Good folder failed spine whack test

beluga

beluga

Joined
Nov 17, 2001
Messages
1,957
Regardless what people say about the spine whack test, I decided to test my BM 520 (manual, axis lock) with the aforementioned test. Guess what, it failed. I hit the blade spice against my table's surface gently, and the blade closed. Any comment ? Is it just me, or does anyone else have this experience with Benchmade folder ?
 
I just tried hitting (not too hard but not love taps) the spine of my BM 710 D2's blade against a piece of wood and the lock stayed locked. I did it with the spine nearly vertical and with the spine roughly horizontal. The part of the spine that hit the wood was between 1 and 2 inches from the pivot.

Rich
 
after reading some threads about lock failures, i tried several of my knives.

none failed, emersons, benchmade, sebenza. and i whacked the spines pretty hard on the edge of a desk.

perhaps yours has a defect?
 
I have been doing this test for sometime now and have found Spyderco Endura model to fail, 2 out of six drones and several live blade Enduras.

Never had any Emerson or Benchmade failures.

Just about every folder I have purchased under 30USD has failed the wack test.
 
I would guess the knife needs a cleaning and the pivot tightened. There some videos made of a guy getting different knives to fail spine whack test, all of them needed to have the pivot tightened. I could actually hear the blade flopping around.

If a cleaning and tightening doesn't work send it back to the factory, BM has a great warranty and they will make them right.
 
Do a search here and you will find that there have been other reported cases of specifically the BM 520 (Presidio) failing the whack test. I believe it had something to do with the angle of the tang-ramp on that model.

Regards,
3G
 
Beluga, could you possibly post a little info and/or pics of those katanas in your avatar in the Sword Forum?
Thanx!

Sorry to go off topic, but I'm a katana knut....
 
I have a new Lone wolf T2 range that fails the test 70% of the time. A light tap is all it takes. The blade is loose and I may try to tighten it but this would void the warrenty.

My emerson cqc-7 has a rock solid lock up and never failed.
 
*** a bit off topic ***

To Jamesh Bond :

The katanas in my avatars :

- A Katana made by Bungo Ju Fujiwara Nagamitsu (Shinto era)
- L6 Bainite Katana (Howard Clark)
- Ichihara Nagamitsu (1940-ish, shinshinto period)

I will try to email you their pics, after I get my camera fixed.
 
tightening the pivot on your T2 won't void the warrantee. Mine fails this test too, but I love it anyway.
On an axis lock knife, the pivot being too tight can also cause this kind of problem.
 
Just tried my Kershaw vapor EDC. It's got just an ever so slight wiggle in the balde (cause it becomes a bear to open any tighter) and it passed. But I don't know if this is only for type of locking mechanism or not.

It's a wal-mart knife and I don't remember what I gave for it, I'm sure it wasn't more than $30.

Is this only for lockbacks or what? I know, a newb question.
 
My Spyderco Chinook (the 1st version) also has a little blade play, wiggles when opened, but lock-wise, it's much stronger than my other folders with different locking mechanisms (liner locks and frame locks). The only thing that prevent me from making it my EDC is the thickness of the blade. The dang thing is so thick, it can pry-open a vault's door :D
 
Saberman said:
I would guess the knife needs a cleaning and the pivot tightened. There some videos made of a guy getting different knives to fail spine whack test, all of them needed to have the pivot tightened. I could actually hear the blade flopping around.

If a cleaning and tightening doesn't work send it back to the factory, BM has a great warranty and they will make them right.
Click to expand...
Saberman is right.
Try to clean and tighten it, and if that does not work send it back to Benchmade.

Good luck,
Allen
 
beluga said:
My Spyderco Chinook (the 1st version) also has a little blade play, wiggles when opened, but lock-wise, it's much stronger than my other folders with different locking mechanisms (liner locks and frame locks). The only thing that prevent me from making it my EDC is the thickness of the blade. The dang thing is so thick, it can pry-open a vault's door :D
Click to expand...

Send it to Tom Krein, he recently posted pics of a Chinook 1 that he reground and it is amazing looking. The edge is down around .010" and it should cut MUCH better now.

Mike
 
o.k , i just don't get all this spine whack crap!
the lock on my front door is designed to keep unwanted people out of my house, however, if kicked hard enough the lock will fail. go figure!. it wasn't designed to be kicked.
 
Trust me, you don't want to hear my comment on this "spine test" or those who perpetrate this foolishness!
 
i just smacked the crap out of my EDC beater Benchmade 705 on my desk like 5 times. I smacked it as hard as i could while not having my fingers in the blade path in case it closed. It didnt budge or move or come unlocked at all. To me it sounds like your omega spring(s) may be bad and the lock is simply sliding out of the way.
 
Dr. Mudd said:
Trust me, you don't want to hear my comment on this "spine test" or those who perpetrate this foolishness!
Click to expand...

I do believe you just did comment! I'd really love to hear what it is you have to say about the knife manufacturers, makers and enthusiasts, several of whom participate here and are highly respected members, who see a value in testing the reliabilty of their folding knives' locks. So, what exactly was it you wanted to say?

3G
 
pholder said:
o.k , i just don't get all this spine whack crap!
the lock on my front door is designed to keep unwanted people out of my house, however, if kicked hard enough the lock will fail. go figure!. it wasn't designed to be kicked.
Click to expand...
If hit hard enough, almost anything will break, but if it's that easy to kick open your front door, then it's not doing a very good job of keeping unwanted people out of your house. You might want to upgrade to a lock that will actually keep out unwanted people who try to force their way in (just a thought...).

Likewise, some folks prefer knives that effectively lock in the open position, even when closing pressure is applied, so the blade doesn't close on their fingers.

Beluga - send it in and they'll fix it for you. Any Axis lock should pass any spine whack test, and if it doesn't it's defective.

In fact, any locking folder should pass a spine whack test, and if it doesn't it's defective.
 
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