Any way to fix late lock up?

T

tradestar

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Oct 14, 2010
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My friend has caught the bug of knife collecting from me... Or more like the flu. The only problem is he is buying total crap off ebay and most of the knifes he bought have super late lock up. I know,I know I try to tell him a quality knife is worth saving for. I let him play with my Kershaw rake so he can see the advantage of a quality knife. But the boy just won't listen. So is there any way to fix late lock up, or should I just let him experience a lock fail and a little blood to learn his lesson?
 
I don't think it's worth it to start fiddling with such crappy knives, but of course one could take a look at it and perhaps tinker with it; but, one would have to see the knives in question in order to be able to come up with any ideas.
 
If its a liner lock your talking about I have theorized that you could disassemble it, take the liner with the lock on it, heat the base of the lock "Bar" or "Plate" (Where it attaches to the liner) with a torch and give it a few hits with a hammer, stretching it the way a blacksmith would. I haven't tried this, and there are risks, you might bend the liner or weaken it, or your screw holes might not line up anymore. I figured that down the road when some of my favorites started wearing out I may have a go at this, I would have much to lose. Attempt at your own risk.
 
Yeah liner locks. Thanks for the tip...I took one apart and put some jb weld at the blade base, then touched it up with a file. It did the job, but not sure how long it will hold up.
 
$50 worth of labor to "fix" a $10 knife? What's the point? The JB Weld repair will not last very long, but it was a clever approach. JB Welding a stainless steel shim to the part of the tang that engages the lockbar would last better, IMO.
 
I assume you're talking about a liner lock. If it's a design with a blade stop pin, one solution may be to find a pin that will be a tiny bit larger in diameter. This would involve taking the knife apart and having the tools needed to measure the part and determining a source for a larger one.

I had several $10. Smith & Wessons from Big 5 here, that I took apart just for the fun of it. I could throw away what I didn't want when I was done. One recurring issue that I found was that many parts from places like Jantz Knife Supply don't readily replace parts on production knives.

What you should do is get your friend familiar with knives like the Spyderco Tenacious line, and the Buck Vantage line as well. There are a lot of well-made economy folders out there. There was a thread here a while back about "High quality folders under $50". I'll see if I can find it.

Edited to add: Here's a different thread, but kind of follows the same idea.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...od-knife-that-s-60-or-less!?highlight=economy

~Chris
 
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You can successfully peen the lockbar. Just make sure you strike the area"after" the detent ball.
 
If the knife had a stop pin or something similiar it would be possible to make one that is a little bit bigger.

I've done that on a few cheaper frame lock knives and it worked flawlessly.
 
You'll have to drill a new ball detent if you go with the larger stop pin.
 
Charlie Mike said:
You'll have to drill a new ball detent if you go with the larger stop pin.
Click to expand...

Duely noted! I did not run into that problem with the ones that I did before, but I can see where that might be a problem, I believe the ones had a pretty large detent hole to begin with so there was no issue.

You would have to check that out first before making any decisions i guess!
 
and we are not talking about 1/8" larger stop pin here. a mm more or less will do the trick. try wedging a piece of paper between the tang and stop pin on a liner lock that has early lockup and see what you get.
 
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