I got my para 2 like 3 weeks ago now, and it didn't come as smooth as I thought but I read some forums and people said there is a bit if a break in period, so I was hopeful I also shot some lube down into the pivot and it is much smoother than when I got it but still not even close to some I've seen in YouTube, so I'm wondering if it would be wise to take it apart and clean it real good and re-lube it
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Para2 smoothness
- Thread starter Mr Krieg
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2013
- Messages
- 319
I think Spyderco cares about taking it apart, and it might void your warranty. I just got my second Paramilitary 2 today in satin and digicam. MY first is satin and black G10. I love them and the both flick open easily and forcefully. The detent is just perfect!! That said, it could be I just got lucky. One thing you can try is to micro-adjust the pivot on each side until you find the sweet spot between tightness and ease of opening. Good luck!
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2010
- Messages
- 8,340
Just sit down in front of your fav TV show(s) and open and close it a few hundred times. It WILL get smoother the more you work it.
As far as taking them apart, I do it when necessary (about once every 6 months for an EDC PM2). Hey, if they didn't want you to take it apart, then they wouldn't have constructed it with screws that allow you to take it apart! It takes a little practice, but it's not that big of a deal.
As far as taking them apart, I do it when necessary (about once every 6 months for an EDC PM2). Hey, if they didn't want you to take it apart, then they wouldn't have constructed it with screws that allow you to take it apart! It takes a little practice, but it's not that big of a deal.
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2010
- Messages
- 1,785
I have two PM2's that I bought at the same time. A Digi Satin and a Black Satin. The Digi is smoother than the Black one.....but I like the black one better....I like a little resistance. The Digi is probably going up on the exchange here.
My first one was a satin/camo. When I first got it, the lock was just a touch sticky and gave a little sore spot on the right index fingertip the first couple days. After a few weeks, the stick went away, blade drops free, and it's probably the top smoothest Spyderco I have with the Gayle Bradley neck and neck. I've never touched the pivot or any other screw on this knife and have never added any lube.
Will edit to say my coworker got one a couple of weeks ago satin/camo that was super tight from the factory.
Will edit to say my coworker got one a couple of weeks ago satin/camo that was super tight from the factory.
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I have purchased three compression lock knives in the last year. Two Pm2's and a Superleaf. Each benefited from adjusting the pivot and lock. If you don't already have a set of Torx drivers get some. It will take no time at all to get that lock buttery smooth. If I can do it, pretty much a monkey can do it. Otherwise it may or may not smooth out. Often times they really tighten them down for shipping purposes. Lots of info on the net on how to do it.
Cheers...
Cheers...
One of my Para2s was aweful as it came. Adjusting the Para2 (and Super Leaf, and others I assume) is different because pivot smoothness is affected by both the blade stop pin and the pivot. If one is too tight, the frame will not be aligned with the blade and will put different tension on different parts of the washers. It takes a long time (sometimes) to find the sweet spot, but mess with both the stop pin screws and the pivot screws.
The Para2 I had was so poorly adjusted, from the factory, that you could see light through half of the washer, between the frame and the washer. Once I readjusted it, it's perfect - no side to side play whatsoever, and very little friction on the blade. Adjusted right, it's among my slickest folders
The Para2 I had was so poorly adjusted, from the factory, that you could see light through half of the washer, between the frame and the washer. Once I readjusted it, it's perfect - no side to side play whatsoever, and very little friction on the blade. Adjusted right, it's among my slickest folders
Flicking them out fast all the time probably puts some nice wear on the lock and stop pin etc. I started opening mine nice and easy once I got over flicking them open fast. But what fun is that . The only knives I flick open real fast any more are some flippers I have, but only once in a while. The reason is because I notice some knives I have show signs of sticking in the lock after firing them open real hard. That can't be good. Mostly on titanium lock bars. So I just limited my urge, on all my knives, to fire them open fast every time. At the same time I do adjust them to be smooth.
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2010
- Messages
- 10,844
It's a knife. It's used to cut. How smooth the pivot operates won't matter when you cut with it. Jeez...
NorthernSouthpaw
Gold Member
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2014
- Messages
- 1,679
When I got my Para2 I was astounded at the lack of smoothness, My old Timberline was smoother. I flipped it for a bit hoping it would smooth out like everyone above has advised. I noticed a black ring on the tang where it was rubbing off the G10. Upon closer inspection I saw it had no washer on the non-lock side. Didn't want to send it back to the retailer Shoppe I bought it from because they were sold out and couldn't exchange it. So I sent it to Spyderco. CS rep that I spoke to was pretty suprised it actually made it out of the factory that way. They fixed it pretty quickly and sent it back. The point of this story is that some lemons slip through the cracks but Spyderco WILL take care of you. Just give it a thorough inspection and make sure everything is there. Loosen the pivot (both sides) a bit, and if it still doesn't behave properly call Spyderco.
Mine came pretty tight from the factory. I haven't adjusted the stop ion or pivot but probably opened it a few hundred times now and it's getting smoother. It's been 3 weeks now. Maybe I'll start playing around with the pivot/stop pin tension soon if it doesn't become any smoother.
Little (well this may be long - lol) update
After a few weeks of use, the action was getting smoother but not quite there. Opening and closing the blade, I would sometime get areas of "resistance" or "stickyness" in the open/close action movement. This was really bothering me because sometimes it was really getting smooth as hell, the blade would almost drop when the lock was disengaged and the knife parallel to the ground. But other times, the rotation resistance would increase dramatically, meaning that the blade would stop halfway (especially when wrist-flicking the knife closed).
I bought some loctite the other day at the hardware store as I thought I might end up having to perform a bit of surgery on the knife to see what was making it stick. I'd like to say that lock-up is at about 50% and there was/is ZERO lateral or up and down play. I'm very particular about the functionality of objects/tools I buy, especially intermittent issues such as this one. They just frustrate me and I was starting to get annoyed with the "legendary" para 2 "smoothness" (it was smooth...about 60-70 % of the time).
I read another thread where a user explained that he had lateral blade play which he fixed by opening up the knife and smoothing down the inside of one of the steel liners. More specifically, there was a ridge around the clip screw holes, most likely caused by machining or threading of the screw holes into the liner.
I decided to take the knife apart tonight to have a look...Lo and behold, the inside edge of the non-locking liner had the same issue. The two clip screw holes nearest to the pivot had an ever so slight ridge all around protruding from the surface of the liner. The outer edge of the bronze washer was obviously contacting with these ridges as it was discolored (blackened) and a bit worn down on the outside edge contacting the scale.
I took a bit of high grit sandpaper and polished the whole area of the liner that made contact with the washer. I then took the pivot out of the other liner to examine the area contacting the washer but everything was smooth - no ridge around the clip screw holes. I cleaned up the scales, lubed everything up and put it back together. That pivot system is a b*tch to to tune. It's very hard to dial out side to side blade play while maintaining a smooth blade rotation action but after playing around for a few minutes I figured it out.
Pro-tip putting the knife back together: The stop pin screws AND the pivot screws all affect the blade's rotation action. You have to adjust the tension on all of them to dial out blade play and keep a smooth action. I'd suggest assembling the knife and adjusting the tension on all the screws to dial in the perfect amount of tension then taking each screw out one by one to loctite it in back in place. It's much easier to come back to that tension balance between all the components when you're only taking one screw out at a time and because loctite will start locking your screw in place after about 10 minutes, you have a limited amount of time to adjust the tension or your loctite is ruined. Do yourself a favor and assemble the knife, find the sweetspot for all the screws and then take them out one by one to loctite them.
Sorry for the long read but I figure I'd throw as many details out here to help you guys out. It's a different knife now it really is, its consistently smooth and while the blade doesn't just drop when I disengage the lock, the tension is even and consistent throughout the blade's rotation and there is zero blade play in either direction.
Really glad I took 20 minutes to do this, the knife is perfect now. It's just too bad I had to do this on a $175 knife (I'm from Canada, everything is more expensive here - lol).
Cliffs for those in a hurry: Action smoothness was inconsistent, blade would hit "sticky" spots when opening/closing. Took the knife apart and this was caused by ridges around the clip screw holes near the pivot on the non-locking liner. Polished the liner down to create a smooth surface to interact with the washers, put it back together and now the action is like BUTTER! Worth a try if your action isn't so smooth. Good luck!
After a few weeks of use, the action was getting smoother but not quite there. Opening and closing the blade, I would sometime get areas of "resistance" or "stickyness" in the open/close action movement. This was really bothering me because sometimes it was really getting smooth as hell, the blade would almost drop when the lock was disengaged and the knife parallel to the ground. But other times, the rotation resistance would increase dramatically, meaning that the blade would stop halfway (especially when wrist-flicking the knife closed).
I bought some loctite the other day at the hardware store as I thought I might end up having to perform a bit of surgery on the knife to see what was making it stick. I'd like to say that lock-up is at about 50% and there was/is ZERO lateral or up and down play. I'm very particular about the functionality of objects/tools I buy, especially intermittent issues such as this one. They just frustrate me and I was starting to get annoyed with the "legendary" para 2 "smoothness" (it was smooth...about 60-70 % of the time).
I read another thread where a user explained that he had lateral blade play which he fixed by opening up the knife and smoothing down the inside of one of the steel liners. More specifically, there was a ridge around the clip screw holes, most likely caused by machining or threading of the screw holes into the liner.
I decided to take the knife apart tonight to have a look...Lo and behold, the inside edge of the non-locking liner had the same issue. The two clip screw holes nearest to the pivot had an ever so slight ridge all around protruding from the surface of the liner. The outer edge of the bronze washer was obviously contacting with these ridges as it was discolored (blackened) and a bit worn down on the outside edge contacting the scale.
I took a bit of high grit sandpaper and polished the whole area of the liner that made contact with the washer. I then took the pivot out of the other liner to examine the area contacting the washer but everything was smooth - no ridge around the clip screw holes. I cleaned up the scales, lubed everything up and put it back together. That pivot system is a b*tch to to tune. It's very hard to dial out side to side blade play while maintaining a smooth blade rotation action but after playing around for a few minutes I figured it out.
Pro-tip putting the knife back together: The stop pin screws AND the pivot screws all affect the blade's rotation action. You have to adjust the tension on all of them to dial out blade play and keep a smooth action. I'd suggest assembling the knife and adjusting the tension on all the screws to dial in the perfect amount of tension then taking each screw out one by one to loctite it in back in place. It's much easier to come back to that tension balance between all the components when you're only taking one screw out at a time and because loctite will start locking your screw in place after about 10 minutes, you have a limited amount of time to adjust the tension or your loctite is ruined. Do yourself a favor and assemble the knife, find the sweetspot for all the screws and then take them out one by one to loctite them.
Sorry for the long read but I figure I'd throw as many details out here to help you guys out. It's a different knife now it really is, its consistently smooth and while the blade doesn't just drop when I disengage the lock, the tension is even and consistent throughout the blade's rotation and there is zero blade play in either direction.
Really glad I took 20 minutes to do this, the knife is perfect now. It's just too bad I had to do this on a $175 knife (I'm from Canada, everything is more expensive here - lol).
Cliffs for those in a hurry: Action smoothness was inconsistent, blade would hit "sticky" spots when opening/closing. Took the knife apart and this was caused by ridges around the clip screw holes near the pivot on the non-locking liner. Polished the liner down to create a smooth surface to interact with the washers, put it back together and now the action is like BUTTER! Worth a try if your action isn't so smooth. Good luck!
NorthernSouthpaw
Gold Member
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2014
- Messages
- 1,679
Great job! I hope you are starting to see the PM2 living up to the "hype"
Was the lanyard tube hard to deal with when you broke down the knife ? Or did you keep it in place ? Nice write up, it was extremely useful info. Your explanation of your issue was spot on. Glad to hear you got it corrected. It's a great knife but anything can happen during assembly. So does Spyderco void your warranty for fixing their mistake ? Sounds like you are more than qualified to handle the repair. Nice job .
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I actually did not separate the scales/liners from the tube. I simply rotated the scales away from each other around the axis of the lanyard tube.
As for the warranty, I would hope that spyderco wouldn't void the warranty as I didn't modify any components, I only smoothed out tooling marks that weren't supposed to be there in the first place. My understanding is that spyderco doesn't void your warranty if you simply disassemble the knife. They void your warranty if you damage the knife or a problem is caused by disassembling/reassembling the knife improperly.
I don't think I will have any other issues with the knife either. Everything else is solid and works as it should. No blade play or lock stick. And now the action is like butter!
I am somewhat mechanically inclined but it's not that hard to do either guys, just get a good set of precision torx screw drivers and some loctite!
I wish I had taken pictures for you guys while disassembling but I was so concentrated on what I was going that I forgot to do so. I'll try to take pictures of the area I polished as you can see it when the blade is closed.
I have pictures of the area in question but can't seem to upload them using tapatalk (upload disabled by admin).
From the spyderco website under warranty information:
"Spydercos warranty does not cover damage caused by abuse, misuse, loss, improper handling, alterations, accident, neglect, disassembly, or improper sharpening."
You can disassemble/reassemble the knife without voiding the warranty as long as you don't damage it.
"Spydercos warranty does not cover damage caused by abuse, misuse, loss, improper handling, alterations, accident, neglect, disassembly, or improper sharpening."
You can disassemble/reassemble the knife without voiding the warranty as long as you don't damage it.
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- Joined
- Dec 9, 2006
- Messages
- 1,389
Try some nano oil. I spent hours polishing the liners and washers and still was not happy with the action.nano oli was what was needed to finally dial the pivot to my liking. Good to go now.
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