I recently got my hands on a very large folder which has a great reputation for fit and finish but when I went to close the knife, the lock bar stuck very hard. I mean, really hard. Granted it was a new knife and because it was one of the really big folders, I expected some resistance, but this one stuck and stuck hard. So I was just wondering. Do big folders have a tendency to stick or was this just a bad copy that I handled. Like I said the knife is well respected as is the knife maker so I don't want to name hime here. But just in general, are my expectations out of line because it is a big knife or should I hold a big knife to the same standard for this type of fit/finish smoothness and pass up the knife if another copy sticks excessively?
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Does your lockup stick on a new knife?
- Thread starter cutitout
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It depends on the knife. Some of Cold Steel's Tri-Ad models are notorious for being almost unclosable when new. They require a good deal of break-in but are fine after that. Could be a similar issue with whatever knife you have, but it's hard to tell without knowing exactly what it is. There's no problem with "naming names" if you have a legitimate question or concern. :thumbup:
Sonnydaze
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I've had several very nice new folders that stuck hard when new. One was my Umnumzaan. It finally "broke in" and doesn't stick anymore. I had a DPx HEST 2.0 that was a bear when new, but after no more than perhaps twenty "cycles," it was fine. Some folks say add graphite to the lock/blade area, but I've not found that to help.
Sonnydaze
Sonnydaze
Well I don't want anyone to think worse of the knife or knife maker as I have a great respect for him and his knives. I bought a Grayman Satu new from his website and when I got the knife it stuck like glue at first. I opened and closed it a few hundred times or so and while it got a bit better, it still remained sticky. A couple of times, I had to use the thumbs of both my hands to push the lockbar back into place so I could close the blade. I contacted Mike at Grayman and he was really great to work with. He sent me a new copy which has not arrived yet and told me to just send the one I was having problems with back in. He even offered to give me one of his logo t-shirts for my inconvenience. I mean he could not have been nicer.
I really love the design and feel and size of the knife and wanted very much to like it. I tried putting pencil lead on the tang which helped a bit but the lockup intermittently became sticky again so it was not really a fix. I know that a knife with a lock bar this thick will have a lot of metal touching the blade tang, but this was intermittently crazy hard to close. When it released it had a distinct click of metal moving free of the opposing metal.
I watched a bunch of Youtube videos of this knife and others and this issue was not one that came up. In fact watching the reviewers close the knife it looked pretty smooth but it was hard to tell if it might have been sticking a bit and they just accepted it as normal. So I was wondering if I should just not be so finicky and allow for a big knife with a thick lockbar and blade to just be sticky or should I hold the Satu to the same standard of any other knife. I have several ZT's including a 0300, a 0560, two 0350s, a Buck Alpha Hunter and 110 and none of them has any stickyness to the lock bars.
I don't want to be unreasonable but I don't want to pay almost $400 for a knife and not want to use it because it is such a pain to close. I want the knife and hope the replacement he is sending me works better. He has assured me that this was not typical for his folding knives wants to know how I like the replacement. As I said other than this issue, I really like the knife and hope it works great, and even if it does stick a bit, I will keep it, but I am not sure if I should just expect a big knife to stick or hold him to a higher standard.
Again, I don't want to discourage anyone from having or buying a Grayman Knife. Mike and Sue are two of the nicest people you could ever deal with and he has a solid reputation for making high quality reasonably priced knives. The knives are well regarded and used by many military, police and government types. Mike himself has a great deal of military experience and knows about knives from a user perspective as well as a designer and maker and they said that they will do what ever it takes to make this right even a no hassle full refund if that is what I want, (which it isn't).
I really love the design and feel and size of the knife and wanted very much to like it. I tried putting pencil lead on the tang which helped a bit but the lockup intermittently became sticky again so it was not really a fix. I know that a knife with a lock bar this thick will have a lot of metal touching the blade tang, but this was intermittently crazy hard to close. When it released it had a distinct click of metal moving free of the opposing metal.
I watched a bunch of Youtube videos of this knife and others and this issue was not one that came up. In fact watching the reviewers close the knife it looked pretty smooth but it was hard to tell if it might have been sticking a bit and they just accepted it as normal. So I was wondering if I should just not be so finicky and allow for a big knife with a thick lockbar and blade to just be sticky or should I hold the Satu to the same standard of any other knife. I have several ZT's including a 0300, a 0560, two 0350s, a Buck Alpha Hunter and 110 and none of them has any stickyness to the lock bars.
I don't want to be unreasonable but I don't want to pay almost $400 for a knife and not want to use it because it is such a pain to close. I want the knife and hope the replacement he is sending me works better. He has assured me that this was not typical for his folding knives wants to know how I like the replacement. As I said other than this issue, I really like the knife and hope it works great, and even if it does stick a bit, I will keep it, but I am not sure if I should just expect a big knife to stick or hold him to a higher standard.
Again, I don't want to discourage anyone from having or buying a Grayman Knife. Mike and Sue are two of the nicest people you could ever deal with and he has a solid reputation for making high quality reasonably priced knives. The knives are well regarded and used by many military, police and government types. Mike himself has a great deal of military experience and knows about knives from a user perspective as well as a designer and maker and they said that they will do what ever it takes to make this right even a no hassle full refund if that is what I want, (which it isn't).
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Very well said! Couldn't agree more.