Cold steel voyager lock failure

N

nymikel64

Joined
Oct 14, 2002
Messages
67
I was well aware that cold steel and the quality of their products is well discussed here, but I never read any complains about the lock strength of the voyager line.
About 10 month ago I bought 2 Yoyager xl , plain blade, clippoint.
I did like them and started using one as edc while the other was left unused.
I did use it for regular chores and most of it was light to medium stuff.
I used it a lot, from opening cartons to scraping paint of and all the work that a knife can be used for when working as a Cabinett maker.
First I need to mention that the edge holding was not very good, not better than for example a swiss armyknifeblade. This did not concern me as I do not mind sharpen a knife.
But now the blade just needs a little whack on the spine to unlock.
Fortunateley I discovered that before I hurt myself.
It seems that the little hook on the backspring that engages the notch in the blade(or both of them) are a little rounded on the corner from being opened to often.
Additionally I need to mention that the engagement of the backspring into the bladenotch is only about about 1/16 maybe 3/32". The milled notch in the blade seems to be to shallow for a solid lockup.
This is also the case with the unused knife.
So with the combination of light wear to blade and backspring it created a hazardous knife!
I was very dissapointed, because especially the lock strength is agressivly promoted by Cold Steel.
I did throw this piece of junk away and the other one is sold.(to someone that probably will never use it)
I will not buy Cold steel again.:grumpy:
 
nymikel64 said:
...the engagement of the backspring into the bladenotch is only about about 1/16 maybe 3/32".
Click to expand...

This sounds defective, I have used a few voyagers of different sizes and they all engage fully. You might have tried contacting Cold Steel.

-Cliff
 
I would have suggested looking it over for an obstruction also before thowing it out. It may have been jammed by pocket lint or grit or some other such thing preventing the lock bar from fully engaging.

STR
 
STR has a lot of good points mentioned above...I have a Voyager large tanto-point (4-inch blade) folder that I have had for just over 7 years now and it has held up very well. It has been opened thosands of times over the years and minus some scratching on the blade and handle, it is in great shape.
 
This, too, puzzles me because I've used Voyagers extensively with no problem. I am curious as to the cause of this problem, but if it's not returned to Cold Steel, then there's no way to tell what was the problem.

It just proves that it's best to check out a working knife before relying on it in daily use. I've seen people who have lost the use of their fingers due to equipment failures (not knives, but power tools) and having them and not being able to use them is a terrible thing. A blade coming back with any force can cut through a lot of nerves.
 
I've been using my Cold Steel Voyager daily for a couple of years now.
Usually I flick it open.
Although it's used for light cutting jobs around the house, it never gave me problems and the knife (including the lock) is in perfect condition. Once a week I sharpen it with a DMT diamant rod to scary sharp and lubricate the pivot. I'm pretty confident the CS Voyager will last for years to come.
 
I've had several of Cold Steels Voyagers and Vaqueros over the years and currently carry an Ultimate Hunter quite a bit off an on depending on my mood for a big knife in my pocket. If a knife has served you well for x amount of time and suddenly gives you trouble you have to ask yourself what has changed?

All my Cold Steel lock backs have been rock solid with lock bars that fall very deep in to the blade compared to other similar sized knives. I have had less trouble with Cold Steels mid locking folders than any other lock back maker out there that I have bought from including Spyderco. My Vaquero Grande is one my most trusted locks of all my knives. The thing is a beast. I have beat that thing to the point that any other would have surely been retired by now and it is still rock solid. It just leaves dents in wood when I spine tapped it earlier to test it after reading this thread. I would have to say you either got something jammed in the lock or something has happened to weaken the spring or both.

STR
 
I am pretty picky whem it comes to knives and I sure did check for dirt in the lock.It was my first thought too, but it was clean and did still close by a little whack on the spine. So that was not the problem .Like I said , the spring just does not fall deep into the blade and the bladenotch does look pretty shallow. And that was the case with both knives. Maybe I just got two out of a production that was out of spec. But still it should not have happend.When I think about it ,- it might be that the heat treatment of the blade was not right. The blade had bad edge holding and the corners of the bladenotch/ backspring engagement were rounded of.
Still its a sign of bad quality controll.
I do earn my money with my hands work, I do use sharp tools all day long but I will not take the risk to damage my hands with a 5" blade closing on my fingers due to a knife with bad quality control.
I have use dozends of other knives with no problems,I do maintain and clean them like I do with all of my tools.
Well, every company puts out a lemon occasionally and I might have gotten some.
 
I have several Voyagers in all lengths from the med, lg, XL, And XL2. I have given them as gifts to all my co-workers at the plant and we definatly abuse them by chipping concrete off the trucks. breaking open 5 gal buckets of chems. and I have never, or any coworkers have a failure.

Sounds kinda interesting.
 
You must have gotten unlucky. I have never had a problem with my vaquero which is similar to the voyagers. As STR says its a beast of a knife........
 
nymikel64 said:
But still it should not have happend.
Click to expand...

No it should not, but no one has 100% perfect products, I have seen various defects in lots of blades, it happens. This is why you should evaluate all of them NIB and again periodically. When you see a defect contact the maker can get it replaced/fixed, there is no need to take a loss, it is their mistake.

-Cliff
 
1/16"-3/32" is plenty of engagement. Don't have 'em handy right now, but if memory serves, both a Buck 110 and Schrade LB7 have about that much, and they're both rock solid.

I think you just got a couple of bad ones. Call up Cold Steel, bet they offer to replace 'em both for you. Their QC ain't all that great, but their customer service is usually solid.
 
Gentlebeings, since nymikel64 lives in Germany, and the Voyager is a fairly cheap knife, sending it back to California would cost him more than a new one. That's a BIG problem for us Europeans.

When a knife breaks or fails, even if the company's reputation is good, and they are ready to fix things up for the customer, just the price of S&H and the hassle from the customs make our lives difficult.
 
If you have 'global priority' mail available to you that is all it will cost to mail it back to the states. I send stuff to the Netherlands, Australia, Israel, and many other places that way and they get there in about 6 days time and it is a flat $5 to mail it. In some cases stuff I mailed to Los Angeles California arrived a day later than stuff I mailed to Australia and both packages were mailed out at the same time. I'm pretty sure Germany has global priority mail envelopes.

From the sounds of it he still had two months left for a warranty on that knife so throwing it out and closing the book on CS forever based on one knife was not necessary in my opinion. But I do agree that some of you guys overseas get raped on shipping charges. Dirk, my friend in Australia has had stuff he bought shipped to me to mail to him for 'actual shipping charges' rather than have to fork out $20 when it costs less than that by far to get it back to you. It may have been worth checking with CS to find out if they would have paid to ship it back if covered under warranty before throwing the knife out.

STR
 
That should not have happened with your lockback, and it doesn't sound like a design problem, since others have had good luck. It must be a problem with the manufacturing of your knife.

However, be aware that lockbacks will wear and may fail with age. Both the notch on the tang and the hook on the lock bar will slowly wear resulting in less push needed to unlock the blade. If you don't lube your knife regularly, this will accelerate the wear. This is one of the reasons Boye invented the "indent" that is used by Spyderco. I have a Puma lock back that was retired for this reason. It took 10 years of constant daily use, lots of flicking and hard use to get it that way. It will now open with such little pressure, that it will fail when gripped hard. I have been told by someone else that the same thing happened to their Puma.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top