Can you strengthen the springs in a slipjoint?

[Fish30114]

I recently purchased a Kissing Crane 'Brown Mule' and was actually impressed with the overall fit and finish-initially. Actually the F&F is still pretty darn good, but the knife has a pretty weak spring. Now I don't like a nailbreaker by any means, but this knife has virtually no half stop, (could be designed this way?) and is probably about a 2/3 on opening pull. In short I am wondering if there is a tweak to get more 'power' back into this knife?

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

I don't think there's any way to increase the snap or pull of the spring itself (short of replacing it). Other things can sometimes be done to decrease the resistance to closing, like smoothing/burnishing all of the surfaces in contact (cam of the tang, inside of liners and sides of tang coming into contact with liners when closing, for example). Beyond that, keeping the pivot as clean and lubricated as possible sometimes helps. If there's much rust or pitting along the sides of the spring itself, cleaning and smoothing as much of that as is accessible might also help, to minimize friction against the liners. All of these things may only work to limited effect though, if the closing snap is only marginally weak. Much weaker springs probably can't be helped, short of replacing them.


David