Great customer service from Gerber..Kershaw, not so much

D

dozer2025

Joined
Apr 17, 2013
Messages
243
About Christmas time, I bought a Kershaw Ener-G 2 off eBay. The knife is cool, but I was concerned about the lock up. It's extremely early-in fact, only about 50% of the liner engages the tang. I lightly tested it with poor results...no Cold Steel-style abuse, but simply tapping the spine on the edge of a cardboard box caused the lock to disengage. I don't demand my locks to be bulletproof, but this was way too weak.
Having used Kershaw's warranty service before-including a ZT0350 with a faulty liner lock-with good results, I decided to send it in.
In a drawer I had a Gerber Instant with a stripped pocket clip screw and an off center (as in rubbing the liner) blade. I decided to kill two birds with one stone and mailed both knives to their respective manufacturers at the same times. As you know, both companies are based in Oregon, though in different cities.
A brand new Instant showed up in my mailbox 7 days later! I sent it out Priority, but the replacement was mailed first class...the only way it would have reached me that fast is if the knife was inspected and the replacement mailed out the same day they received my knife. The new knife is centered and locks up tight!

Now my Ener-G...that took about 6 weeks. When I opened the package, I was dismayed to see the original knife with that same early lock-up. A quick tap of the blade on my shoe showed the lock was not fixed or adjusted at all.
I called KAI to inquire about this...I was told my knife was "to spec." Needless to say I'm disappointed. I know the knife is discontinued so maybe the options for repairs are limited, and Kershaw may be hesitant to refund a knife I bought used, but I didn't expect them to blow off the problem!
Now to be fair the 0350 I mentioned before was fixed, as was a CQC-8k with stripped clip screws, though each knife took about 6 weeks to get back to me.

Any thoughts? Or suggestions on improving the Ener-G's lock?
 
If it is too early, just lightly sand the liner down one pass at a time until it engages fully. Can do this with sand paper or file. I suggest taking the knife apart first.
 
Gerber sent you a new knife without thinking about it - cheap chinese knife, easier to send the replacement immediately than worry about fixing it first.

The Kershaw is USA-made and, as you noted, disco'd. They had to take the time to check it out. Then again, sounds like they set it on a shelf and it took some time to get to - 6 weeks for someone to look at it, confirm it is within spec, and then return it :( Well, I've actually had a similar experience with a Buck Vantage, so maybe that is the "norm".

If you want to try fixing it, do take it apart. Shifting the liners might be all that is required to induce proper lock-up. Another way is to encourage more bend in the liner by slipping a folded piece of paper behind the spring. If you grab the blade and wiggle it, or wrist-flick as you deploy, can you get the liner to engage more fully? There are a number of options to try before permanently removing material from the lock-face...

If simple fixes don't solve the issue, you might consider selling it and purchasing a replacement.
 
Sorry to hear about your experience.

With any used knife that has issues, I'd suggest fully disassembling the knife, cleaning it an then putting it back together. More than once this has saved me when I felt certain a used knife was just defective. You can get great deals on used knives, but on the downside you never know what the previous owners tried to do with the knife.
 
First: try loosening all the body screws (leave pivot alone) and flipping it open a few times. See if the lock moves over a bit. If so, snug the screws back down and check blade centering. If it isn't too off, you're ready to go. Might not work, but it beats full disassembly, and definitely beats filing metal off the lock.
 
G. Scott H. said:
First: try loosening all the body screws (leave pivot alone) and flipping it open a few times. See if the lock moves over a bit. If so, snug the screws back down and check blade centering. If it isn't too off, you're ready to go. Might not work, but it beats full disassembly, and definitely beats filing metal off the lock.
Click to expand...

I have to second what Mr. Scott said. When I suggested complete disassembly, I was forgetting the NRG was an assisted open knife. Please follow his more pragmatic approach.
 
Disassembly may end up being necessary, if the method I suggested doesn't fix it, but it's certainly worth a try before doing so. I've had a couple of successes with this method, myself. Sometimes a few flips are enough to realign the liners enough to improve lockup. Sort of the opposite of the method used to fix late lockup by loosening the body screws and squeezing the knife in a drawer to realign the liners or frame. :thumbup:
 
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