Bent clip on an old Endura

jujigatame

jujigatame

Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
3,355
I have an older Endura with the integral FRN clip. With use and the one time I torqued it pretty good in a fall, it's bent out away from the handle (picture below). It's still okay to wear in the front pocket of jeans, but not much good with khakis. Anyone have an idea about what I might do to get the clip back flush with, or at least closer to, the handle?

endura5.jpg
 
Welcome to the forum jujigatame. FRN will soften when heated sufficiently, then reharden when it cools. The tricky part is applying enough heat to soften the clip without either melting it or softening the handle and ending up with a knife that looks like it was designed by Salvator Dali. You might try placing the Endura in a shallow pan of water to keep the handle cool, with the clip sticking out of the water. Then placing a lamp so the light bulb is about an inch from the clip. Might work, might not, and, considering that we're talking water and electricity in close proximity to each other, it might earn you a Darwin award if you're not careful.
 
Welcome to Bladeforums!!!

2 things I have done in the past.

1. Tape it down or weigh it down and heat up the clip with a heatgun. It will bend it back down into place, BUT it does cause the plastic to get brittle themore you do it, possible causing a break. Be careful with the heatgun, you don't want to melt the whole knife. If no heatgun available, you might could put some rubber bands on it and leave it sitting on your dash on a nice sunny day. Just an idea.

2. Put heatshrink tubing on the clip itself. This will make the clip thicker, BUT it will cause it to bend more over time. I would suggest just putting heatshrink tubing on the top of the clip, above the bottom "button". It will help hold it in your pocket without causing it to bend so fast.
Hope this helps.



Blades
 
The Deacon said:
You might try placing the Endura in a shallow pan of water to keep the handle cool, with the clip sticking out of the water.
Click to expand...

Excellent idea Deacon!! That would have helped me years ago. :) Where was Bladeforums in 1995 when I could have used this tip. :) Oh well.



Blades
 
I have managed to stick a piece of wood the right thickness (just enough to raise the clip some) in under the clip appx. 1/2 way to 5/8 of the way up and then pushed it down toward the tip or end of the clip and rebent it enough to make it touch the body of the knife again. Heating it up before bending it helps to make it obtain memory and keep the new position.
 
Thanks for the welcomes and the replies.

I guess I could heat it with some source and slide some foil between the clip & the handle to make sure the handle doesn't get too hot. Right now I'vegot the clip ziptied snug to the handle, gonna let that sit until Saturday afternoon when I've got more free time to work on it.
 
Spyderco makes very few design failures, but that damned FRN clip on the Delicas ans Enduras was one outstandingly bad one. I lost 2-3 Delicas as a result of that damned clip!
 
STR is on the right track. I've done the same thing and had "some luck"with that method. As others have said, careful with the heatgun. Injection Molded Resins do have "memory" and can settle back to thier orginal form if manipulated correctly. *never hurts to have luck on your side ;)

*BTW Welcome to the forums!
 
how about sending it back to Spyderco? they will retrofit it with a new metal clip! Call the Warranty departement and explain the situation!

greetz
 
I don't think Spyderco does any in house repairs on the Japanese knives. They may not do any on any of them. Chances are they'd take one look at it and call it normal wear and send it back untouched, and if they did warrant it they would just replace it with an equal value knife..

It isn't really their fault that it got bent like that even though they did change the clip design and material because this particular clip gave them some breakage problems. Mostly, as I recall it was discontinued because of complaints from owners losing knives though.

Even still I happen to like these old Delicas with the integral clips. There was never a knife made that slid on and off the pocket easier. I also love the way my hand falls right where it needs to be for opening the blade right up on this model. Better than any other knife I have ever had including my new Delica.

Easiest cure if you can't get yours to work right is to post a 'wanted add' for one of the original G2 Delicas w/integral clip just like yours. I think you'd be surprised at how easy they are to come by. I bought three this way myself all at $20 to $25 a piece shipped prices. One of them was new in the box never used at all.
 
hmmm maybe you could visit the Spydercoforum and search for bent FRN clip. The response there is that they will replace the clip with a metal one :confused:
 
I just sent a knife back to Spyderco last week for them to look at and possibly warranty replace because of blade movement up and down when locked and the rep told me on the phone they didn't do in house repairs on the knife I was sending them. I told her I had hoped that they would simply pop out the blade and replace it if the hole had been drilled too large for the pivot pin and she told me they would not do that. I just assumed it was due to the fact that it was Japanese made and older.

I hope you are right as I think doing what you say would be better customer service, especially on an older knife you have had a while and grown attatched to that can't be replaced anymore that easily.
 
Spyderco does do in-house repairs on their knives. Some things may not be repaired (such as blade replacement on a knife with "pinned" construction) since the repair cost would exceed replacement cost. Also, blades generally can't be replaced on Japan-made knives since Spyderco doesn't have the blades in stock in Colorado. That's why they will sometimes replace a knife under warranty rather than repair it.

Yojimbo-girl is correct, they do replace broken FRN Clips with metal clips. The feedback I've seen is that you would have a hard time telling it didn't come like that from the factory.

David
 
Alright! I stand corrected. I'm very glad to hear this. I considered Spyderco to have superior cust. srvc. but now it just moved up another notch for me.

The knife I sent them was an old Delica that was new in the box in absolute mint condition when I got it but had a very bad movement in the blade when locked up. It moved so far up when you cut with it that it was annoying. It appeared to have a pivot pin a size too small for the blade hole.

I debated about sending it to them because something told me that they would just replace it with a newer one if they did in fact cover it under warranty and that I'd lose that old original. It is one of the ones with no mention of the steel the blade was made of on it. Which if I'm not mistaken, makes it an older if not the oldest of the Delica originals with the integral clip.
Believe me, I'd love for them to just replace the pin and send me my old knife back.

If they don't cover it for any reason, I will probably take the pin out myself and replace it with a bigger one. I'll know here soon I hope.
 
Just thought I'd update that the suggestions about heating the clip have worked out well so far. A heat gun and some more time with a tight ziptie have the clip working pretty well on thinner pockets. I'm going to work it one more time, this time using a thin wood shim placed under the clip after heating to bend the end as STR mentioned. That should take care of it nicely. Thanks for the help.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top