Bad Commander Lock-Again

W

Wulfenite

Joined
Nov 13, 2001
Messages
38
The lock on my commander has gone bad. Relatively modest closing pressure causes the lock to slide off and eventually away. This is the second time this kinfe has developed this problem. I've had it back from getting fixed the first time about 6 months. Since then it has only seen minimal use and infrequent waving. Kind of inconvenient to say the least.

Is there any way to really fix this problem.
 
wulfenite:

i too have unfortunately experienced this problem also... when the liner is engaged (albeit all the way over to the right-side of the tang), the liner "slips" to the left when moderate pressure is placed on the blade, however in my case, it never has slid away.

i, like you am concerned about this, so much so i am actually afraid to use my commander, for fear of losing my fingers.

your post appears to be a good news/bad news scenario... on one hand, no one has replied, despite 40+ views... which is good news bacause our problem appears to be an isolated incident(s), which i am glad. the bad news is that there are no answers...yet....

i was invited to send my knife back to eki and they would fix any mechanical problems free of charge... thats where my concern lies... according to wulfenite, this is the second incidence of his problem, which is a bit disconcerting.

anyone know what other recourse wulfenite has?

what is eki determines that in the remote chance the problem cannot be remedied to their satisfaction... does that mean we're out of a knife, or will they replace it?

just wondering... any feedback will be appreciated.

thanks for looking.
 
I have recently had the same problem with my commander. When I first purchased it, 1 year ago, it had a great solid lock up and no give. After 8 months there was some movement and I could get it to close by tapping the spine on soft materials. I sent it back and they went at it with no cost and no questions asked. I got my knife 3 weeks later and the lock seems much more solid and I can't get the lock to fail on me. I heard that this happens again and again but has happened only once for me. The knife works fine now, but in a year, am I going to have to do this again? It kinda sucks if that is the case. I am also interested in hearing Emerson's point of view on a constantly failing lock after 6 months. Do we just keep taking chances with our fingers and send it back again and again? How many times does it need to happen before the knife is determined to be unsafe and a new one is issued or a rebate? I mean, how much is enough? Hard use knives shouldn't fail like that. We'll see if it happens again.
 
i hear you don... i'm still trying to figure out how to grow new fingers, and until then, my commander is safe and sound-in my drawer:grumpy:
 
I have noticed on my 2000 Commander which has seen little carry that when waved open the liner is almost over the blade. It goes all the way to the other side nearly going over the edge.

This seems like the opposite problem. I do notice that when a Commander is torqued or used hard the liner moves sometime a lot.

I would like to see thicker liner lock bars and liners come back to EKI.

I like the thicker liner lock (hell its almost a frame lock) on my Strider GB.
 
If you get to much lube on the contact point of the liner and bottom of blade , it will slide on you . Most of us "think" we don't over lube , but we do . Use a good solvent , one that will remove the new lubes that "bond to the metal" . You will be surprised at how often that will fix problems with liner locks .Try to keep the contact from getting any lube on it .
 
I am with Edd Harbin on this one: keep the locking mechanism free of ANY lubricant!!! The very best way would be to disassemble a knife with a failing lock and make sure every contact point between lock bar and blade tang is free of lube. Apply a VERY small amount of oil to the parts that will need it and re-assemble it again. If it still fails, then you might have a bad lock which will probably be taken care of by Emerson without any problems.

Taking good care of the tools you rely upon is just a necessity.
 
As far as using any liner lock folder hard, the resulting shifting of the liner can be either minimzed or even eliminated by simply having it reduced until flush or even recess it with respect to its scales. Custom maker Pat Crawford uses this approach to several of his liner lock models. For tactical hard use production folders, this approach should be done at time of manufacture/ assembly. Is this too simple to ask of the company?

Nakano
 
FWIW until this morning I had not done anything since I recieved the knife back from the first fix; no disassembly, no cleaning, no oil. I may have rinsed it out with water once after cutting some steak once at a picnic.

This morning I sprayed it out with brake pad cleaner and applied a couple drops of oil to the pivot. It had no affect on the lock up.

WRT what it does when it slips. If I hold the knife with the back of the blade in the web between my thumb and forefinger and the spine in the web between my other thumb and forefinger (picture holding a largish taco in two hands) I can close the blade by pinching the sides of the blade in one hand and the scales in the other (fingers clear of the gap) with modest folding pressure. None of this "hammer it on ......" whatever stuff. The ammount of folding pressure required is about the same as it would take to break a pencil using the same grip; I just did that to compare.
 
I have a CQC7b-wave that has a slipping liner.

I have a light grey material that seems to build up on the ramp (part of the blade that touches the locking liner). I have the feeling that it is Titanium from the liner which is slowly being worn away.

The liner has slowly moved its way across the ramp. When I first got the knife, it locked up at around 15%. Now it's at 85-90% of the way across.

My theory is that the softer liner is wearing away from contact with the hard steel. Maybe the ramp is too rough? I don't know. Maybe I'm being too rough on the liner.

Even when I'm very careful when oiling the blade, I still have the problem. I've carefully cleaned the ramp with paper towels many times.

When I manage to get the grey stuff off - which isn't easy, the lockup improves a LOT. But, only for a while. Eventually, it goes back to slipping.

I also find that I have some back and forward slipping - if that makes sense. When I grip the knife tight - the liner slips inwards, towards the inside of the handle. Very strange. I've never seen a liner lock do this before.

When I first got the knife, I had no problems with it. Seems to be something that has developed over time. Honestly, it is still one of my favorites. I carried it the other day.. and by the end of the day, it was slipping again. A real shame.

My Mini-commander, which I've carried almost as much, locks up super tight, with no bladeplay at all. It does not develop the grey stuff on the ramp, either. Probably the closest knife I have to an EDC.

I've considered sending the CQC7 in, but I'm not really sure that it isn't a normal part of wear on the knife, as I've carried it a lot and used it extensively. Maybe its just time for me to retire the knife.

I'm sorry to hear your Commander is having problems. Try sending it in again.

Or, you could always have it converted over to a frame-lock. :) Better yet, give/send it to me.


-- Rob
 
I have fixed up a few Emersons by putting in a slightly larger stop pin. This causes the liner to lock up closer to the near side. Be careful with the Commander though, the tang barely clears the stop pin during closing. You only need to put in a slightly bigger pin - I use the bases of drill bits, they are hardened also. A normal stop pin of 3/16inch is about 4.72mm from memory. Try a 5mm pin.
The Emersons are good for this fix as they don't have screwed in stop pin.

Cheers

Pete
 
Originally posted by bladerunnerjc
i hear you don... i'm still trying to figure out how to grow new fingers, and until then, my commander is safe and sound-in my drawer:grumpy:
Click to expand...

Our commanders are safe and sound in our drawers but our money is safe and sound with EKI. My point is, for a knife that expensive, should we be worrying about the lock wearing and failing every 6 months? Also, I don't feel like altering a $200 (give or take) knife to make it safer. At what point in time does Emerson deem the knife defective?
 
I'd recommend that, if possible, you gave EKI a phonecall, i'm sure that they will provide you with the answers you want.

Best of luck :)
 
hi,

first post here (had to chime in)

i've got another failing commander lock. it was purchased in nov 2000 and was a light-duty edc for about a year. it was barely lubed.

while eki seemed to be quite receptive to repairing/replacing the knife, they still wanted $15 s&h for this $192 knife. (i plan on sending them the knife in the next few weeks).

the problem appears to be a design and/or metallurgical error:
1) (least likely) the liner material could be insufficient -- i.e. inadequate modulus of elasticity.
2) (likely) the liner is too thin. when compared to my abused bm975,the commander's liner is noticeably thinner. by the way, the abused bm975 still locks up tight.
3) (most likely) on the bm975, the angle of the back of the blade (ramp?)is much closer to being perpendicular to the blade length (-----|). as compared to the commander (-----/). the commander's greater angle allows the liner to more easily slide down the blade and unlock the blade.

while the commander's handle is ergonomically superior and the wave is pure genius, i find it diificult to swallow that it is mechanically inferior to a bm975 that cost $100 less.

is anyone else puzzled with the obvious differences in these two EMERSON designed knives?

thanks for letting me rant & ramble,

richard
 
What's the latest word on this issue? Has anyone heard from EKI about possible resolutions? I'm not talking about just fixing the defective ones but also changes in the design or materials to keep it from happening again in the future.

I was looking at a Commander but this thread has turned me off about EKI, not so much the knives but rather the lack of customer support...:(

I guess I'll stick with my AFCK for now.
 
i am also disappointed in the lack of quality of my commander. i have a .99 flea market knife that has the same problem, so it is now a letter opener. emerson, on the other hand, was a custom order(left hand)for full retail and i expected more from a "hard use" $200 knife than a .99 flea market knife. i guess it is all in the marketing.
 
I have a 2000 Commander that I have barely used, and it too has just developed this problem. The liner moves almost all the way over the blade, and with the least pressure to the spine it will slide over. It will not yet disengage, but if it gets any worse it will. Do the 2002 Commanders have this problem also? I think that using a larger stop pin just might work, I will have to give it a try.

I find it dissapointing that a $200 knife, that I only used to open a few boxes, has developed this problem. Especially when the compnay calls its knives #1 for hard use.
 
Originally posted by 2Sharp
I'd recommend that, if possible, you gave EKI a phonecall, i'm sure that they will provide you with the answers you want.

Best of luck :)
Click to expand...

Again, that's your best bet :)

To my experience EKI's quality control has improved greatly as of last year and this year.
All of the knives i've seen made in 2001/2002 has been perfect, so far 1 CQC-7, 2 CQC-7 w. wave, 1 Mini-CQC-7, 1 Tactical Persian, 1 P-SARK, 1 Mini-Commander has passed my hands, NO problems with any of these..
For example, the P-SARK has been a trusted user, served me very well in Kosovo, used it at work/home to cut almost anything, boxes, electrical cord, tape etc. etc. to make that liner move you have to close it as it should be, it will NOT move.

So, what i'm trying to say is that older EKI knives might have QC problems, my opinion is that these issues have been fixed on the 2001/2002 models.

If you have one that you feel isn't up to the performance level that you want it to be, call EKI.

HTH :)
 
My 2002 Mini Commander is being returned to me as we speak from being fixed (hopefully) for the exact same problem. I looked at my liner after taking it apart, and noticed very uneven wear, almost like it was making contact mostly at the bottom of the liner and tang. Here is a pic of what I'm talking about. You can easily see where the liner is worn unevenly. Hopefully EKI has resolved the issue with a new liner that lines up properly.

Mike

attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • liner wear 7.jpg
    liner wear 7.jpg
    15.5 KB · Views: 520
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top