Ball bearing lock disengaging?

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stillshot2

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Jun 6, 2014
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I noticed a review of a manix xl where the reviewer said after 2-3 years the lock would disengage just by trying to close it with two hands and without even touching the cage. I am curious if this has happened to anyone? Could this person maybe just need to clean out their knife? Or can the knife wear down in any way that the ball would stop staying locked in?
 
Spyderco’s BB lock is one of the most robust lock designs out there. I’vw owned many many BB locks over the last decade and none of them have ever developed blade play, much less close with the force of 2 hands. Post that video.
 
One of my original Dodos would fail like that until I did a little work on it, but that was the BB lock, not the Caged BB lock that came later. I know a lot of people think the CBB is too stiff and hard to disengage, so they take their knife apart and shorten the spring to lighten it, after which all bets are off. So my questions would be:
1) Is the knife genuine or a counterfeit?
2) Has the knife been modified?
3) How has it been handled? Two or three years of hard inertial openings will take a toll. So will opening and closing it for hours on end. Parts wear in use.
4) Why is he posting a video instead of sending it to Spyderco for warranty?
 
91bravo said:
Post that video.
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I'm not exactly sure how to post a link to it since it is on Amazon, if you search Manix XL and scroll down to the "reviews with videos" you can see an 8 second video by "Kelly Priestley" or bottomed of the 3 star reviews. It seems like a genuine review from an average user. I was just curious if anyone on this forum has experienced it because I think I'm going to buy one. I do notice it looks like the cage is not sliding forward very much, perhaps maybe it is full of crud?

yablanowitz yablanowitz Since there's no real way to contact the user I can only imagine he hasn't thought about contacting Spyderco. Would be nice if we could help the guy out though.
 
stillshot2 said:
I'm not exactly sure how to post a link to it since it is on Amazon, if you search Manix XL and scroll down to the "reviews with videos" you can see an 8 second video by "Kelly Priestley" or bottomed of the 3 star reviews. It seems like a genuine review from an average user. I was just curious if anyone on this forum has experienced it because I think I'm going to buy one. I do notice it looks like the cage is not sliding forward very much, perhaps maybe it is full of crud?

yablanowitz yablanowitz Since there's no real way to contact the user I can only imagine he hasn't thought about contacting Spyderco. Would be nice if we could help the guy out though.
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When I say BB lock, I meant the caged BB lock. You don’t have anything to worry about with the Manix Xl lock system, it’s solid and has been proven for many years now.
 
That's why I was a bit confused he was having this issue. A ball bearing rolling on a tang is it pretty low wear system in my opinion. Maybe his ball bearing got deformed and isn't locking all the way forward? I guess all we can do is speculate.
 
stillshot2 said:
That's why I was a bit confused he was having this issue. A ball bearing rolling on a tang is it pretty low wear system in my opinion. Maybe his ball bearing got deformed and isn't locking all the way forward? I guess all we can do is speculate.
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He probably messed around and cut a coil or two off the cage spring. It’s stiff for a reason.
 
stillshot2 said:
I'm not exactly sure how to post a link to it since it is on Amazon, if you search Manix XL and scroll down to the "reviews with videos" you can see an 8 second video by "Kelly Priestley" or bottomed of the 3 star reviews. It seems like a genuine review from an average user. I was just curious if anyone on this forum has experienced it because I think I'm going to buy one. I do notice it looks like the cage is not sliding forward very much, perhaps maybe it is full of crud?

yablanowitz yablanowitz Since there's no real way to contact the user I can only imagine he hasn't thought about contacting Spyderco. Would be nice if we could help the guy out though.
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There's your problem, right there.
 
Is the manix XL really a knife that gets faked? I thought it was more of the unobtainable models or the common paramilitary ones they counterfeit. But these days who even knows what's real anymore.
 
I can't even tell you how many Manix knives including the XL models that I have owned through the years and still own several, but I've never had any locks fail on any of them.

As posted I'd take any reviews on Amazon or on anything bought on Amazon with a grain of salt.

The only issue I've ever had with any of Spyderco's BB locks was a slight clicking after reassembling the knife after changing scales ... and all it took to correct that was a drop of Blue Lube in the lock.
 
stillshot2 said:
the reviewer said
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When I was in the business of fixing obscure problems, my saying was "Can you show me the problem? If I can see a problem, I can fix it." In this case I can't see the problem. You didn't see the problem There's no one here who even saw the problem. It would be foolish of us to declare with certainty that there even IS a problem. We're relying on something that was said by some guy we don't even know. He could be a complete nincompoop who has no idea what he's even looking at. Until someone legit can show us the problem, I wouldn't loose any sleep over it.
 
When I search Manix XL on Amazon the first results are Lelo Hex ultra thin condoms with extra strength, then Coretch Manix XT motorcycle gloves then finally deep carry pocket clips. Even if I search "Spyderco Manix 2 XL" (the search prompt) there isn't a Manix knife that is on the page. Even if I search C95GP2 I don't get a result that will let me watch the video.

And I have searched both logged in and logged out on a different browser but rolled snake eyes every time.

As they always say, "extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof".
 
I don't know if I'm allowed to post links but since it seems people are struggling to find it:


Scroll down a ways until you get to "reviews with videos" where the second video clearly shows a lock failure. Either way I already placed an order for one elsewhere from a reliable dealer, obviously not Amazon where I'd never buy Spydercos from. I had good success with the little manix never failing that I'll take my chances with the xl.
 
Wow is all I can say. Even if you paid me, there’s no way I could make any of my Manix’ do that. Definitely something broken there.
 
stillshot2 said:
I don't know if I'm allowed to post links but since it seems people are struggling to find it:


Scroll down a ways until you get to "reviews with videos" where the second video clearly shows a lock failure. Either way I already placed an order for one elsewhere from a reliable dealer, obviously not Amazon where I'd never buy Spydercos from. I had good success with the little manix never failing that I'll take my chances with the xl.
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Look at the position of the cage in that video and then look at this.

C95GP2_Both.jpg
 
Right, in an earlier comment I suggested there's 3 years of pocket lint maybe not letting the cage travel forward?
 
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stillshot2 said:
I don't know if I'm allowed to post links but since it seems people are struggling to find it:


Scroll down a ways until you get to "reviews with videos" where the second video clearly shows a lock failure. Either way I already placed an order for one elsewhere from a reliable dealer, obviously not Amazon where I'd never buy Spydercos from. I had good success with the little manix never failing that I'll take my chances with the xl.
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From that video, it looks like the spring is stuck and not pushing the cage ball bearing into the blade’s tang. Therefore it doesn’t lock. Likely there is something in the spring slot that’s stopping the spring movement, maybe years of debris & crud as you mentioned. Another possibility is the owner modified the spring by cutting a portion off to make it easier to “pull back”, maybe overdoing it & cut the spring too short.

Personally, I’ve had a couple of stock Manixes (standard and XL) for years and never had the cage ball lock fail on me yet.
 
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Another possibility is a previous owner took it apart, cut the spring too short or replaced with a weaker spring, didn't like the outcome and returned it under Amazon's "no questions return policy", the knife got returned to stock and sold to this person. With Amazon fulfillment, you never know what you're actually getting. That's why they are no longer authorized Spyderco dealers.

For the record, I have about 20 caged ball lock knives, many of them factory seconds, some of which have been used ungently, and I've never had one fail. I've also never lightened the spring on one.
 
The only other smaller manix lightweight I've owned definitely did not need its spring lightened. I never understood why people did this to a knife that locks up solidly. They must be use to the flimsy omega springs.
 
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