Problems with Kizer Rattler pivot screw

Misanthropia

Misanthropia

Joined
Jul 10, 2011
Messages
1,941
I'm posting here out of desperation because I really like this knife, but the pivot pretty much has me at my wit's end. To set the scene:

I bought a Rattler second-hand off of the forums and the owner described it as not being a great flipper. When I received it, I could tell the pivot was torqued down way too hard. I tried to loosen the pivot with my Wiha driver, but found that the bit simply spun in the screw head when trying to turn counterclockwise beyond a certain point. However, it gripped fine to to turn clockwise, where the pivot would turn ever so slightly. So basically the whole assembly would rotate a couple of degrees, but stop. I contacted Kizer's customer service and sent it to their service person in California.

About a month and a half later (earlier this week) I received a replacement for my Rattler, which appeared to be a brand new knife. Now, however, the blade was off center. Thinking my earlier knife was just a fluke, I went to loosen the pivot to fix the centering and once again, same problem. I put it in front of a hair dryer for over a minute, and the screw still wouldn't budge. Next I tried pressing the pivot screw to the electric coil on my oven, still no luck.\

At this point I'm not sure what the hell kind of loctite is being used, or if it's just an issue with the way the pivot screw has its female torx portion milled. Any advice would be appreciated. This is my 7th Kizer and I've never had any issues with the hardware before.
 
Update: I bought a soldering iron to use that to apply heat to the pivot screw. Still won't budge, and at this point I would call the screw stripped (at least turning in the counterclockwise direction.

Kizer, please stop using this permanent threadlocker in combination with shallow, soft pivot screws. This knife will now remain forever off-center.
 
Interesting. Every Kizer I have loosened up because there was no loctite and I had to apply it myself.
 
The idea that they would send you a replacement with an off-center blade is a little puzzling.
 
Had a similar issue with my kizer escort (details in my review here). Ended up sending it into kizer warranty here is Australia and they drilled out the pivot. Imo the pivot design is flawed and I wish kizer would give it a revamp.
 
Last edited:
matt009au said:
Had a similar issue with my kizer escort (details in my review here). Ended up sending it into kizer warranty here is Australia and they drilled out the pivot. Imo the pivot design is flawed and I wish kizer would give it a revamp.
Click to expand...

Indeed, the problem seems to be endemic to the pivot screw/pivot design itself. I wish they had removed the pivot from my first knife and just put in a new, loctited one instead of simply replacing it. But replacing it is a much easier solution than performing some kind of actual repair, which would require the US Kizer representative to be mechanically inclined and familiar with knife making which might not be the case.
 
Misanthropia said:
Indeed, the problem seems to be endemic to the pivot screw/pivot design itself. I wish they had removed the pivot from my first knife and just put in a new, loctited one instead of simply replacing it. But replacing it is a much easier solution than performing some kind of actual repair, which would require the US Kizer representative to be mechanically inclined and familiar with knife making which might not be the case.
Click to expand...

The easy fix would be tapping the pivot for torx on both sides. Still I'm really enjoying the stuff kizer puts out and am looking forward to their 2017 releases. Hopefully they can iron out the pivot issues soon.
 
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