Are black coated BM's harder to open and close?

Fred Sanford

Fred Sanford

Gold Member
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Sep 3, 2006
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I ask because the 710bk that I just got seems hard to open. If I tighten the pivot just a 16th of a turn it is too tight and the blade is hard to open. If I don't tighten it that extra 16th of a turn there is side to side blade play. Super annoying. This doesn't happen with any of my Griptilians.

I am wondering if the coating on the blade is causing too much friction.
 
Could have uneven coating... I'd send it back as a lemon... To the vendor first.
 
Yes, they can be harder to cycle if the BK coating causes friction in places where a plain satin blade would not. Sometimes that changes over time from using the thing and yes again, sometimes finding that 'sweet spot' can be frustrating. I would play with the knife for a week by putting it in your pocket and see if it changes after that...but if it really bugs you as it does me sometimes, send it in and they'll make it right.
 
I'd give it some time. I've had a break in period for all axis locks I've had except for one.
 
I noticed one of my recent production black coated blades was not as smooth to open/close as the un-coated version. I'm sure after time it would have smoothed up though.
 
What Joe wrote. Mostly I haven't really noticed a difference, but I did get one of the M4 Minis that GPK is selling and it was extraordinarily sticky, which is odd. After several hundred cycles, it's smoothing up beautifully. How fast simple use will smooth yours out depends on the coating. I think the Cerakote is by far the toughest coating Benchmade has used. Most of the other coatings (other than DLC) are basically glorified paint and smooth out very fast.
 
JNewell said:
What Joe wrote. Mostly I haven't really noticed a difference, but I did get one of the M4 Minis that GPK is selling and it was extraordinarily sticky, which is odd. After several hundred cycles, it's smoothing up beautifully. How fast simple use will smooth yours out depends on the coating. I think the Cerakote is by far the toughest coating Benchmade has used. Most of the other coatings (other than DLC) are basically glorified paint and smooth out very fast.
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I got two of the m4 minis from gpknives and one was very sticky and oily. It broke in quickly and very well though.
 
I take apart every axis lock I intend to use and polish the washers. I will usually try to polish the pivot area of the blade as well. It seems to help. One thing you may want to try is loosening the screw in the middle of the handle. I find that when that screw is tightened down hard, I have issues finding the sweet spot on the pivot screw. If I keep it loose, and use threadlocker, finding the sweet spot is a lot easier.
 
So I ended up measuring the distance between the inside of the liners at the pivot end and the other end of the knife. because it just didn't look right. Turns out that the pivot end distance is larger. It's not a huge difference but it is probably .3-.5mm. That is enough to cant the liners and I would think it would make the opening difficult. Funny thing is it is only difficult to open from about 50% open to 100% open. The first 50% is easy like the entire process should be.

I shipped the 710 out this morning to BM. I filled out the form from the website and put it in the box with the knife. I'll let you know how it is when I get it back. ;)
 
JNewell said:
What Joe wrote. Mostly I haven't really noticed a difference, but I did get one of the M4 Minis that GPK is selling and it was extraordinarily sticky, which is odd.
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Interesting. My M4 Mini isn't sticky, but it's not nearly as smooth as some uncoated Mini's I've tried. I'd call the action "grainy" at this point. If it smooths out, fine. If not, I can live with it the way it is.
 
bld522 said:
Interesting. My M4 Mini isn't sticky, but it's not nearly as smooth as some uncoated Mini's I've tried. I'd call the action "grainy" at this point. If it smooths out, fine. If not, I can live with it the way it is.
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I own a 525BK-1101 and it's the same as many coated versions. It's dialed in, nice and smooth after months of use and carry time...but is grainy as Bld522 states. Not hard to open, and with an M4 blade is an awesome slicer; I can live with it as well.
 
Good to know I'm not alone. Just to be clear, my M4 Mini isn't difficult to open or close. But with an uncoated Grip, I'm used to having gravity release the blade when I pull the Axis-lock to the rear. That doesn't happen with my M4 Mini. Is that what people are referring to when they say their blades are "sticky"?
 
That is the feeling I get with damascus blades. Takes a while to wear them smooth.

bld522 said:
Interesting. My M4 Mini isn't sticky, but it's not nearly as smooth as some uncoated Mini's I've tried. I'd call the action "grainy" at this point. If it smooths out, fine. If not, I can live with it the way it is.
Click to expand...
 
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