Lock Repair

stabman

Gold Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2007
Messages
21,327
How far across the lock face should a frame-lock go before you'd consider sending it in for repair?
My Comrade has the lock bar about 95% across the lock face now. It was about 2/3 when I got it, which seemed acceptable, but 95% is leaving not too much more room for wear.
It still locks solid with zero blade play, so it isn't a safety issue.
Would you send it in, or would you wait till it was almost touching the G-10 side?
And how would they fix it? Would they put a new blade in with a longer tang, do up a new titanium side, or ream the pin hole and put a larger diameter pin in?
 
You can pretty much go all the way to 100% and still get good lock up.
My 12 is in the same boat as yours but iv not had too many worries yet.

When the lock bar or denet ball starts to hit the other side then the lock up is being compramised and it needs looked at.

I think they will just pean the lock bar as it costs much less than a new blade or lock side etc.
I dont know any one who has sent a frame lock back to EKI so I have no idea what they will actually do.
They may do nothing as its now a discontinued knife :rolleyes:
 
I have had a CQC12 come to me once a year every year for sharpening. About, oh I guess it was 4 years or so ago now I noted for the owner that the lock had crossed all the way across to the other side. The lock doesn't stick but there is no vertical blade play. Its been that way unchanged since first noticed and he didn't want me to touch it until the moment he notices blade play. This is a knife he uses too so its not sitting idle. So my take on it is that with a lock that thick and that well made it could be that way a long time before you have to worry about it. Use it and be confident its going to be darn hard to accidentally defeat with a lock up like that.

STR
 
Thank you Haze and STR.:)
Lock-up IS rock solid still, so I'll just learn to deal with it.
I suppose I could always peen the lock bar, or ream the pin hole and install a larger pin myself in the future, if it becomes a problem and Emerson didn't want to work on a discontinued knife.
Glad to know mine isn't the only one this way though.:thumbup:
 
Emerson will still work on that unless its modified so if you peen it yourself you risk losing that coverage. If you sent it to me you'd lose it also. I always tell folks so long as the warranty is valid and it concerns them to keep it anyway they can. There are a couple ways to fix that. You can bump up the stop pin diameter and adjust it to sit the blade in the same spot when closed (since it would ride higher on a bigger diameter pin) and adjust both holes in the scales for the new size to seat the pin or peen the lock.

I'd maximize the lock life if it were me. I'd say use it, let the thing slap the other side scale if it does. So long as there is no vertical play its strong, reliable and not going anywhere. If and when the first hint of movement comes about then you can have that warranty call and refresh the lock via Diane at Emerson. It takes a skilled hand and just the right amount of umph to peen a lock and you have to know where to do it also. Some have actually fractured their locks or done more damage than good in other ways doing it by getting carried away and even on thicker locks. So, I'd opt for the Emerson team to do it personally, particularly on one no longer made. ;)

STR
 
I'd maximize the lock life if it were me. I'd say use it, let the thing slap the other side scale if it does. So long as there is no vertical play its strong, reliable and not going anywhere. If and when the first hint of movement comes about then you can have that warranty call and refresh the lock via Diane at Emerson. It takes a skilled hand and just the right amount of umph to peen a lock and you have to know where to do it also. Some have actually fractured their locks or done more damage than good in other ways doing it by getting carried away and even on thicker locks. So, I'd opt for the Emerson team to do it personally, particularly on one no longer made. ;)

STR

Sounds like good advice.:)
 
the CQC12 and the HD7 are both disco'd, & have been for a couple of months now, both are starting to get to be hard to find so if ya want one, & not pay a big premium i would jump on it.

why were they disco'd? because as popular as they are with true afficianados the average joe wasnt wanting to pay the asking price, or not enough average joes were anyway, so they just didnt sell well enough to keep making, and this is according to ernie himself.
 
Well my lock is now moving on my CQC-14 if i put pressure on the wave. Sometimes i can get it to close. I've had it 4 months. Just looked at their warranty page and they want 14 bucks to send it back in? I'm pissed. I'll be calling EKI Monday.

I took a pair of thin needle nose and bent the liner lock in a bit and its not moving so i cooled off a bit, but how long will it last?
 
Last edited:
I grooved my scales on the my G10, I found out the hard way I now have no more warranty. O-well I guess I will send the CQC-10 off to get a frame lock.
-Eric
 
Well my lock is now moving on my CQC-14 if i put pressure on the wave. Sometimes i can get it to close. I've had it 4 months. Just looked at their warranty page and they want 14 bucks to send it back in? I'm pissed. I'll be calling EKI Monday.

I took a pair of thin needle nose and bent the liner lock in a bit and its not moving so i cooled off a bit, but how long will it last?
I had sent in my new cqc-14 for warranty repair, as my liner lock wasn't holding well at all.

A light spline test would cause it to pop. When it came back from repair there was no change. Luckily the dealer I bought it for swapped it out for a mini cqc-7 with a very solid lock.

He also had a cqc-7 and another larger emerson, all their locks looked really solid and passed a light spline test.

If your solution works, that sounds good. Not sure if all cqc-14's have this problem or not. I'm happy with the mini cqc-7 though.
 
I completely disasembled it and bent the liner in a bit and now its holding well. And i saved 14 bucks and time, effort.
 
Back
Top