Adjusting detent strength on manual Kershaw flippers?

[moray campbell]

I am wondering if any here have been able to adjust the detent of some of the Kershaw manual flippers such as the Fraxion the Method the Bearnuckle the Flythrough the Faultline the Atmos and such knives? I would appreciate any direction to threads which address this issue.
I also have a few CRKT manual flippers and also wonder about those. Thanks a lot.

 

[Sergeua]

You take a calliper and take measurement of the original position of the lockbar and adjust how its bent in small increments based on what you are going for. More or less strength? Your are not really telling us. Take the knife apart to do it. Its not a sebenza so whatever. You might unlock some achievement in the process. This all can affect how the lockup functions not just the action so you have to experiment. Go slow. Small deviation can have big affect.

 

[moray campbell]

You take a calliper and take measurement of the original position of the lockbar and adjust how its bent in small increments based on what you are going for. More or less strength? Your are not really telling us. Take the knife apart to do it. Its not a sebenza so whatever. You might unlock some achievement in the process. This all can affect how the lockup functions not just the action so you have to experiment. Go slow. Small deviation can have big affect.

Well I was thinking about increasing the detent strength in a couple. Thanks a lot. Have you ever found any threads with photos of the process here or elsewhere?

 

[evilgreg]

Well I was thinking about increasing the detent strength in a couple. Thanks a lot. Have you ever found any threads with photos of the process here or elsewhere?

It's not tricky, I have done it to many knives (some to stiffen the detent, some to soften it). Take the knife apart, bend the lock bar slightly in the correct direction (you will have to go a bit farther than where it will settle back to, obviously). As long as you take care doing it, and don't do anything crazy, there really isn't much you can screw up. I suppose if you bent the bar really far one way or the other, or just kept bending it back and forth until it failed you could screw it up, but you'd really have to work at it (and you'd have to be utterly dense to do it accidentally).

 

[dkb45]

The detent can usually be strengthened by taking it apart and bending the lockbar in ever so slightly, but this can cause lock stick and impact centering. As for lessening a detent, the easiest way if it's an absolute finger breaker is to just work it in. For frame locks this is easier, you just put a little pressure on the lock and cycle it with 2 hands (one holding the handle, one pinching the blade) checking how it flips every so many (I'd suggest every 10 or so) until the detent lessens. Bear in mind this will increase wear on the detent and could shorten the lifespan of the knife. The other way to decrease the detent that has a fair chance of negatively impacting action is to take the knife apart and bend the lock bar out very little at a time. This can induce lock rock or slip, though, so it isn't recommended unless you know what you are doing.

Another option that's worked for me is to take the knife apart, clean it with some alcohol to remove the factory lube, and add a little of your own higher quality lubricant. Just need a drop or two on both washers/bearing sets and a tiny dab on the detent hole.

The nuclear option, if you are adamantly against sending it in and refuse to live with it and want to risk ruining the knife is to use a drill press and appropriate size bit to very slowly reshape the detent hole, but seriously unless you have moderate machining experience don't do this one.