Military not nearly as smooth as my Paramilitary

Macchina

Macchina

Joined
Apr 7, 2006
Messages
5,215
I've been carrying a Spyderco Military on and off for a few months and love the blade and ergos, but it never has opened smoothly. I used have a Paramilitary the was of the original design with Teflon washers and it was not very smooth either. I just got a CPM-D2 Paramilitary and it opens like an axis lock! They both have bronze washers, and the only real difference is the liner lock vs. the compression lock. They both operate off the same principles when opening (ball detent riding along the side of the blade until the lock bar falls into it's containment notch). Does anybody own a smooth Military? If so did you do something to get it like that or do I have a dud?

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Oil the pivot point, work it by opening and closing alot, also you can adjust the screw at the pivot point, I would Oil then work it alot.

RickJ
 
RickJ said:
Oil the pivot point, work it by opening and closing alot, also you can adjust the screw at the pivot point, I would Oil then work it alot.

RickJ
Click to expand...
I've tried adjusting the pivot from very loose to tight. I have it adjusted right now where there is no blade play, but the blade swings freely if you push the lockbar over so it is not touching the blade. I've cleaned it with WD-40 and compressed air, then tried Miltec-1 and mineral oil. It's not horrible, the knife is nice enough where I will carry it no matter how smoothly it opens. I was just wondering if I should expect it to be smooth or give up on it.
 
I suspect your knife is not the norm for the Military. I own a recent S30V Millie, which one of the smoothest opening knives I have of any lock type. I didn't have to do anything to it. I've had other Millie's that also opened smoothly. One of them was a little bit more difficult to release the lock, but no smoothness problems.
Even if you can't get the knife silky smooth, don't give up on it.
 
I've had mine for about a year and it's still breaking in; very tight tolerances! Mine is just now slightly smoother then my beliked Military!
 
Maybe mine weren't the norm, but the compression locks always seemed to be a little smoother than the liner locks for me. However, the compression locks also seemed to "move over" to the right quicker than the liner locks.
 
I just took out my S30V Millie and thumbed it open a few times. When I give the opening hole a sharp push forward, the blade snaps open very fast. At one time, there was some sluggishness, but mine has been in real use for more than a few months.

My BG-42 Millie has hardly gotten any use, but it snaps open like an auto, a quick push and *pow* But both of them show some resistance when I s l o w l y open them. No scraping, but more like the damping of a Sebenza from the tight tolerances.

I say this to ask, what is "smoothness"? Some of you seem to mean looseness, and I don't need a loose blade. I like to be able to open it partway and have it sit there until I push it farther open.
 
Got my s30v millie a few months ago - very smooth out of the box and still as smooth.
 
My blade will just about free fall when I undo the lock.. like an axis lock.
Plus the new D2 para has thicker phos-bronz washers.. compared to whatever was in the older s30v models..
 
Just bought my first military - I really nice carbon fiber version w/ S90V and it's very stiff. Takes a good bit of effort to start the blade moving and a decent amount to keep it moving - no wrist snapping this thing (a huge snap will open it of course...). I've tried loosening the pivot but it has no affect what-so-ever. Put Militec on the joint - nothing. I think it's the liner lock riding the blade since a loose pivot doesn't change how stiff it is.

I'm really hoping it smooths up over time - it's really the only thing I dislike about this knife...
 
I'm not a Spyderco expert so correct me if I'm wrong. But I believe the Para has liners that run all the way up to the pivot so you have a washer on steel contact. The Military only has that one locking liner so at the pivot you should have a washer on G10 contact. This may be why the Military is not quite as smooth as the Para.
 
I got a brand new Mili last week. It was very very tight in the closed position then real rough and tight the entire opening sequence.

I tried loosening the pivot (all the way to removal) which did absolutely nothing at all.

I was very disappointed and was ready to send it back but tried some lube (Gunzilla) between the blade and grip and into the screwless pivot, lo and behold, instant smoothness.

I don't know if it was the lube or something suddenly meshed but now I am real happy. It is an awesome EDC knife now.
 
I got a Para in today... Black S30V PE... COOL KNIFE! Outta da box, it was WAY smoother than the S90V Millie I had, but I much preferred the tighter pivot/action of the Millie... So I tightened the pivot. Now there is a more "Millie like" resistance, but the compression lock HARDLY even slips on to the tang at all... Opening the blade slowly offers almost ZERO lockup...(Forget about the spine whack, you can simply close it with ease in the "locked" position.). A "Spydie drop" does lock the blade, but barely. I thnk I'll just have to play with it for a few days to "wear" the lock into a good place. Anyhoo... dig the knife.. looking fwd to a nice break in period!
 
I like a little resistance. I can't stand a real "free" opening blade. Don't ask why because I don't know. I tweak all of my pivots to my liking.
 
My D2 Para opens much smoother than my newer S30V Military as well.

The Military is plenty smooth, but my PARA opens about as slick as a couple of T12 William Henry's I have.
 
On my Millie I noticed that if the first handle/scale screw near the pivot is over-tightened that it will hamper opening just like a tight pivot. Instead of adjusting the pivot, try loosening that screw a hair and see if it helps.
 
You guys are lucky, my para is smooth but its like a firm kinda smooth.
Oh and just for the record my orange military opens very smooth.
 
The D2 Para in question opens almost like the blade is loose. One you get past the dedent it glides open like it's on butter.

All of my millies open smoothly, but that D2 Para opens the smoothest if you take the Orange G-10 millie out of the question. My orange millie opens smoother.

Regarding lock break in, I recently got a brand new AR that had a good amount of vertical blade play with the liner. About of day of playing to let the lock wear in a bit and it's rock solid.
 
JBE said:
On my Millie I noticed that if the first handle/scale screw near the pivot is over-tightened that it will hamper opening just like a tight pivot. Instead of adjusting the pivot, try loosening that screw a hair and see if it helps.
Click to expand...

DING DING DING DING!!! I tried that and it worked great. Feels like the previous owner (or Spyderco) put some blue loctite on the screws, but once I cracked them loose, retightened, then loosened about 1/8 turn the Military is much smoother! Not as smooth as the D2 Para, but according to all of your guys' post it appears the D2 Para was a fluke in Spyderco Ultra-Smoothness.

BTW, I too noticed the D2 Para lock is a little sloppy. It has some squich in the vertical direction, doesn't bother me at all, but it could bother somebody looking for perfection.

Thanks guys.
 
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