Hinderer Action is terrible

Stixmagill

Stixmagill

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Dec 22, 2022
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I received a preowned Hinderer XM-18 3.5 and the detent is terrible. It will not flip open worth a damn. If any of you have a suggestion on how to address this, please let me know. I would love to return it and have them address it at the factory. Any experience with this my friends?

Thank you,
Scott
 
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I'll hang with you until the Calvary arrives . . .
what EXACTLY is happening when you flip it open ? Is the resistance so light you can't build up any force on the blade before the blade moves
or
is it too hard to open / pushing hard but the blade does not move ?

Or is it that you build up a good bit of force and the blade jumps forward but then there is too much resistance in the pivot and it stalls part way open ?
 
How old is it? I think the very early ones had a less than great detent and later Rick made changes. Also, how is the action when you open it with two hands, slow, gritty, tight, or super smooth? It should be the latter.
 
Is it an older generation of Hinderer? As in PRE - tri-way knife? On the older Hinderers the detent was sometimes not as dialed in as the XM-18s have been since the Tri-way models were released.
 
The first one I ever bought had this problem. Very weak detent. Others I've bought after weren't nearly as bad.
 
The action on my 2020 XM-18 was never great, and a few years of outdoor tasks made it even more gritty. The lock bar interface was looking terrible. I finally got around to contacting Hinderer customer service this year and was able to get the lock bar replaced. That one repair made the knife action to what I always wanted and I'm incredibly happy with it now.
 
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NWrain said:
The action on my 2020 XM-18 was never great, and a few years of outdoors made it even more gritty. The lock bar interface was looking terrible. I finally got around to contacting Hinderer customer service this year and was able to get the lock bar replaced. That one repair made the knife action to what I always wanted and I'm incredibly happy with it now.
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Good information to know, thanks for posting.
 
Stixmagill said:
I received a preowned Hinderer XM-18 3.5 and the detent is terrible. It will not flip open worth a damn. If any of you have a suggestion on how to address this, please let me know. I would love to return it and have them address it at the factory. Any experience with this my friends?

Thank you,
Scott
Click to expand...

Doesn't hurt to email the ranch. They will fix it if it wasn't heavily messed with by the previous owner.

Generally, the detent was often weak in older XM18 up to the middle of Gen4. Later Gen4, Gen5 and Tri-way have usually good detents. Then again, I had a late Gen4 once with a detent ball that was almost flat after much use. So if you are considering fixing it yourself, we need to know more about which knife, and what behavior exactly. It could be a worn ball, the pivot being too tight, etc.
 
I’m sorry I haven’t responded. I was just seeing the responses. When I press the flipper, there is not enough resistance to create the snap off of the detent whether it’s a ball or whatever it is. I’m not an expert on detente by any stretch and I typically do not Adjust knives unless they’re in serious need of it. I have not touched this knife and It appears to be untouched there are no Marred screws or anything like that. Having said that it is a preowned knife so I cannot say for sure. I don’t know the year of the Knife, but I will look that up. I really appreciate all the help from you guys and I’m gonna look into this and respond back within 48 hours. 💪
Thanks again!
Sincerely,
Scott Smith
 
The early xm's had weak detent and it took some practice to get the hang of "light switch " style of opening that required coaching and patients to figure out
The old Hinderer pages here had lots of conversation about this . Once you get it, it just comes natural but many got frustrated and sold them with sore fingers.
It can be tricky to date the old knives before the tri way came out, If you have squared ends vs domed thumbstud should be pre 2014 or so ( guessing ). At that time Rick was putting out all of the different blade shapes so I don't think we can date it from that very easily .
 
Just happen to have the following included in the response to a question I asked an AI. Thought I would paste it in just in case it is useful:


Hinderer Knives with Tri-Way Pivot (e.g., XM-18 Gen 6)

Earlier gens were criticized for weak detents.

Gen 6 and newer have stronger, adjustable detents (especially with the flipper tab and ball bearings installed).
 
You could disassemble it and add some more tension to the locking bar. And if you sneeze while doing it you might lose $500~!
 
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