Does the Recon 1 lock need to break in or what?

I thought both the locks were pretty identical, so much so that CS pays a licensing fee to BM for using it. Least that is what I have read. I own 2 Recon's my son carries and has used aton. I never thought the lock was particularly hard to close. What I did find however is that you need to pull back the button for the lock almost all the way to the rear. Sucks about your injury though. keepem sharp
 
Funny side note:

I've been walking around work today and everyone is asking about the cut. They all say "What did you cut it with?" and I pull the knife out of my pocket. Then they immediately say, "Oh my God, you're carrying it around?" I'm like "yeah... I bought it for an EDC. I'm not going to not carry it just because it did what it is supposed to do, cut stuff. It wasn't the knife's fault." They all just seem amazed that I'm carrying the knife and using it, like it's cursed because I hacked myself open with it. lol
 
Ouch, dude!

I too lost range of motion in a finger due to a Cold Steel. I was sheathing a Desperado and just barely caught the inside of my little finger. It severed the tendon that allows me finger to flex. So now I have a finger fixed at a 45 degree angle that will close another 20-25 degrees, but will not open any farther.

Live and learn, such is the risk of being a knife knut;)

...I did get pissed at the knife though, and got rid of it.
 
I personally do not find my recon 1 hard to close or does it require two hands to close.I do find, it just require a firm and almost full pull of the bolt to the rear to release the lock.
What I have noticed with mine is it sometimes gets locked up on the corner of the D shaped ultra lock bolt prevent any openings, even when try to forcingly opening it with two hands.Releasing the bolt,require that I twist the bolt to release the blade.
 
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razorburn said:
I personally do not find my recon 1 hard to close or does it require two hands to close.I do find, it just require a firm and almost full pull of the bolt to the rear to release the lock.
What I have noticed with mine is it sometimes gets locked up on the corner of the D shaped ultra lock bolt prevent any openings, even when try to forcingly opening it with two hands.Releasing the bolt,require that I twist the bolt to release the blade.
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I found that if the D bolt was turned a little, it hung up too. I don't know about this design. Seems like almost everyone has some sort of little problem with theirs. Hopefully when mine comes back from Cold Steel it will be smooth as Billy D Williams.
 
The D bolt idea looks good on paper but it is problematic in real life. I took out an old O-shaped bolt from an old Recon and it performs beautifully.

I know that they have perfectly smooth working D-bolt ones out there, I was lucky to get one. That is ASSUMING they (customer service) actually did any searching at all!

Have a look at the Sog line. The Arc-lock is very very smooth and strong (after a little breaking in) and Ebay's now selling the Pentagon Elite II (5inches of VG10 steel!) for less than 80 USD.
 
I ordered a recon 1 once and ended up paying a restocking fee to return it for the same reason. I did not cut myself, but the lock felt flimsy and I did not like how pulling it down on one side would not pull it down on the other. Made me feel like it was cheaply made. After that, I played with one at a knife shop to see if the one I had bought was just a bad one, but this one had the same thing. I am sure there is nothing wrong with it, but it just did not feel right to me. I have handled benchmade's axis lock and sog's arc lock, without this issue. I know many people swear by the recon 1, it was just not for me. Good luck with yours.
 
Well I shipped my knife off to Cold Steel's warranty department along with a printout of my transaction and a letter explaining "what went wrong" per their request. We'll see how it comes back. For effect, I taped my hospital bracelet to the box. hahaha. I really hope they fix my knife. I think I'm being pretty cool considering that in this day and age, a whole bunch of other people would have called the hot coffee from Starbucks lawyer. lol
 
Assuming they call and say that they cannot get one which can close one-fingered, tell them to replace it with an Espana Large or Rajah II! Tell them that due to your damge, you cannot perform tasks requiring finger dexterity. Hence the Recon's locks gotta be butter smooth or they got to replace it with something that you can close without difficulty.

Perhaps the Black Sable :)
 
Cotherion said:
Assuming they call and say that they cannot get one which can close one-fingered, tell them to replace it with an Espana Large or Rajah II! Tell them that due to your damge, you cannot perform tasks requiring finger dexterity. Hence the Recon's locks gotta be butter smooth or they got to replace it with something that you can close without difficulty.

Perhaps the Black Sable :)
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Now THAT is a good idea. Thanks bro. :)
 
I also just sent my Recon 1 in for service.As I mentioned before in my review that the liners in mine were pitted which are according to the description on the box stating defects in materials or workmanship are cover by warranty to the original owner.

In my case,there is no amount of breakin will smooth it up.Instead,it will slowly and eventually wear a slot in the D shaped bolt as time goes by with use.It just a pity that such a rock solid knife to has defects.

No other axis style knife has 5 bolts along is's spine and I wish benchmade did that.
 
Combination of rough edges in the Ultra-lock's slot (in the liners) and the tendency of the edges of the D-bolt to get stuck makes this to be a difficult problem to solve. I tried 2 approaches. 1st is to use a fine grit sandpaper (wrapped around a small steel bar) and sandpaper the edges until smooth. The 2nd option is to smoothen out the dang edges of the D-bolt till there is no edges and it does not look like a D anymore. I usually advice doing both together.

I too feel the same way as razorburn. The construction of the Recon 1s are very solid with 5 strong bolts along the spine. The positioning of the lock-bar (when opened) means that it's very very strong in resisting cutting forces. In addition the almost 'closed' type construction where the blade encloses the lock means debris don't get in easy.

If they made a spear point with plain edge and with VG-10 (or VG-1 whatever it is) and sorted out the lock issues I'll be on that knife like ???-on-rice (can't remember the American phrase :)). A 5 inch version with Titanium handles for SD wouldn't be too bad too.
 
Cotherion said:
Combination of rough edges in the Ultra-lock's slot (in the liners) and the tendency of the edges of the D-bolt to get stuck makes this to be a difficult problem to solve. I tried 2 approaches. 1st is to use a fine grit sandpaper (wrapped around a small steel bar) and sandpaper the edges until smooth. The 2nd option is to smoothen out the dang edges of the D-bolt till there is no edges and it does not look like a D anymore. I usually advice doing both together.

I too feel the same way as razorburn. The construction of the Recon 1s are very solid with 5 strong bolts along the spine. The positioning of the lock-bar (when opened) means that it's very very strong in resisting cutting forces. In addition the almost 'closed' type construction where the blade encloses the lock means debris don't get in easy.

If they made a spear point with plain edge and with VG-10 (or VG-1 whatever it is) and sorted out the lock issues I'll be on that knife like ???-on-rice (can't remember the American phrase :)). A 5 inch version with Titanium handles for SD wouldn't be too bad too.
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White on rice.

Well I got a call from Pascual from Cold Steel and he said they are going to replace the knife and he said that they will take it out of the box and check it before they send it to me. I don't know how much I can trust him though. Hes actually said to me, despite how thorough of a description there was in my letter, that he couldn't understand how I had a problem with it and said he tested opening my knife about twenty timesand had no problem doing it one-handed. It flipped right open. Then he said, "I don't know how tall you are or how big your hand is. I know the handle is pretty wide..." I said, "I'm 6'1" and I wear a XXXL glove. Did you read the letter? I didn't say opening the knife was a problem. I said that the lock was getting stuck like crazy. That's why I sent it back. Please make sure that you guys test to make sure the lock can be operated with only the thumb as I requested in my very thorough letter." I know I must have sounded like a dick, but I have to admit that I was VERY put off by the things he said to me. One, I thought that my descriptuion of the problem in my letter was so detailed that alien civilizations would learn everything about our culture and language from reading it. Two, if he opened and closed it several times, surely he noticed that he had to use a bulldozer to get the lock to work when he disengaged it. It seems to me that the problem would have been obvious to a retarded monkey. Oh well. We'll see how it comes back. If it doesn't work correctly, I think I'll just send it back for a refund and find something else.
 
If it does not work I'll give you a final advice. In the EBay there are old NIB Recon 1s that are made in Japan. The bolt will be fully functional however it'll be round instead of D. The Japan version (ask the seller) will be of Aus 8a steel and not 440A. The Japan version is with Zytel handles I believe. You can get one for around 30-50 (I got mine for 35). I've always feel the older versions are better.

Or you can get a SOG Pentagon Elite I or II (spear point with partial serrations) or the Spec Elite I or II (clip point). Both types have good VG-10 steel and the lock is probably the strongest in the market. Opening and closing needs a little breaking in and when it does it's great to open and close. Try it out in your local shop (samples are already broken in) and see for yourself!

Beware of imitations though, just don't buy any from china/hong-kong/thailand and places like that.

Hope all turns out fine. Fight da power :)
 
Sorry for the delay.

The pictures just don't do it justice. This digit looked like a baked potato split open.

KnifeCollection001.jpg

KnifeCollection004.jpg
 
Dylside, How's your Recon 1.Did Cold Steel take care of it to your satifaction.I sent mine in and they exchanged mine for a brand new one.First thing,I did was open it a couple of dozen times to see if there was any play,the ease of opening and closing,center of the blade.I did notice that my replacement was more difficult to close than before,the old one could be easily unlocked with my thumb and now it's sometime requires two fingers on each side of the ultra lock bolt.

After,which I completely dissassembled it to take a closer look at the liner and I was please that the liner were not pitted but flat surfaces.I was not pleased to see that the slot were roughly finished,unlike benchmades.IMO no amount of use is going to breakin roughly finished liners.Going to figure a way to how polish them without removing excessive material.

I know that I'm not the only one that has pitted liner because I saw another recon 1 at a knife shop recently with the same problem.
 
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