My second broken Axis lock.

Cynic2701

Cynic2701

Joined
Mar 31, 2009
Messages
2,237
So....literally 5 minutes ago one of the omega springs on my fairly new BM 940 broke. I've only had it about 2 months.

My 943 took 3.5 years to break a spring, which I ended up fixing with some guitar string.

I don't really want to take this one apart - and void my warranty - so I'm thinking I should send it in.

This will be my first time dealing with BM's warranty department. What should I expect? How long will it take for me to get my knife back?
 
i've maybe 4 or 5 day turn around from benchmade. Their warranty support is really good.
 
Send it in, it isn't really discussion worthy IMO until you get bad or good results. :D

They will replace the springs, and send it back to you.
 
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I have to say, I hear more about Axis Lock failures due to bad Omega Springs than liner lock or any other lock failures.
 
THG said:
I have to say, I hear more about Axis Lock failures due to bad Omega Springs than liner lock or any other lock failures.
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I think it's because the material they use for the spring is garbage. The spring on my Kulgera broke in a few months, and when I looked at the spring it seemed to be made out of some pretty cheap crap. Of course I had a habbit of flipping my knife, but I replaced a guitar string in there and have flipped it open and close probably ten times as much as I did before their spring broke and it's still completely fine.

Personally I would think that Benchmade consumers would be more worried about that considering how much their knives typically sell for, but I guess a lot of people are okay with wasting their time and money sending something in for warranty that shouldn't have broke in the first place.

Can anyone tell this is a sore subject for me? :p


Anyway, Benchmade's warranty service is actually pretty good, and the turn around was great for me--but I live in Washington state which is just right above them, so it might be different for someone else. I've had one of my other models in to them because the stop pin broke ( it was a crappy red class ) and another one for sharpening and as far as I'm concerned it's a great warranty--I just wish that they didn't insist disassembly void it if they're going to use such crappy Omega springs.
 
I don't have a problem with replacing it with a guitar string, which I've done before. I just want don't want to void the warranty if, say, I wanted to get a new blade.
 
I don't know what all the fuss is about over broken omega springs. I have been using a BM 710 pretty hard for 3-4 years now. I have taken it camping, underwater dredging, and been in it's share of mud and dirt. I have never had a broken spring from this knife. This knife has been my TV watching knife (flicking it open and closed) for a while as well, but no broken springs. I have/had several other axis lock with no problems in them either. You guys must have some seriously bad luck.

When reading all (what little there is) of the bad axis lock springs talk, remeber that there are thousands of knives made by BM that you do not hear about.




Send it to BM and I know they will take care of you. Their CS is second to none :thumbup: .


John
 
johnwaynesandw said:
I don't know what all the fuss is about over broken omega springs. I have been using a BM 710 pretty hard for 3-4 years now. I have taken it camping, underwater dredging, and been in it's share of mud and dirt. I have never had a broken spring from this knife. This knife has been my TV watching knife (flicking it open and closed) for a while as well, but no broken springs. I have/had several other axis lock with no problems in them either. You guys must have some seriously bad luck.

When reading all (what little there is) of the bad axis lock springs talk, remeber that there are thousands of knives made by BM that you do not hear about.




Send it to BM and I know they will take care of you. Their CS is second to none :thumbup: .


John
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I've heard a few stories such as yours. They all have one thing in common, and that's ownership of more than 3 years. On the other hand, I've seen many broken-spring stories from people who have bought one within the last year, which is why I suspect something to do with QC.

Cynic, that's what I meant though. It's not very ideal to have to send your favorite EDC in for warranty repair for a job you could do the same day and for probably cheaper than shipping, but will also prevent you from being able to take advantage of the warranty service later.
 
johnwaynesandw said:
When reading all (what little there is) of the bad axis lock springs talk, remeber that there are thousands of knives made by BM that you do not hear about.
Click to expand...

While the percentage of people who have problems is likely low, the fact that there are this many reported problems is worrisome. Any percentage (in the knife business) is bad. Companies with prompt replacement policies (ala Kershaw) and non-idiot warranties (CRK encourages you to take the knives apart, and they cost twice what a BM costs) are a better bet IMO.

johnwaynesandw said:
Send it to BM and I know they will take care of you. Their CS is second to none :thumbup: .
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Haven't heard that before. :confused: Unless you mean it as a general metaphor for "their CS is better then none" I can think of companies with much better CS then Benchmade.

Best of luck with the AXIS spring replacement.
 
Just curious, but how is Benchmade going to know that you took your knife apart if you put it back together correctly?
 
FlaMtnBkr said:
Just curious, but how is Benchmade going to know that you took your knife apart if you put it back together correctly?
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That's exactly what I'm wondering. If replace the broken ones with guitar strings, but keep BM's omega springs, could I put the broken ones back in later if I had any other issues? Would BM even notice that I had taken it apart?

I've had a fair amount of practice assembling/disassembling my 943, so I don't foresee any problems whatsoever with the 940.
 
What i was basically told was that since the omega springs are not available to anyone via any channel other than the repair shop they will be replaced.

I took my broken spring out, and sent it in, obviously it was disassembled. And it was fixed.
 
Why would that spring break? All it does is reset the axis bar forward. What are you all doing to break that spring? Is it all the flipping or something?
I have a half dozen Grips and other modestly priced BM's with an Axis. I have had them for years with never a problem.
 
Josh K said:
Unless you mean it as a general metaphor for "their CS is better then none" I can think of companies with much better CS then Benchmade.

Best of luck with the AXIS spring replacement.
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have you had firsthand experience with BM's cust service?
 
ginaz said:
have you had firsthand experience with BM's cust service?
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Yes, it took them 4 weeks to return a knife I sent in because it had side to side play when open.

Came back missing 1/4" of edge with the same play. :rolleyes:
 
billym said:
Why would that spring break? All it does is reset the axis bar forward. What are you all doing to break that spring? Is it all the flipping or something?
I have a half dozen Grips and other modestly priced BM's with an Axis. I have had them for years with never a problem.
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Although you may yet to have experienced a broken omega spring, it doesn't change the fact that it can happen. In fact, last weekend, I experienced my brakes fail for the first time--if I follow your reasoning, I can't even begin to think of why my brakes failed, since all they do is press against a rotor. Like I mentioned above, I had a 943 for 3.5 years that I probably cycled open and closed (literally) a few million times before one of the springs broke.

The 940 still works with only one spring, and locks up solidly. A testament to the redundancy of the mechanism.

Certain metals, like steel and titanium, have what is known as a fatigue limit. Basically, it means that there is a statistically verified number of times that a piece of metal can be cycled (bending in the case of the omega springs) before which it is unlikely to fail. Of course, outliers exist. In all likelihood the cost of quality control for the springs is too high for the manufacturer to keep the springs at a consistent composition. Instead, they probably increase production in order to compensate for the failure below the fatigue limit of a certain percentage of springs.

The statistical likelihood of both springs breaking at the same time is probably extremely small. In fact, I think we would be hard pressed to find someone who has a knife in which both springs are broken. Again, the knife still works, and even with the failure of one spring it continues to operate safely.
 
Cynic,
You opened the knife over a million times? I guess that will wear out a spring.
I don't follow you brakes reasoning. These are not brakes we are talking about; brakes wear out from normal use.
Your opening over a million times is not normal use at all. Think about it; if you USED you knife 10 times a day on average that would be 3650 opening/closings a year times 3 years is 10950.
To get a million you would need to open/close the knife over 900 times daily to reach a mil in 3 years; that sounds like abuse to me.
 
billym said:
Cynic,
You opened the knife over a million times? I guess that will wear out a spring.
I don't follow you brakes reasoning. These are not brakes we are talking about; brakes wear out from normal use.
Your opening over a million times is not normal use at all. Think about it; if you USED you knife 10 times a day on average that would be 3650 opening/closings a year times 3 years is 10950.
To get a million you would need to open/close the knife over 900 times daily to reach a mil in 3 years; that sounds like abuse to me.
Click to expand...

You make my point exactly. I'm not complaining about the 943 (which still locks up with zero blade play). I probably open and close the thing close to a thousand times a day. I'm in grad school, so I end up reading about 6-8 hours a day, and flip it open/close open/close over and over while I'm reading.

What I'm complaining about is the 940 which I've had for about two months, and have only barely broken in. It's probably only been cycled open/close around 500 times.
 
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