dominator fixes?

jujawa

jujawa

Joined
Sep 13, 2003
Messages
255
The dominator is on my list of knives that i'd like to acquire, but i am concerned with all the fixes that biogon and others had to do to make it work properly. I dont know knives very well and certainly wouldnt trust myself to make changes to the knife, but at the same time dont want to spend a lot of extra cash buying new washers, etc. and mailing away to have work done. The washers, the wierd pivot pin, oversized spacers, the lock doing bizzarely, all of this concerns me a lot because i wouldnt know how to deal with it as biogon or other more knowledgeable knife owners would. Did some people just have bad luck and get a bad knife, or am i guaranteed to encounter this problem if i buy a dominator? Is there any chance these changes will ever be factory?
 
jujawa,

i don't want to sound like the knife wasn't working properly!

in fact, it was working properly -- acceptably, one might say -- far better lockup than 95% of the production knives on the market, fast action, ROBO working fine, very sharp blade.

it just wasn't up to the par of a detail-obsessed knifeknut, that's all.

the washers and clip i replaced because they provide higher performance than the stock parts -- let's just say it's like tuning your car. the Dom is kind of like a 911 Turbo -- better than most cars out there. but it has a lot of potential for tuning, as well as some quirks. so i tuned it and in the process i discovered some gremlins that i had to iron out.

i can't guarantee your spacer will be mis-sized like mine -- we don't have confirmation that it was, in fact, intentionally done to prevent ROBO failure -- but the knife will give you many years of service without any tweaking.

that having been said, it's never bad if you want to tweak it... ;)

-jon
 
still concerns me =/ I just wish those changes were factory so i wouldnt have to worry about it.
 
i think you still don't understand.

they really aren't fixes. they're customizations, kind of like if you had it inscribed with your name, or if you had custom handle slabs made.

would you expect to have afternarket mufflers, tyres, and a wing put on your 911 from the factory? no. it's not designed to those specs, for a good reason. similarly with the Dom that I played with.

to ask for them from the factory is to ask for a custom knife.

keep in mind that the stock washers are teflon, which is more than adequate for a knife. in fact, that's what's used in most custom knives and the vast majority of productions. the fold-over clip is a simply a preference compared to the regular clip -- the disadvantage with the fold-over version is that it's harder to extract the knife from your pocket.

that's pretty much it. i'm the ONLY person on this forum so far to have made these changes and I did them personally, so it's not fair to ask Camillus to have them from the factory. who knows if what i did screwed up the pivot spacing? i'm just providing that information for other folks who may have screwed up their Dominators similarly.

from the factory, it outperforms most other production knives. that's the lowdown. you will NOT get custom fit and performance from a factory knife. close, but not the same. the Dom is a truly excellent production piece and i'm very happy with what i got.

bronze washers from the factory are pretty much only on Sebenzas, a $350 knife.

-jon
 
Hey Biogon!

Read about your tweakings with interest, and ordered my foldover clip before I had my knife! I got the knife today (it is awesome) - and installed the foldover clip. However - I found that the clip screws (the originals - I didn't think I needed to order new ones) were too long, and went thru the foldover clip, thru the handle and impeded the blade from opening.

Did you have this problem? (I haven't re-read your other post yet).

Bob
 
I upgraded to the fold over clip.....it wasn't the screw, it is the part of the clip that accepts one of the screw right next to the locking bar. That little tab presses on the locking bar, exerting pressure on it, clamping the bar onto the tang of the blade.

I bent the offending end of the screw tab with a pair of pliars to relieve that problem. Quick fix.....screws were not too long.


Thomas
 
Thanks Thomas! I wondered about that - but since I'm at work hadn't taken the time to look more closely at it. I'll perform that quick fix and will then be totally happy with my new Dom!

Bob

**yup - just finished installing the new clip. Works like a charm, and now it's completely buried in my pocket!

Thanks again!
 
Bob,

Thomas hit it right on the head -- the lockstop tab pushes on the lockbar when the blade is not closed and it puts a lot of friction on the detent ball.

A tiny bit of needlenose plier work and it's all good.

Glad yours is all fixed up. :) I much prefer the foldover/deep-concealment clip... leaves less stuff for someone to notice. (Now all I need to do is figure out how to blacken it. ;) )

BTW, don't bend that little tab up too much. It functions as a lockstop, and is crucially important on a framelock. (It prevents you from bending the lockbar over too far when you unlock it, and potentially ruining the tension.)

Been there, done that.

-jon
 
Guys,
We used the clip that we used on purpose. Darrel's fold over clip, while it does conceal the knife in the pocket well, allows the knife to ride TOO low. Using the fold over clip, the "flipper" can get BELOW the hem of your jeans pocket, and possibly cause an accidental premature opening if drawn from the pocket vigorously.

This would be BAD:rolleyes:

Do yourself a favor guys, use the original clip.

Regarding aftermarket bronze washers......they were not specified by the designer, Darrel Ralph. Nor were they specified by CAMILLUS' design staff. While properly sized bronze washers can be very smooth, they do present there own problems. They have to be EXACTLY the right thickness for one, and after checking with Darrel, the ones on www.knifekits.com, aren't exactly the rigth size for the DOMINATOR.....so you get an excessive tolerance in the blade pivot. The other problem with bronze washers is that ANY excess tolerance is very noticeable with bronze washers, since they are hard. With Teflon washers, like in my custom knives from such great custom makers as Darrel Ralph and Kit Carson, they provide silky smooth rotation with a slight amount of "cushiony forgiveness" due to the slightly softer nature of the Teflon.

If you have a problem with the pivot/bladeplay/or whatever with a DOMINATOR, or any CAMILLUS product, just give us a shout, and customer service will be glad to take care of you.


And thanks for the interest and for being customers!
 
thanks Bio and Will, you guys eased my concerns, i'll be ordering my dominator asap.
 
Will,

What are you doing at 9pm still working???

:-o

Hopefully this crazy hurricane weather will not hit you up around there.

Back on subject...

Yes... that would explain things, definitely. Makes much sense. Thank you. :)

-Jon
 
Hey Will,

Thanks for the heads up - that's a possibility I hadn't considered. I'm going to assume that the non-lockbar handle is too deeply recessed for the robo mechanism on the inside for drilling and tapping holes on that handle for a clip? Putting a clip on that side would keep the flipper from riding on the seam when drawing the knife, and actually the knife would carry smoother to my thinking. However - I figure you all probably considered all the possibilities here. :-)

Biogon - don't know about blackening the shiny clip - black stands out agains bluejeans just as much as shiny bright does. However, very fine grit beadblasting puts a nice smooth grayish finish on it.

Bob
 
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