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Paramilitary 2 lock up and detent variability.

IsAreBe

IsAreBe

Joined
Jul 28, 2013
Messages
80
The lock up and detent on 2 paramilitary 2s I have are quite different. The digicam DLC blade one is assertive and you audibly know when the lock up and detent are engaged. The black satin blade one is more muted and gentle in lock up and detent.

I have seen some posts that mention this but didn't see any good explanations or theories as to why there is such variability.
 
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With my digi/dlc I can hear a real audible click for the detent and when it locks. I'm curious as well why one would be louder than the other.
 
Spyderco constantly improves the quality control on knives. There are also going to be slight variations between knives, none of them are identical. One might engage louder, one might engage softer, both lock up just fine.
 
When I owned a digicam DLC para 2, I can say it locked up louder and the detent was much tighter than the satin I own.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_detent

The ball of a detent ideally should be slightly bigger than the hole it sits in. However, that's not enough for a folding knife if there is nothing to stop the blade from being pushed further till the ball comes out over the opposite edge. In a para 2, the hole is actually bigger than the ball. Fortunately, the stop pin stops the closed blade from going further. This is the same stop pin that stops the blade when it's open. If the pin stops a closed blade when the detent ball is just completely seated, we get a confident and "loud" detent. Any later, we get some annoying "play" in the closed blade (I have seen that with worn detents and/or in cheap knives). With the handful of para 2's that I have, I noticed that the stop pins stop the blades slightly before the balls are completely seated. Since the edge of the hole engages at the steep slope of the surface of the ball, slight variations in blade travel makes a big difference in how far the ball goes into the hole. Given this and the experience I have with my para 2's manufactured over the course of over 3 years, I would say Spyderco's manufacturing tolerances are very tight. A related observation - in the same way that rotating the stop pin of a para 2 affects the "lateness" of lock-up, doing so also affects the detent engagement ever so slightly. Trying to optimize between the two can drive a person crazy.
 
I had a PM2 (black/satin) I picked up about a year ago and the detent was VERY weak. I could shake the blade out with very minimal effort, and I was afraid the knife would come open in my jeans someday.I came to this forum to let people know that I was having issues so anyone buying a new knife could check theirs. I already had a digi/satin PM2 (buttery smooth with a very STRONG detent), so I had something with which I could compare.Spyderco stepped up to the plate and replaced the knife. I caught a LOT of grief in this forum for having the audacity to challenge Spyderco's quality control, though.Spyderco makes the best knives around, IMHO. But mistakes happen. If you think there's a problem, contact them and they'll take care of ya!:)broonzbane
 
Yes, there is variability with them, but its not only with the Para2.
With the last two I got one was smooth as glass, and you could barely open the other. I still need to send that one into Spyderco as I have with a few Para2's.

Ten years ago it seems every Spyderco I got was super slick, but in the past few years you won't know what you will get until you get it.
Its the same way with any company in this price range though, not just Spyderco.
 
If I get one that isn't to my liking, I just take it apart and polish the pivot, touch up the washers and put Hi Slip grease on it and it opens like it's on bearings. That stuff is amazing.
 
I took mine black satin blade one apart and bent the compression liner out a bit more. It seemed to make the detent a little more assertive.
 
Ken44 said:
Yes, there is variability with them, but its not only with the Para2.
With the last two I got one was smooth as glass, and you could barely open the other. I still need to send that one into Spyderco as I have with a few Para2's.

Ten years ago it seems every Spyderco I got was super slick, but in the past few years you won't know what you will get until you get it.
Its the same way with any company in this price range though, not just Spyderco.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Production knives will always have some variability in the mechanical functioning. Some locks engage much earlier or later, however most (never all) the items with extreme variance are usually caught in QC. I also agree that the older Spyderco knives seem to have been much smoother, this includes the Seki City models.
 
I just received my Para 2 w/blk g-10 scales and satin blade and IMHO this knife opens and locks up better than any of my six Benchmade models. This is my third Spyderco model and all three knives are top-shelf with respect to workmanship, fit & finish and carry-ability.
 
I've owned 6 Para 2's and their detents were all perfect.

4 of the 6 had blades that were ground down too much, as in 1/16" was missing from the blade on the brand new knives, but everything else, from lockup to centering, was absolutely perfect.
 
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