Para 2 Blade Play issue...

Kamoe

Kamoe

Joined
Sep 30, 2012
Messages
183
I bought a Para 2 from Blade HQ last year, brand new. There was a very slight amount of side-to-side blade play, not enough to make me worry about it. Over the course of 2014 though, the blade play's gotten worse with general use, cutting a few hundred cardboard boxes per night with my job, to where the blade travels a good 1/12th of an inch to either side from the center position. What's even weirder is the blade centering while closed is 100% dead-on. It doesn't rattle and the blade is still smooth as glass opening. But the play still persists. I've tried everything, tightening the pivot, tightening the stop pin and body screws, taking it apart and cleaning it out, none of it seems to work. I've clamped this knife down as tight as all of the screws can go, and the blade still has side-to-side play. I'm not sure if this is a common occurance on Para 2's, but it's kinda gotten me worried. I love this knife most out of my small collection and I don't want to have to put it on the bench because it has an odd defect. If I can't remedy it myself, I plan on sending it into Spyderco for maintenance, and seeing what they can do about it for me. Any ideas?
 
unfortunately thats the downside of a pivot bushing :( there's no amount of tightening that will eliminate the side to side...

it's pretty normal for slight horizontal play on the para 2 but if you feel that it is and "odd defect", send it over to the good folks over at spyderco.
 
Well it's definitely comforting to hear that it's fairly normal. I also completely forgot about the time I polished the washers, so maybe in doing that I removed a bit of thickness from the pivot and gave more leeway for blade wiggle. I may still send it in for a maintenance run anyway just to see what they can do, cause even for me, this much side-to-side play is a bit bothersome. Not that I'm worried that it'll cause the blade to fail on me, it's more of a pet peeve.
 
totally understandable.

i have several pm2s and usually with mine you really have to muscle the blade to find play so it doesn't concern me.

perhaps polishing the washers did in fact have something to do with it (as you mentioned).

they're top notch knives regardless :)
 
i had a manix xl like that and I sent it into spyderco under their warranty... they fixed me right up, but unfortunately i did have to wait about 3 weeks to get it back or so.
 
The only thing I can think of for a DIY fix might be to get a set of slightly thicker washers and replace the original ones that were polished with the new ones and not polish them. A decent micrometer should measure the current thickness pretty accurately. Try to get a set with the same ID / OD but just a hair thicker.

Sending it in is probably still the surest fix.
 
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