Gritty Benchmade Free M4

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Nadim Kanafani

Joined
Oct 22, 2020
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17
Just got my BM Freek and love it. I got this from REI using my dividend, which always surprises me how much I have. Anyway, the action is gritty. Short of full disassembly of an axis lock knife, do people have their favorite way to clean and lube the pivot area? Do you all rinse with water and then use air to dry and then lube? What's the best method?
 
Hot soapy water and a hot rinse. Canned air or compressor to blow out the water. Then a tiny bit of lube where the washers are on each side.
 
No problem. Also in my experience they take a little bit of time to break in and be smooth.
 
I have a freek in M4 and while mine wasnt exactly "gritty" it wasnt as smooth as other BM knives I had out of the box. I found that this in part was because they coated the blade and the lockbar in cerakote which is quite a bit rougher than polished metal. After opening and closing it a bit over the first two weeks of owning the knife the cerakote wore off where it contacted the lockbar and smoothed out considerably so that might be part of what you are seeing here.

Other than that, throwing some lube around the lock bar, where the blade contacts the lockbar, and around the side of the blade where it would ride on the washers and then working the blade back and forth is a good, cheap and easy step without requiring taking the knife apart.
 
oDBKjWE


Thanks all. Don't know if that imgur link will work, but you can see that the black coating does not extend to the Axis lock bar interface. I bet the bar itself is not very smooth and needs to break in. With M4 steel, the uncoated area will need to be kept oiled anyway, so I'll see if that will work. I have used Boeshield T9 with great results in the past for something like this.
 
I would let it wear in for a bit before oiling actually. spend some time opening and closing then rinse again and then oil.
 
Nadim Kanafani said:
oDBKjWE


oDBKjWE.jpeg


Thanks all. Don't know if that imgur link will work, but you can see that the black coating does not extend to the Axis lock bar interface. I bet the bar itself is not very smooth and needs to break in. With M4 steel, the uncoated area will need to be kept oiled anyway, so I'll see if that will work. I have used Boeshield T9 with great results in the past for something like this.
Click to expand...

I've had 2 knives with gritty action that didn't smooth out after 2 weeks. One had a burr on the lock bar, the other had imbedded grit in the washers.
Not saying this one has the same problem, but both mine had to come apart to fix. Most knives smooth out pretty quick with just flushing.
 
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I agree with sickpuppy1 and I would also try tightening the pivot a bit and work the blade back and forth hand a bunch of times to help break in the washers,I have done this before on a few knives to get them loose up and smooth out that had crappy actions from the factory.
 
Don't put oil on the tang/axis bar. Just the act of the bar moving across the tang will keep the area free of corrosion. If you let the knife sit for a length of time then yes, oil it. But you will have to clean it up before use if you do that. Oil just causes problems when it's in that area.
My Super Freek wasn't as smooth as other Benchmades I have, so after a couple of days of use I did my normal blade removal (no need to completely disassemble an Axis lock knife). One of the washers had a burr on it. I took care of that, and flattened them a little on a stone, and now it's one of my smoothest Benchmades.
Sure, you could say that the knife shouldn't have left the factory like that, but it's a popular model and sometimes things happen. It was an easy fix and worth it. It would have worn the burr of and flattened the washers naturally, I just helped it along a little.
 
soc_monki said:
Don't put oil on the tang/axis bar. Just the act of the bar moving across the tang will keep the area free of corrosion. If you let the knife sit for a length of time then yes, oil it. But you will have to clean it up before use if you do that. Oil just causes problems when it's in that area.
My Super Freek wasn't as smooth as other Benchmades I have, so after a couple of days of use I did my normal blade removal (no need to completely disassemble an Axis lock knife). One of the washers had a burr on it. I took care of that, and flattened them a little on a stone, and now it's one of my smoothest Benchmades.
Sure, you could say that the knife shouldn't have left the factory like that, but it's a popular model and sometimes things happen. It was an easy fix and worth it. It would have worn the burr of and flattened the washers naturally, I just helped it along a little.
Click to expand...

I wasnt suggesting oiling the lock bar to prevent corrossion or rust, but rather to promote a smooth lock up and help aid in the breaking in process. What issues are you referring to when oiling the tang and axis bar? I have been doing that to my axis lock knives for years without issue and i have well over a dozen at this point.
 
Same problem as any lock that gets oil on it. It over travels and gets stuck. Now, some axis locks have extreme lock stick when new, but some cycling works it out and they become some of the smoothest in my experience. I've accidentally gotten oil on the tang of a few and it ruined the action.

Ymmv of course, but I've never had it work out well.
 
soc_monki said:
Same problem as any lock that gets oil on it. It over travels and gets stuck.
Click to expand...

You mean the contact between the lock bar and the tang of the blade then, correct? Any reason not to oil the sides/caps of the lock bar where they run against the liners? I like to do the latter.
 
Mr.Wizard said:
You mean the contact between the lock bar and the tang of the blade then, correct? Any reason not to oil the sides/caps of the lock bar where they run against the liners? I like to do the latter.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't. Leave it all dry. If they're a little rough at first they usually smooth out after break in.
 
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