them apart in the first place. Spydercos are not designed to be cleaned, maintained, oiled, etc. by disassembly...it is not a gun, although some love them like guns :) I have owned Spydercos since 1990s and the two that needed disassembly were sent back to Spyderco and fixed for free. All the others can be used and maintained w/o disassembly.

If you buy second hand, then well you get what you pay for...used and possibly abused goods. Lots of people like to tinker with knives that they then "unload". Looking at all the like new knives sold on this forum's exchanges that have visible wear, if you are concerned about warranty work, buy new.
 
I think it's true that they will fix a voided warranty knife for a fee assuming they have the parts available. However, I agree with brownshoe that there's really no need to disassemble a Spyderco knife.
 
ejames13 said:
I think it's true that they will fix a voided warranty knife for a fee assuming they have the parts available. However, I agree with brownshoe that there's really no need to disassemble a Spyderco knife.
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Yeah, I'm starting to agree. A while ago my Slysz bowie got a little gritty so I took it apart, cleaned and lubed it, and then re-assembled and everything was fine.
That being said, the more I read around on the forum, the more I'm starting to develop the opinion that knives can be really effectively cleaned without having to take them apart. It seems like if something is so wrong with a knife that cleaning while assembled won't work, it should be sent in anyway.

I think I'm officially going to adopt this stance moving forward.
 
I completely disagree. Benchmade and ZT have little issue in this regards and spyderco's coverage is quite sadly not on par. Plus Benchmade and ZT will send you small replacement parts no question asked. I usually receive 2 even 3 times the parts I had humbly asked for. I kid you not.

How would you guys go about cleaning these ball bearing folders for instances. I guess you could just shoot action cleaners then re oil, but I truly prefer to take it apart, manually clean to gunk and metal dirt out and apply just a tiny drop of oil directly on the washers surface. I doubt you'd get the same result without taking it apart and relying purely on spraying chemicals.

When I'm buying a high end production folder, I expect the hardware to be treated so they have a long term durability. So the prospect of taking it apart, excluding abuse obviously, should not void the warranty in itself, because they should be made to provide us with that possibility in the first place.

But that is just one's customer's opinion and I really like just about everything else about Spyderco :thumbup:
 
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Spyderco has one of the best customer service departments in the industry, when in doubt, a call will clear any possible misunderstandings.
I had a spring break in one of my knives and they sent me the part for free, I disassembled the knife and fixed it myself; if that voided the warranty I have no idea, the point is that my knife is fixed.
I'm one if those guys that takes the knives apart just for the joy of it, even the more complicated ones, but I'm a mechanic by trade and I usually know what I'm doing; then there are knives that are meant to be taken apart to be serviced, like a Sebenza or an Umnumzaan; they even come with the tools to do it right. Some manufacturers do not want the user to tinker with their knives, so if that is what is required to not void the warranty, then do not take them apart. My two cents.
 
I probably get my salt knives dirtier than most folks get folding knives. I get the pivots filled with salt, blood, sand, fish guts and scales. 99% of the time, simply flushing them with warm water/soap is enough to blow out any gunk. On the rare occasion that I get a small fish scale or piece of skin or tendon hung up in the pivot I will loosen the pivot a half turn or so to provide some space and then flush it with water. I use them every day in this type of environment and have only had to do that once or twice. I guess my point is, given my experience its hard for me come up with a legitimate reason to fully disassemble any of my Spyderco folders other than curiosity. FWIW, that doesn't mean that I haven't done it. What can I say, I'm a curious guy. :D
 
I would not take any Spyderco knife apart for any reason. They will decline warranty if they 'think' you have disassembled your knife. I have had several very unpleasant warranty experiences where they have initially declined service saying I had disassembled the knife where I had not. Why take apart a knife apart if they are so strict in their rush to judgement. Send it in if there is a problem and have them fix it.
 
I'm going to come right out and mention this has always somewhat irked me about the Spyderco warranty... it's voided by proper maintenance (aka lubrication/cleaning is much easier when the knife is taken down)? Pardon my French, but WTF?! :confused: Gotta say that I much prefer the Chris Reeve approach to this. Disassembly does not in any way void your warranty. However, they do state that "if a knife has been modified outside the shop it may void your warranty and some or all services may not be offered." That being said, should you take the knife apart and in the process monkey something up, they'll fix it. Yes... there might be some additional cost involved... but they'll still fix your knife and/or put it back together for you.
 
Spyderco will take care of their customers, I sent in my Chokwe a couple weeks ago (from Canada) and got an email today to let me know they no longer manufacture this knife and have no replacement part. The knife had a bad case of lock stick so I thought they would have the equipment/tool to fix it, carbodize the lock bar surface or put a steel insert etc...

They offer me $279.95 credit to buy anything from their catalogue. This is after the knife had been out for 5 years! And it's far from new/mint condition.

I am pretty blown away and I will not hesitate to buy another Spyderco.
 
wow that's awesome. Perhaps I was unlucky, as the two employees I had talked too maintained the strict ''warranty only for defects'' line.

I'd like for spyderco to at least sell hardware parts for the users. It's not that were cheap and want to hang on to a knife for ages, but when we like a knife, we do want to hang on to it for ages :D

I'm sure they could make the extra hardware availability profitable, I don't see any good reasons against the idea in regards to the customer's interest, then spyderco's in return.
 
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So has anyone had an experience where they've sent in a knife in and gotten a response something like: "this isn't covered under our warranty because X, but we can repair it for $_______"? I guess I'm still confused.
 
VermontEdge said:
So has anyone had an experience where they've sent in a knife in and gotten a response something like: "this isn't covered under our warranty because X, but we can repair it for $_______"? I guess I'm still confused.
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I would have liked to have gotten that far, but I'm not about to send a kife for about 20-40$, to have less then a dollar's Worth of washers or a simple screw replaced... It so not practical that were left with fixing Spydercos ourselves at that point.
 
They don't sell parts because they either find their way onto clone knives and then get sold on eBay or the hack that broke the original parts breaks them too. You folks missed the guy with expensive screwdrivers thread I guess.

How about this. Go to Sal's profile page and then start reading his posts. You'll come to some folks with problems. You'll see that if you're a straight shooter you'll get taken care of. If you're not you'll still get taken care of but with a caveat that this is your one and only exception.

You couldn't ask for a more fair way to do it.
 
Danke42 said:
They don't sell parts because they either find their way onto clone knives and then get sold on eBay or the hack that broke the original parts breaks them too. You folks missed the guy with expensive screwdrivers thread I guess.

How about this. Go to Sal's profile page and then start reading his posts. You'll come to some folks with problems. You'll see that if you're a straight shooter you'll get taken care of. If you're not you'll still get taken care of but with a caveat that this is your one and only exception.

You couldn't ask for a more fair way to do it.
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ah I see the issue with the clones and knockoff. I had not heard of this.

Dont know about the expensive screwdriver guy, but he must be right about something, I myself have gotten a wiha for my knife maintenance and it is a must. Most screw drivers are pop metal scrap it seems. Say between mastercraft Junk and wiha, it's truly day and night!
 
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