Question regarding Spyderco Szabo folder...

stonproject

stonproject

Joined
Nov 22, 2013
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Just got this gorgeous knife off of the forums here, and I really love it so far. I am a newbie with this knife, and spydercos compression lock in general.

When opening and closing the knife, the detent is incredibly strong, and the blade "grinds" when opening, and closing it. I just wanted to see if anyone with first hand experience with this knife can confirm that this is normal, or an anomaly?

Thanks!
 
I know, based on developer explanations and consumer reviews, that the detent is and is supposed to be super-strong. I believe in addition to the compression lock, there's a internal spring maintaining the detent. The strong detent is almost always mentioned in reviews.

As far as gritty opening, that sounds like a "needs oil/grease" problem...

I have a Szabo coming this week, and I'm looking forward to fondling the beautiful giant!
 
FriarPhenn said:
I know, based on developer explanations and consumer reviews, that the detent is and is supposed to be super-strong. I believe in addition to the compression lock, there's a internal spring maintaining the detent. The strong detent is almost always mentioned in reviews.

As far as gritty opening, that sounds like a "needs oil/grease" problem...

I have a Szabo coming this week, and I'm looking forward to fondling the beautiful giant!
Click to expand...


I noticed theres a HUGE spring inside the liner... is this how compression locks are normally or is this a szabo special?

I put a healthy amount of oil on that spring and in the pivot and its not grinding as bad anymore. The blade is so huge you can just wrist flick it open.

However, this things a PITA to get centered!
 
stonproject said:
I noticed theres a HUGE spring inside the liner... is this how compression locks are normally or is this a szabo special?

I put a healthy amount of oil on that spring and in the pivot and its not grinding as bad anymore. The blade is so huge you can just wrist flick it open.

However, this things a PITA to get centered!
Click to expand...

I'm fairly certain the spring is a Szabo special. It's meant to provide a strong detent, as well as "assist" in opening the blade on the very end of its travel to the open position.
 
FriarPhenn said:
I'm fairly certain the spring is a Szabo special. It's meant to provide a strong detent, as well as "assist" in opening the blade on the very end of its travel to the open position.
Click to expand...

I noticed the "compression liner" on the rear rides on the stop pin. Would oiling the pin cause lock slippage or would that just make the knife all that much smoother?
 
stonproject said:
I noticed the "compression liner" on the rear rides on the stop pin. Would oiling the pin cause lock slippage or would that just make the knife all that much smoother?
Click to expand...

That would make sense to me. It's another point where any friction would affect the ease of opening.
 
I have several Szabo Folders and each one exhibits the exact symptoms as you described.... I would suggest a good blast of oil(several times) and a lot of opening and closing. There's a strong spring in there and it needs a lot of work !
 
The Szabo folder has a self closung mechanism to help ibcrease the amount of force holding the knife closed. The gritiness could come from the interface of detent ball to side the blade (unlikely unless your knife is dirty), or from the interface of the self-closing mechanism to the internal channel of the blade (which I think is more likely). The latter of the two is more difficult to correct, as it would require sanding smooth an interior channel in the blade itself.
 
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