Here's my explanation of how to adjust the eccentric pivot on the Starmate and Military.
I have a Starmate. Great knife. The blade had some vertical play. It came came like that when I bought it, new, from the store. It passed the spine-whack test so I just ignored the play. But then it started to bug me. So I decided to try and adjust the eccentric pivot. The eccentric pivot allows the blade to be moved forward and back in the handle, thus affecting the blade's positioning in relation to the lockbar and stop pin, and the resulting lockup. It lets you fine tune the lockup, if you know how. Maybe this will help. Remember though, Spyderco's position is that this is not an adjustment people try themselves. Spyderco recommends that knives needing adjustment be sent in. Doing this may void your warranty. Proceed at your risk. But it really isn't that hard. Judge for yourself.
( Note: By "pivot bushing" I mean the part of the pivot that goes through the hole in the blade tang and around which the knife rotates. On the Starmate and Military the pivot bushing enters the handle from the left side. It has a smooth, domed head. The pivot screw holds the pivot bushing in place. The pivot screw takes a #15 Torx bit.)
Here's what you do:
One: Close the knife. Mark the present position of the pivot bushing in the handle. I put a piece of masking tape on the handle beside the bushing and made a mark on the bushing and the tape with a pencil. Or use a felt pen. Or whatever. YMMV.
Two: You have to partially unscrew the pivot screw so that it's screwed in only a few turns. If you unscrew the pivot screw all the way just put it back in a few turns. Use a #15 Torx bit.
Three: You have to push out the pivot bushing. It's press-fit into the handle. Holding the knife in your hands, press on the protruding screw head with your thumb, maybe put a coin between your thumb and the screw head. Or you can push on the screw head with the Torx screwdriver. YMMV. Push until the pivot bushing is pushed out and partially protruding from the G-10 handle scale.
( Note: You don't want to push the bushing out from the handle all the way, just part way. If you do push out the bushing completely, the thin red washers between the blade and the handle may get out of position and repositioning them may require taking the handle apart. So the bushing should partly protrude and not be completely pushed out. Make sure the pivot screw is screwed in a few turns before pressing on it to push out the bushing.)
Four: With the bushing partly pushed out, look beneath the protruding domed head. Right beneath the head you'll see a 12-sided surface, with 12 flats. Kind of like the edge of a 12-sided screw nut, if such a thing were made. This 12-sided part of the bushing mates with a similarly shaped hole in the G-10 scale when the bushing is pressed into the handle. This design allows for the bushing to be adjusted to 12 different positions in the handle, each position a 30 degree rotation from adjacent positions (360 / 12 = 30).
Now for the actual adjustment. Grasping the protruding domed head of the pivot bushing with your fingers, rotate the pivot bushing one position, or 30 degrees, either clockwise or counter-clockwise. You'll have to guestimate this.
(Because the initial adjstment of each knife will vary, there is no way of knowing which direction is the right way to go. So just choose one or the other. If the direction you choose doesn't work, then you'll go the other way. No harm done.)
Now, push the pivot bushing back into the handle. Check the lockup by opening the knife. There are a few different possible results:
(a) The lockup is perfect. Good. That means you turned the pivot bushing the right way. Just screw in the pivot screw and that's it.
(b) The lockup is almost perfect, with just a tiny bit of vertical play. That's probably as good as you can get it. Because the pivot bushing isn't infinitely adjustable but instead has 12 fixed positions it can be moved to, rotating the bushing to the next position will probably move the blade too close to the lockbar and stop pin.
But you can try the next position and see, if you want. Remember, the blade should be closed when rotating the pivot bushing.
(c) The lockbar won't engage the back of the blade tang. It won't pop out. This means the blade has been moved too far backwards. You now have to rotate the pivot bushing in the opposite direction
to move the blade forward.
(d) The lockup is worse. Even more vertical play. This means you rotated the pivot bushing in the wrong direction. Rotate in the opposite direction.
Keep trying different positions until you get it right. Or if this doesn't make sense to you or if you think you can't handle it, then send it in to Spyderco. But it really isn't that hard to do. Just give it some thought.
Well, that's the best explanation I can give. Hopefully others can add something to this. Good luck!
I have a Starmate. Great knife. The blade had some vertical play. It came came like that when I bought it, new, from the store. It passed the spine-whack test so I just ignored the play. But then it started to bug me. So I decided to try and adjust the eccentric pivot. The eccentric pivot allows the blade to be moved forward and back in the handle, thus affecting the blade's positioning in relation to the lockbar and stop pin, and the resulting lockup. It lets you fine tune the lockup, if you know how. Maybe this will help. Remember though, Spyderco's position is that this is not an adjustment people try themselves. Spyderco recommends that knives needing adjustment be sent in. Doing this may void your warranty. Proceed at your risk. But it really isn't that hard. Judge for yourself.
( Note: By "pivot bushing" I mean the part of the pivot that goes through the hole in the blade tang and around which the knife rotates. On the Starmate and Military the pivot bushing enters the handle from the left side. It has a smooth, domed head. The pivot screw holds the pivot bushing in place. The pivot screw takes a #15 Torx bit.)
Here's what you do:
One: Close the knife. Mark the present position of the pivot bushing in the handle. I put a piece of masking tape on the handle beside the bushing and made a mark on the bushing and the tape with a pencil. Or use a felt pen. Or whatever. YMMV.
Two: You have to partially unscrew the pivot screw so that it's screwed in only a few turns. If you unscrew the pivot screw all the way just put it back in a few turns. Use a #15 Torx bit.
Three: You have to push out the pivot bushing. It's press-fit into the handle. Holding the knife in your hands, press on the protruding screw head with your thumb, maybe put a coin between your thumb and the screw head. Or you can push on the screw head with the Torx screwdriver. YMMV. Push until the pivot bushing is pushed out and partially protruding from the G-10 handle scale.
( Note: You don't want to push the bushing out from the handle all the way, just part way. If you do push out the bushing completely, the thin red washers between the blade and the handle may get out of position and repositioning them may require taking the handle apart. So the bushing should partly protrude and not be completely pushed out. Make sure the pivot screw is screwed in a few turns before pressing on it to push out the bushing.)
Four: With the bushing partly pushed out, look beneath the protruding domed head. Right beneath the head you'll see a 12-sided surface, with 12 flats. Kind of like the edge of a 12-sided screw nut, if such a thing were made. This 12-sided part of the bushing mates with a similarly shaped hole in the G-10 scale when the bushing is pressed into the handle. This design allows for the bushing to be adjusted to 12 different positions in the handle, each position a 30 degree rotation from adjacent positions (360 / 12 = 30).
Now for the actual adjustment. Grasping the protruding domed head of the pivot bushing with your fingers, rotate the pivot bushing one position, or 30 degrees, either clockwise or counter-clockwise. You'll have to guestimate this.
(Because the initial adjstment of each knife will vary, there is no way of knowing which direction is the right way to go. So just choose one or the other. If the direction you choose doesn't work, then you'll go the other way. No harm done.)
Now, push the pivot bushing back into the handle. Check the lockup by opening the knife. There are a few different possible results:
(a) The lockup is perfect. Good. That means you turned the pivot bushing the right way. Just screw in the pivot screw and that's it.
(b) The lockup is almost perfect, with just a tiny bit of vertical play. That's probably as good as you can get it. Because the pivot bushing isn't infinitely adjustable but instead has 12 fixed positions it can be moved to, rotating the bushing to the next position will probably move the blade too close to the lockbar and stop pin.
But you can try the next position and see, if you want. Remember, the blade should be closed when rotating the pivot bushing.
(c) The lockbar won't engage the back of the blade tang. It won't pop out. This means the blade has been moved too far backwards. You now have to rotate the pivot bushing in the opposite direction
to move the blade forward.
(d) The lockup is worse. Even more vertical play. This means you rotated the pivot bushing in the wrong direction. Rotate in the opposite direction.
Keep trying different positions until you get it right. Or if this doesn't make sense to you or if you think you can't handle it, then send it in to Spyderco. But it really isn't that hard to do. Just give it some thought.
Well, that's the best explanation I can give. Hopefully others can add something to this. Good luck!
