Misc. Commander questions

[Runs With Scissors]

howdy folks!

I picked up a pre-owned Commander (coulda passed for brand new) a couple of days ago, and been falling in love with it. The more I look at the overall design, the edge, etc. the more sheer genius I see in the knife. Definitely hoping to make this one a keeper.

Unfortunately, I am however beginning to experience some odd issues.

First one would be the lock. If I clean the knife PERFECTLY and have it crystal clean perfect the knife locks up like a vault....not even a little bit of play, COMPLETELY SOLID. But at the end of the day after using it about twice, and "knifesturbating" with it for about fourteen hours it seems the liner lock wants to slip over a bit and the blade develops some top to bottom play that I can't seem to get out of it until I clean the blade and the lock PERFECTLY and put a very light coat of teflon lube on them again, then it's good to go for another little while, although quite honestly the duration between cleanings seems to be gettting shorter and shorter while I'm playing with the knife less and less. (wow, talk about run on sentences!)

Any suggestions as to why I'm experiencing this? I've had plenty of good liner locks and even more bad liner locks, but I've never had one that goes from good to bad in a few short hours or from bad to good with a simple cleaning, so I'm a bit confused here.

Another...idiosyncracy I seem to be discovering is opening it with the "wave" feature. Once again, the very first night I had it the knife opened PERFECTLY no matter what I did, and now it's getting more and more prone to wanna bounce off the blade stop and not lock. I've found that if I pull the knife STRAIGHT back and not to the side at all, this rectifies the situation some. And I've also started tightening the blade more and more to slow it down and prevent the bounce back. Right now it's at a point where it's pretty difficult to open with the thumb-disc, but I live with it since I prefer the wave opening anyways, thing is it seems the thing is slamming back more and more often.

Could it be that I'm developing more speed as I'm learning the wave openings and it's just overwhelming the mechanical device, and I just quite frankly need to slow it down? I KNOW I don't have the fastest hands around, and if this is a problem, most of y'all have experienced it as well. Maybe the lock is wearing out? Am I doing something the manufacturer didn't intend?

Another issue is the blade tension screw. As I've already mentioned, I'm tightening it more and more now, but it works much looser after about six to ten openings of any sort. should I find a tension that I like and loc-tite it there? (non permanent of course) Where do most of y'all like your tension at?

and before I sign off, I just wanted to say, this thing has the best chisel ground edge I've ever had on a knife, hair popping sharp, and it's much better behaved than alot of chisel ground blades I've had in the past. Definitely plan to take the time to perfect and keep this one, I just wanted to know if there's any good tricks or suggestions y'all can make about dealing with this thing before I package it up and send it back to the factory.

Thanks in advance for any advice/suggestions!

 

[Edd Harbin]

I recently bought a VERY used SPECWAR B , that didn't want to lock up good either . All I did was a heavy cleaning , and put it back together with a little locktite(non-perm of course). Make sure when you put it together that ALL screws are put in tight(and locktited) and all should be well . My SPECWAR now locks up like a vault , and after polishing looks much better .

Most factory knives ARE put together with some locktite , so don't think that it is wearing out if it loosens up . Just reaply the locktite when needed (clean all screws with something like BORE-KLEEN).

 

[Runs With Scissors]

Just tinkered with the beast a little bit more. Seems I've found a bit of a solution for the wave opening. Instead of pulling it straight back with a long arm motion I'm focusing alot more energy in my wrist and opening it more vertically. I'm not sure why it's working better but it is working MUCH more effectively. Maybe I'm keeping the wave on the lip of my pocket a split second longer for the lock to engage? I think if anything it's more of a matter of refining technique. Still like to hear if you guys have better ways I could assimilate.

The lock is still a little quirky. everything is tight as a drum, and it's still doing that. Good news is I got a Q-tip and some alcohol and cleaned the back of the blade very thoroughly, it started locking up tightly and consistently once again.

Kinda reaching my own theory here...when I bought it, it was heavily oiled, and when I took it apart to clean it I thoroughy oiled the pivot. I'm cleaning a Q-tip full of black crud off the blade every time, and I'm wondering if the oil is somehow accumulating to that spot and lessening the friction?

Gonna Loc-tite it tonight, and keep tinkering...shouldn't be too much longer until I got it up to full potential.

thanks for the input!

 

[AdvantEDGE]

You may be onto something there, too much oil will just collect a bunch of dirt and gunk, i.e. pocket lint and dirt could be fouling up the lock up a bit. Try less lube if applied in the right spots on the pivot it won't take much to get the thing silky smooth. I use Tuf-Glide by the makers of Tuf-Cloth and it is a dry lube, once applied it does not get all over the back of the blade nor does it come into contact with the liner lock portion. I was way over lubing all my knives in the past but find a little goes a long way to keeping the action smooth but also keeping the gunk away from the inner workings

Keep at the Wave Draw it takes a bit of work but I have had my Commander since 1999 and can draw every Wave model in both right and left pockets, left draw to the ice pick grip.

 

[ccoates]

As I understand, the Commander takes apart pretty much the same way as the 7s do? If so, why not just remove the pivot bolt, pull out the blade and washers, clean out the knife with alchol, reoil with a very light film of lube of choice (I used CLP) and reassemble. I accidentally overoiled my 7b and the liner lock went all squirrely for abit. I would wipe it off, it would be fine for a few openings, then it started to pop over too far to the right, even when the blade was opened gently. After disassembly and cleaning it smartened right back up. It takes *very* little oil to keep the pivots happy. The whole process took me about 15 minutes, and would take less time this time than before. Ernie made the knife to come apart. So just do it!

Clinton

 

[Runs With Scissors]

Just in case anyone is interested, I've given up and I'm boxing up the Commander and shipping it back to the factory tonight. I probably should've been clearer when I said I was cleaning it. I was taking it apart and cleaning the entire thing with alcohol and reassembling it with a light coat of "Tri-Flow" But the liner lock kept getting squirrelly after just a few hours of carry or any amount of use. I went two days without cleaning it, and now it's pretty much closing like any slip joint folder would.

Upon further inspection, it looks like the liner lock is only contacting about 1/4 of the blade, so I'm sending it off for factory repair now. I'm really not very upset by any means. Afterall, it's a 2000 Commander I bought USED. The knife looked like new, but for all I know it's been opened half a million times. I'm by no means a qualified knife critic, or a master of physics, but the wave openings seem like they could be HARD on a knife. So basically I figure you take your chances when you buy used goods, so I got no room to complain about it.

thanks for the tips and suggestions though!