Got a pink Rat 1 for my daughter but disengaging the liner lock is a bear! Any cures?

M

monkapotamus

Joined
Jan 3, 2015
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I liked the Ontario Utilitac and RAT 1 I got so much I decided to get one for my daughter in pink. Disengaging the liner lock bar on this knife once opened and locked is about 2-3 times harder than on the other RAT 1 I got. I've got large and relatively strong hands, but pushing the liner lock off the blade to close the knife requires a really hefty thumb push.

I tried opening and closing it repeatedly for a few minutes to see if that would help but nothing changed, and I was putting a painful divot in my thumb. There's no way she's s going to be able to use it comfortably as is. Is this something I can correct or not?
 
You can try disassembling the knife, taking the locking liner, bending the lockbar through to the other side by a little to reduce the tension. Make the adjustments in slow steps. You still want the liner lock to travel over enough to make solid contact with the blade tang.
 
Try to cover the contact area with graphite using a regular pencil or with a permanent marker to reduce the traction. It may help.
 
It will not fix the problem, but have you thought about switching the scales out and from hers to yours so your daughters knife will not be the one with the strong lock.
 
Capt. Spaulding said:
It will not fix the problem, but have you thought about switching the scales out and from hers to yours so your daughters knife will not be the one with the strong lock.
Click to expand...

It's such a pain to disengage I'm not sure I'd want it either. Part of what I really liked about the original Rat 1 I got was the smooth action. This thing is a trial.
 
Is it difficult to disengage the lock because of the spring tension of the lockbar, or is the lockbar "sticking" to the lock face on the blade?

If it's the lockbar, you can try bending it (will require disassembling the knife). If it's sticking to the lock face, the graphite or Sharpie trick Poez mentioned could help while the lock wears in.
 
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