I gave a delica 4 as a present to my father back in 2009, and it's been trough hell since then. Used abused, broken tip, sharpened on cement, and so on, i really don't know what he hasn't done with it. I had posted pictures of it from time to time around here. It was kept opened in his work bag, and full with dirt, from construction sites, that you couldn't close it anymore, well, totally. I figured i would clean it for him, but noticing the huge amount of vertical play after a bit o cleanup, i opened it, and realized either a piece of the blade rusted away, or broke, at the lockbar contact point. Now it just "kind of" locks, has a lot of vertical play, like half a cm either way, and closes just pushed on the spine. As seen from the pics, a part of the blade is missing, but with the pivot screw tightened, it can still be used for one or two things. But i really think it's time to retire it, and give him another knife, ...more like a cheap hultafors hvk...
Wow!! Just wow! I agree it's time to retire that one. Looks like it's seen several lifetimes of use in a very hard 7 years.
Retire?! Ha! Clean it up, refurbish it, and, if it still won't lock up safely, epoxy it and turn it into a 'fixed' blade. 😄
Now THAT'S a hard use knife! Love it! I would honestly be tempted to clean it all up, epoxy it into place and put it under glass. Pristine knives are neat, but knives that have put in that much honest work bear rare character.
Give him a small fixed blade with sheath. A cheap one. Given the way he treats knives, that might be more his style.
God forbid someone REALLY uses their knives without remorse/babying them, granted could have taken better care of it, but it's great to see a knife have a full life cycle, don't see it much anymore, at least here. Got 7 years of use out of it for $70ish dollars, money well spent. Having both a fixed and folder might not be a bad idea though. Too bad wasn't a Benchmade, could send it in and they'd make it as new. Would charge you for the blade I'm sure though. Delica in zdp is one of the few folders I have left. I really hope in the future Spyderco decides to offer blade replacements and overall tuneups of their knives to customers. Really like the designs, but them not being able to help you if you happen to break a $200 knife really turns me off.
I also vote for buying him a new one at ~$80, and making a fixed blade from the old one. Or for a little more $ and something much tougher, a Gayle Bradley.
Spyderco will help you, but they'll charge you for it. I prefer it that way, because I don't break my knives. I'd rather not pay extra for "included" service that I'm never going to use. I agree though that blade replacement would be a nice option to have with Spyderco.
Yeah but as tough as it is, he could just throw it on the floor, break the rust loose and continue on.
