New Yojimbo Woes.

E

eojk

Joined
Oct 28, 2005
Messages
696
I finally got ahold of another Yojimbo, which some of you forumites recognize as my undisputed favorite knife.

Upon receiving it, I was glad to see it had a nice firm lockup(my older one has developed vertical play. I also noted that the clip has been improved. By this, I mean that the indexing hole has been reduced in diameter and seated directly over the corresponding indexing divot. This was the only complaint I had with the knife.

However, this new knife seems othewise inferior to my trusted blue buddy. The new black one does not have a centered blade when closed, but as far as I can tell, is straight when open. This isn't really a problem to me, as these knives are users and it functions fine.

The critical issue for me is that I've finally experienced a "lazy" compression lock detent on a Spyderco. All my other compression lock designs have worked very well in this regard, with examples being my first Yojimbo, Gunting and Trainer, Lil' Temperance, and Para-Military. In my new Yojimbo, the blade rests approximately 1mm above where my old one does in the closed position. This means it very weakly holds itself shut. By contrast, my old Yojimbo has a much more prominent click and feel of closing.

I understand that the "carved out" section of the blade mates with the compression lock to act as a detent on the knife. My old Yojimbo appears to have this section considerably deeper into the blade.

This would be a somewhat negligible issue, but the Yojimbo is a dedicated tip-up design and I fear that I'm going to lose a finger if I carry the new one.:eek: I have no worries with the old, as it has never fallen open.

I assume I have a newer generation Yojimbo, but the detent situation makes me skeptical. Should I send this back to the factory to have that divot ground further? I abolutely adore the Yojimbo design, but I will not carry the new one until I can fix the safety issue.:(
 
I had a blue Yojimbo that had the exact same problem. However I've had 3 Paramilitaries and they all stayed closed awesomely. :)

Not sure why the Yo is different. Does the Yo have a ball detent or the milled cutout in the tang for the Complock to seat in when closed?
 
I talked a leo friend of mine into getting a Yo, he cut his finger open on duty due to the weak detent. Mine is there but on the weak side but I carry it snug against my pocket. My wife carries two and both are very solid, no lockup problems at all. I'm sure spyderco w&r has no problem fixing this problem. Bound to happen on a production knife.
 
Well the Para is tip down so it is not going to open as easy in your pocket. Even it if it does, it is not going to stab you like a tip up carry knife. That is one of the reasons I slightly prefer tip down. I can get used to either way but tip down feels more natural.
 
I have some pictures to compare and explain this.
This shows how on the new black one that the blade does not detent closed as much as it should:
4219ee95.jpg


Here, you can see the great difference in the tang "divot" that detents the blades closed:
25a049a7.jpg


The lockup on the new one is better (it has less wear). The old one is still reliable though despite having slight vertical blade play:
02d19494.jpg


These last two show the variations that I believe are improvements in the design. They also cause me to question the seeminly newer, yet more fallible lock detent:
fc113e35.jpg


Yojiindex.jpg
 
EOJK, great pictures.

That difference in the milling of the tang, from blue to black, is UNSAT!

Why on earth would that have happened?? I can't imagine what would justify a deliberate change such as that one; and I don't really want to stomach the idea that it's a Q.A. issue/failure... :(

I am a huge fan of the milled-tang detent on the Compression Locks. The one thing I dislike about my two black Salsas is that although they're CompLocks, they use ball bearing detents. Ugh. :mad:

-Jeffrey
 
I share the compression lock woes. My para had an off centered blade when closed and poor ability to hold the blade in. A friend of mine pulled the para out of his pocket to use it and it slipped from his hand (closed). It actually opened on the way down just from the rotation of the fall somehow. Kind of scary. Of course, as a tip down carry, it's not that big of a deal to me. For some reason, the off centered blade drove me so nuts that I had to sell it. I know several other people with the exact same problems as me, which is why I didn't buy another para. In my personal experience, it's like 50/50 odds. Also, it had vertical play.

Otherwise, I'm a huge compression lock fan. Just from here on out, I'm going to have to personally inspect the knife.

As per ball bearing detents, I never saw the problem with them. I have two folders in use with BBDs and they both hold the blade closed better than any of my other knives. I don't mind the new system either, when it works properly.
 
Yet, my Paramilitary has a dead-center blade with no play and a firm detent. Weird how inconsistent this lock type seems to be.:confused:
 
Artfully Martial said:
IFor some reason, the off centered blade drove me so nuts that I had to sell it. I know several other people with the exact same problems as me, which is why I didn't buy another para. In my personal experience, it's like 50/50 odds. Also, it had vertical play.
Click to expand...

More than an infinitessimal amount of vertical play would have me disliking a knife, too. Same with the off-center blade; although I have an AFCK that is off-center when closed, and my Military is now a bit off-center after I took it apart for the first time. :confused:

I'm curious, when you sell a knife that you dislike for a given reason, do you tell whoever plans to buy it that, "Oh, it has an off-center blade"?


As per ball bearing detents, I never saw the problem with them. I have two folders in use with BBDs and they both hold the blade closed better than any of my other knives. I don't mind the new system either, when it works properly.
Click to expand...

I don't like ball bearing detents as a personal ideosyncracy thing: I like things to be as simple as possible, and made of as few parts as possible. I also view it as more of a wear-spot than the milled tang will be over time.

-Jeffrey
 
That's odd...

My black yojimbo has the larger clip hole, is slightly off center when closed, shallower divot, but when closed the blade is detented exactly in between both your blue and black handled yojimbos (the top edge of the blade is exactly at the same place as the little "corner" on the handle). :lol:

I feel though that mine stays closed "strong enough" (i have no other compression lock spydercos to compare it with), but i can also flick the knife open one handed... It goes everywhere with me ever since i bought it earlier this year. It stays clipped to my pants at the waist and has never opened accidentally (and hopefully it won't ever). :)
 
i had a SS ATR that would open up on ya like that, i sent it back to spyderco/they said they had "improved" the design on the ATR in that regard & it was fine after that. i have 2 Ti ATR's which didnt have that problem.

i would send it back to spydie myself and let them fix it i'm sure that not right.

i like the compression lock myself i had the SS ATR with the prob but have had 6-8 other soydies with the compression lock and they were all fine. my tip down gunting would open up on ya but that was due to my fingers hitting the horn and starting it opening not the lock, thats just the way gunts are.
 
Yeah, I told the guy about all the problems and sold it pretty much NIB for 35 dollars less than I paid for it. He's very happy with it.
 
Artfully Martial said:
Yeah, I told the guy about all the problems and sold it pretty much NIB for 35 dollars less than I paid for it. He's very happy with it.
Click to expand...
:thumbup:

Mine had pretty much all the same problems yours did. I made them all clear when I sold it for about $90, and the guy told me it was in way better shape than I explained it being in. I guess I just have low tolerance for things like that. I have too many near perfect Spydies to accept how shakey and imperfect my Para was.
 
Yeah...I know in my heart none of the problems would have ever really affected anything, but I couldn't help it, *every time* I pulled the knife out, I had to stare at the off centered blade for a moment. It's strange the frequency of poor qc spydies I get. I've had four Spydercos for me personally, two of which have had noticable problems. However, I've ordered like 10 more for gifts over the last couple years, and NONE OF THEM had the slightest, most tiny problem at all. So I'm kind of cursed. Still looking forward to the next compression lock knife though, and I'm extremely tempted to just go buy another para, but I'll hold out for a year or two for the revised one Sal is working on.
 
I am a bit late on this one. My Yo had the same problem that it wouldn't stay fully closed. As Micheal Janich once explained the Yo is differently engineered than other compression locks and that seems to have been one of the woes.

You can fix it very easily by bending the tip of the liner out a little bit. This is how Spyderco fixed mine, when I sent it in.
 
I will try this, sounds like it may help. Anyone know why Spyderco would regress in the design though? I still cannot understand why the detent is shallower on the newer knife.:confused:
 
i was planning on buy a yojimbo when i got my next check but it doesnt sound like you dudes are too pleased are they worth the trouble
i've always liked the yo but should i invest in a different model
 
I own 2 and my wife owns and carries 2 daily. We love them and have had no problems. It's one of the best self-protection blades out there. Chech out Dr. snubnose's meat tests over at the spyderco home forum and you'll see how the Yo blows away other spydercos for slash depth. The knife is awesome.
 
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