Harpy Problem/Solution

[brownshoe]

About 4 years ago I bought a G-10 Harpy. Abouth 3mm of the broke off and Spyderco reground it for me. I liked the knife but had two problems. First, it was tight and hard to open. So tight the tang was actually scratched on the steel liner side. At the national NRA show in 2001, the owner of TuffGlide put some of their liquid material on my knife. Within 5 minutes the blade was loose enough to be fun (i.e. spyder droppable). It stayed that way for about 1 1/2 years, until I felt it needed replenishment. So try tuff glide for those sticky spydies.

My other problem was the tip was always blunting. I spent a lot of time sharpening only the tip. This is a problem for the Harpy when used as an EDC. Given the hawkbill shape it really needs a sharp tip. I though it was the ATS55 steel. I finally noticed a small gouge on the steel back spacer where the tip was bottoming out on the back spacer. This is suprising since the tip was already shorter than original. In addition, I could see light between the tip and back spacer when the blade was closed. Some how when snapping shut, the tip goes past the resting position and slams into the steel, blunting the tip. I don't have a collection of small files, so I wasn't sure how to fix it. However, the Leatherman has a file, as slim as a knife, with an edge that can easily slip in between the scales. I filed it down and now my tip stays sharp.

Hope this helps with anyone else who has the same problems.

Any other spyderco lockbacks bottom out on closing?

 

[corwin99]

I have a Spyderco Merlin that bottoms out when it closes.. even on the Zytel its enough to blunt the tip slightly...

 

[calyth]

With a hawkbill, it seems that it has fairly tight tolerances to the backspacer.
Perhaps you could ask Mike@Spyderco to regrind the tip just enough not to make contact.

 

[brownshoe]

Calyth, the point of my post is I fixed it myself. If someone else has the same problem they can also fix it themselves. Sending knives into spyderco is a pain. It costs money and time. Spyderco also doesn't always fix things the way you want it to be done. On the Harpy, I wanted my blade replaced and was willing to pay extra...oh no not possible, parts only in Japan, don't do that kind of work.

On my Jot, they wouldn't fix that knife's problem, just replace the knive...but I wanted my Jot fixed, I liked it. The problem was the micarta wasn't strong enough to hold the screws, a design flaw they admitted to. I wanted them to tap out the hole and epoxy in some metal nuts. They refused...but that's their right. With my starmate, the blade got loose and wouldn't lock-up tight. With my Shabaria, the blade started rubbing. I fixed both myself with either adjustments to the pivot, the eccentric part of the pivot and some of the other screws holding the handle together.

Sometimes it's both easier and better to fix it yourself.