My new SR1 and vertical blade play

M

MiL

Joined
Dec 17, 2015
Messages
41
After a long wait I finally got mine. It was bought online in the US then shipped to me in Europe. Unfortunatelly it seems I had bad luck with this one despite asking online retailer to check the knife before, which they say they did. Guess not for bladeplay. I own 10+ CS knives with triad-lock and this is the first one that came with vertical blade play and quite a bit of it. Does anyone have similar issue? No way for me to fix this since there must be slight gaps in the lock when opened.

Since it took 2 months to have it shiped to EU by my relatives, I cant return it to the online retailer, so I guess my only option is to send it to Cold Steel directly. I wonder how will that go?...
Did anyone here do any warranty returns from Europe? I guess it will end up another $50 in shipping and possible customs costs. :(
 
I own so many CS knives (2 SR1's also), some have that tiny bit of tick vertically, but it's not always the lock, it can be the tiniest tolerance in the pivot hole and pivot screw, lock needing to seat in a bit etc. I wouldn't stress. How much do you call a "lot" of play? The locks never going to fail because of that tiny tick of play, so if it's a user, i say use the crap out of it, it will out live you :)
 
Thanks for your reply.. Now that I looked more closely there is a dark spot on both blade side and the stop pin. When open its not hitting the stop pin evenly. I wonder if using a small round file to smooth out the blade side that enters the stop pin would fix it. Hard to do without taking the knife apart and I'm afraid to do it after all the stories about the screws stripping. Im sure the lock wont fail, its just that clicking and slight movement (can only be felt in hands, not seen) is messing with my OCD. Also worried it could get worse with time and use. On the other note, atleast I was lucky with my recent Lionsteel SR-11. That one is flawless.
 
mine has a very very slight up and down movement under lots of force. its very minor and i am gonna use it, so i expect it will break in and lock up tighter or get worse and ill just send it back to cold steel, if needed.
 
Wow I have owned over 20 cold steel steel folders and every single one of them locks up tight as can be, absolutely no blade play. You sure you got the real deal?
 
oxman198 said:
Wow I have owned over 20 cold steel steel folders and every single one of them locks up tight as can be, absolutely no blade play. You sure you got the real deal?
Click to expand...
yep. authorized real dealer for mine. no ebay or amazon etc nonsense
 
Before I sent it back , I'd try to "work in " the lock . That seems to eventually cure most Triad problems . No need to be gentle about it either !
 
All my Cold Steel tri-ad locks are dead tight under hand force, but I tried the SR1 and it does have a bit of movement under strong force. Strange the Recon 1 and American Lawman , other cheaper tri-ad lock , I can't force a bit of movement, but the biggest supposedly strongest I can.
 
Looking at all of mine, it seems the SR1 just isn't fitted as tightly around the lock stop pin. I can definitely feel a downward movement pushing down on the blade, that is against the stop pin.
 
good feedback Jill, thanks. seems mayne a somewhat not perfect or bad batch it seems.

this knife is so new i cant believe any of us got a chi-ad version as someone once called fake cold steel tri-ads.
 
I have recons that are tight as a drum, and some that have the slightest movement, same with all other models of CS, after years and years of abuse and use i'm confident from first hand experience to say it's a non issue. The slightest bit of difference in mating surface or smallest tolerance in the fitment can be the cause of all of this. I even fixed the tiny bit of play by running some 1500 grit paper over the locking tooth on the lock bar, even tho it would have worn it's self in over time and never moved, was just a small difference in the finish where the metal mated. Use and enjoy, it's never going to break or disengage :thumbsup:
 
jbmonkey said:
good feedback Jill, thanks. seems mayne a somewhat not perfect or bad batch it seems.

this knife is so new i cant believe any of us got a chi-ad version as someone once called fake cold steel tri-ads.
Click to expand...

Mine came from Knives Plus, no way it's fake and there's no fake SR1 out. Like you said.

I don't like blade play, especially when a brand new knife comes with it.
 
if you make a return from Europe your gonna have a long wait. I sent my sr1 in over 3 weeks ago because of the finely stripped pocket clip screws,it should be back any day,but if it took almost a month from ny to ca, so you can double that wait.it takes them a week or more just to process and account for the knife;you might be better off sending it back to the dealer you got it from and get it replaced with another.this sr1 has been the biggest disappointment so far ...
 
Haven't noticed bladeplay on mine so far. I haven't taken the knife apart yet so I can't say if there is a problem with the pocketclip screws.
But I found some kind of discoloration right above the edge. It's on both sides of the blade but only on the rear half of each side. It's only a little stripe that has a slightly different color.
Couldn't manage to upload a pic so here is a link to the pics.
<iframe class='imgur-album' width='100%' height='550' frameborder='0' src='http://imgur.com/a/Do4MB/embed'></iframe>
I haven't used the knife yet so it must have come from the factory like this. Any idea what this could be?
 
Last edited:
Could it be from some kind of vice grip? Maybe during assembly/sharpening. Weird.
 
Back on my case.. Mine was also purchased at KnifesPlus 2 months ago just as they finally showed up in stock. Now the question is do all SR1 have some vertical bladeplay or its just one batch? It feels like too much material was taken off during cnc on either a blade or lock bar. Maybe thay have looser tolerances due to a larger/ticker blade so they dont and up being tight as smaller tri-ad lock knives. Still thinking what to do. Easiest would be to return it for the refund and forget about this model. Pitty. I liked the sturdiness so the blade play is just a insult to the knife like this. Another minus for me is the pocket clip. On lighter shorts you are sure to rip out your pocket before you take the knife out. :)
 
I thought mine was solid, until I read this and held the handle butt in my left hand and the blade towards the end in my right. Yep, there's movement on the downward push.
 
That stinks. It's surprising to me how often a new knife model has issues given how relatively simple they are. I follow Spyderco and they've had a few duds out of the gate with issues that could not have been missed by competent quality assurance.
 
Mine is really solid. Sorry to hear yours is not. I hope you get it resolved to your satisfaction. I really like the combination of sturdiness and cutting performance (really good for a thicker blade).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top