Kershaw Leek Blade Centering

D

dviper500

Joined
Sep 29, 2009
Messages
13
Hey all,
Woot had a deal on the Kershaw Leek in stone-washed finish Sandvik a few days back; I've been wanting a Leek for a while, so I jumped on it.
Just came in the mail yesterday (along with, perhaps, a few others........I get carried away sometimes) and the blade is off-center. Not just 'perfectionist' off-center, but enough that it pushes against the little safety lock that sits on the side of the frame and sometimes hangs up on it when closing.
I've found the following threads on this already:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/891989-Kershaw-Leek-Problem
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/696581-Kershaw-Leek-blade-centering
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/676100-Quick-Kershaw-Mafia-Question
That last one in particular seems to have helped people with the same issue, but after repeated attempts I just can't seem to get the thing centered... I've tried holding the blade to the side with folded paper (or just manual pressure), I've tried applying perpendicular pressure to the scales per the diagram in the last post, I've tried combining these with different sequences of which screws get loosened or tightened and in which order...no matter what, the blade is always back off center once the screws are tightened at all (not even tight enough to carry the knife with confidence that I won't lose the screws).

Anyone have any more blade-centering tricks up their sleeve? I've made small adjustments to such things in the past with much greater success, but I'm at a loss with this one. If I can't get it figured out I'll just have to contact Kershaw's customer service. Thanks in advance!
 
Hex Shaped Pivot Screw?
Not sure if I'm too late to be of any help, I just joined this forum (after lurking for a few weeks) after buying my first Leek, which by the way is the best EDC knife i've ever owned. It never leaves my pocket. But anyway, me being me and needing to know how everything works took my Leek apart a few weeks after i bought it to clean. I noticed a few days ago that the blade was FAR off center and scraping against the little safety slide. I read every forum post about it, and tried all of the ways to re-assemble with pressure on the scales with very little results. then i noticed that all of the other Leeks i saw have a ROUND female side of the pivot screw, and mine is a HEX shape that fits into the scale under the belt clip.

I thought maybe it was a tiny off center or askew, and when i re-assembled it the first time i may not have put it in exactly how it was before. So low and behold i rotated the hex side exactly 180 degrees, re-assembled, and now have a perfectly centered blade. If my description doesn't make sense let me know, but basically try pushing the hex bolt out of the scale (under the belt clip), rotating it half of a turn, then re-assemble. It doesn't hurt to follow the "pressure method" in the 3rd post above while re-assembling either, just to be safe.. I'm assuming it has something to do with either the machining of the hex shaped imprint on the scale not being perfectly centered, or the hex bolts themselves not having super tight tolerances on the shape of the hex head (which would make it "pull" to one side).

Hope this helps! If not you, maybe a current lurker/future forum member!

- Dan
 
try tightening the pivot screw then tightening the handle screws last, works on all my kershaws and I do have a few. 1860's 1840's the zt hinderer, skyline, leek all forms of blades Damascus, and sandvik. fave is the shallot.
 
Dan, thanks for the reply! I ended up just sending the knife back after disassembling/reassembling a few times with no luck and immediately bought another - this one arrived with a perfectly centered blade, so no more complaints out of me! I didn't notice the shape of the nut under the clip, but the screw head on my (new) Leek is round.
Welcome to the forums, btw. You can probably see from my 11 posts over 6 years that I tend to lurk moreso than post as well, but hey :P

Kn4wd, thanks for your advice too! I tried exactly that (and also that in reverse) a few times, but I just couldn't get it to stay. I think Dan might be on to something with pivot screw tolerances, but I can't be sure. I'm a big fan of the Skyline and Leek as well, but haven't yet shelled out for a ZT (boy do I want one, though). One of my favorites of all time is the Kershaw R.A.M. - why they discontinued it I have no idea...they're real hard to get now.
 
have a look at the zt 0777, I bought one before they were discontinued and never carried it. it lives in a glass case mounted on the shop wall.
 
Wow, thanks for the heads up! I've never heard of JJ Discounts, have you bought from them before?
And that ZT looks awesome, btw
 
only once, I get mine from dave Anderson the Kershaw guy now. the one time I did order all was aok. took 4 days to get here but it was two days before they actually shipped it.dont remember which it was might have been the blur or skyline. all my kershaws are the usa ones, except one the oso sweet, I am debating on the zt 0300 right now may go for the o770 just to be able to carry a close to the 0777. I cannot make myself carry the 0777 it looks too good under glass. the stainless blade would be good for edc as well.
 
ddubbaudio said:
Hex Shaped Pivot Screw?
Not sure if I'm too late to be of any help, I just joined this forum (after lurking for a few weeks) after buying my first Leek, which by the way is the best EDC knife i've ever owned. It never leaves my pocket. But anyway, me being me and needing to know how everything works took my Leek apart a few weeks after i bought it to clean. I noticed a few days ago that the blade was FAR off center and scraping against the little safety slide. I read every forum post about it, and tried all of the ways to re-assemble with pressure on the scales with very little results. then i noticed that all of the other Leeks i saw have a ROUND female side of the pivot screw, and mine is a HEX shape that fits into the scale under the belt clip.

I thought maybe it was a tiny off center or askew, and when i re-assembled it the first time i may not have put it in exactly how it was before. So low and behold i rotated the hex side exactly 180 degrees, re-assembled, and now have a perfectly centered blade. If my description doesn't make sense let me know, but basically try pushing the hex bolt out of the scale (under the belt clip), rotating it half of a turn, then re-assemble. It doesn't hurt to follow the "pressure method" in the 3rd post above while re-assembling either, just to be safe.. I'm assuming it has something to do with either the machining of the hex shaped imprint on the scale not being perfectly centered, or the hex bolts themselves not having super tight tolerances on the shape of the hex head (which would make it "pull" to one side).

Hope this helps! If not you, maybe a current lurker/future forum member!

- Dan
Click to expand...
8 years later ... I got this exact centering issue and this solution worked like a charm!
Thanks for sharing, Dan, if somehow you're still around :)
 
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