Extra Stiff Backspring

The biggest problem with pre-stressing a spring is that it isn't possible to be sure about how much stress an individual spring will take before it takes a set. A good manufacturer will make springs that will last a long time in compression within the perameters of the design. A poorly made knife often will have weakened springs just from being in the clampack during shipping from overseas. Since your knife is a quality piece, you may want to return it to the manufacturer to see what can be done.

On older knives with opposing blades working on a single spring that have no real value except as users, springs can be weakened by opening both blades at the same time, and intentionally exceeding the load that the spring is designed to take for a short period of time, checking often. Doing this risks wrecking the knife (practice with junkers if you get the urge to try this method). I wouldn't do it on a good knife, like the one you have. Just let it wear in over time.
 
It seems then, that if a spring weakens by repeatedly opening and closing it intentionally in a short time, the useful life of that knife may be short indeed, before it gets "lazy". A well made spring, if hard to open initially, will be hard to weaken, without carefully grinding it thinner.
 
Grinding the spring thinner is always the best choice, which is what a maker will generally do to fix the problem. A good knife will usually have a spring that is stronger than it needs to be at first so that when it weakens naturally over time, it will still work well (just like the spring in a pistol magazine will usually be a little shorter than a brand new replacement spring until the new spring has been under compression for a while. Both will work well during their useful life). The problem is to find a balance between spring strength and what can be overcome by the user, which is a very narrow range.
 
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