Question on Reassembly

T

TacGuy

Joined
Jul 17, 2014
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44
I have a problem. Well, many actually. Among the top is my obssessive/compulsive need to tinker with any knife I buy. For whatever reason, when I get a knife, I feel compelled to disassemble it within a few days. That would be fine, except another one of my top flaws is my uselessness at anything mechanical. But I'll never learn, and so it goes. I bought my first Emerson (CQC-7) and had to take it apart. Upon dissassembly the pivot washers wound up on the floor so I had no way of knowing which side of each washer goes against the blade. My questions: 1. Does it matter? and 2. If it does matter, is there a way to tell which side should be against the blade?

At least I figured out where the larger and smaller washers go, and the knife was incredibly easy to reassemble. It is working perfectly. In fact, after lightly lubing it, it's incredibly smooth to open. (Not particularly fond of the the disk, but the wave feature is amazing.)

Anyway, appreciate any and all comments. (But looking for an answer: "No, it doesn't matter". ;)
 
It doesn't matter. I just took my Specwar apart today and cleaned everything. I gave the washers a light sanding and sanded the area on the scales where the washers make contact.

I applied a grease/graphite lube to everything lightly. Then I re-assembled and I didn't worry about which way I put the washers in. It's really good now.

The washers on the Specwar are two different outside diameters. So that's the only thing I had to keep the same. Meaning which side the small one goes on.

Edit to add: I meant that I sanded the area on the liners where the washers make contact.
 
Last edited:
I've taken apart many Emersons, it doesn't matter which way the washers go back on.
 
Thanks. I didn't think it did. One of the youtube "experts" I came across made a big deal about it. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how it could possibly matter, but then again, I'm the guy whose high school chemistry projects always blew up, so I figured I better verify. Great knife. Now I'm wondering why I hemmed and hawed about buying one for so long.
 
newknif said:
It doesn't matter. I just took my Specwar apart today and cleaned everything. I gave the washers a light sanding and sanded the area on the scales where the washers make contact.

I applied a grease/graphite lube to everything lightly. Then I re-assembled and I didn't worry about which way I put the washers in. It's really good now.

The washers on the Specwar are two different outside diameters. So that's the only thing I had to keep the same. Meaning which side the small one goes on.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's the same on mine, and I reckon all Emersons. One small washer, one larger. That's what made me check the youtubes.
 
Generally the small washer goes on the lock side and the large on the opposite side.
 
ibute21 said:
Generally the small washer goes on the lock side and the large on the opposite side.
Click to expand...

The Specwar is the other way around. Otherwise the larger washer would run under the detent. The locking side has enough room though.
 
ibute21 said:
Generally the small washer goes on the lock side and the large on the opposite side.
Click to expand...

Most Emersons have the larger washer on the lockbar side and the smaller one on the non-lockbar side unless it came with the same size for both. The smaller one goes to the non-lockbar side due the clearance required for the Safe-D-Tent to clear the washer and contact the blade to do it's job of blade retention while closed.
 
Well damn, learn something new every day! I dont disassemble my Emersons, never saw the need to, nothing some hot soapy water and wd40 and tufglide cant fix imo.

I'll be sure to keep this in mind if I ever disassemble one.
 
ibute21 said:
Generally the small washer goes on the lock side and the large on the opposite side.
Click to expand...

Yeah, looks like that's how it has to be. It looks like placing the large washer on the lock side would interfere with the lock. Haven't tried it, but Im guessing you might not even be able to assemble with the large washer on the lock side. I have to say it's the easiest knife to put back together I've come across.
 
Tacguy, is the CQC-7 you have a Emerson model or a Benchmade model? Was it purchased "New" or "like new" and has it been meddled with by someone else? Curious to know. All of the CQC-7's that I have owned have the large washer on the lockbar side of the blade. The usual linerlock knife from other companies would have the larger washer on the non-lockbar side if not the same. Emersons are typically the other way around from all the ones that I have owned over the years with the larger washer on the lockbar side. The Mini's I have see use the same size (the smaller washer) for both along with some of the larger knives (the larger washer) as well.
 
Rayster, it's a brand new (as in 2-3 weeks) Emerson (purchased from their website). I misspoke. I took the knife apart after starting this thread and took photos, which I'm looking at now. The smaller washer is on the detent (non-lockbar side). The other way around would definitely interfere with the detent. Question for the EmersonRep, is it possible to reassemble the knife with the washers on the wrong sides? If so, nice safety design.

Thanks all. I've only been on the forums a few days, but I've already learned a lot.

TG
 
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