Adjusting blade stiffness

djans1397

djans1397

Joined
Oct 1, 2007
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Edit: it looks like the belt I used was 6000 grit. So plenty fine.

I think I may have jacked up my new Spyderco Shaman. The opening has been overly since I bought it new.

So I reluctantly tore it apart, lightly rubbed the copper? washers over the finest grit sand belt from my work sharp. I also rubbed them with aspen up eraser first.

After reassembly, if I tighten down the pivot screws, it’s now waaaay too stiff. It’s better if I loosen the screws, but that doesn't seem right.

Did I take off too much material from the washers?
 
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Typically, folders have a break in period where the Phosphor Bronze washers smooth out and mate to the blade/liners. What grit was the belt you used? I personally wouldn't touch the washers to anything more aggressive than a strop with green compound just to give them a light polish. PB washers tend to wear in nicely on their own, becoming very smooth. If it was a belt meant for sharpening you may have put some deep scratches in there, which is unfixable as far as I know.

The pivot screw is going to have a sweet spot. You're just going to have to adjust it to find where it opens easily but doesn't allow horizontal blade play. Once you find the ideal screw position just apply some blue loctite to the threads and readjust it to that sweet spot. Open and close the knife over and over to mate those washers to the other surfaces.
 
The washers had 3 “black spots/impressions?” In them. After polishing them with the belt, they were pretty shiny, which I thought would help.

I thought I saw where someone took there’s apart and polished the washers. Ive had mins for awhile and it hasn’t loosened up at all.
 
I polished my Kapara's washers on a 6,000 grit waterstone but even then that might have been too abrasive. If you did it with anything less than 2,000 grit sandpaper, you make have gouged the washers a bit. As it was stated before, you should only polish on some sort of leather strop.
 
I do beleive you can get pb washers from a couple of the knife making materials companys but you will have to take your knife apart and measure the diameter of the washers and use a set of digital calipers to find the thickness so you will know wht to order.
 
djans1397 said:
Looks like the grit I used was 6000
Click to expand...
Maybe just loosen up the pivot a bit, a tiny little bit of bladeplay wouldn't hurt anything. If that doesn't work, just reach out to Spyderco and I'm sure they'd be happy to send you the replacement washers (or I hope they would be anyway).
 
Polishing the washers does no good at all. The first time you open the knife, the polish is gone.
Nor is there any need to replace the washers. Bronze is self-lubricating for the most part.
 
Does the 3 dots correspond to the screw of the clip? If yes, can you check if the screw is hitting the washer, being slightly too long? On some models, the screws are slightly too long, moving the clip to pivot area causing binding. Worth checking IMO.
 
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