Sliding Military linerlock

PropThePolecat

PropThePolecat

Joined
Jan 31, 2009
Messages
3,292
When slight pressure is applied to the spine of this Military, the linerlock slides worryingly towards the unlock position. I have not experienced this before in any Spyderco linerlock, allbeit i have never handled this particular model before now, a CF BG-42 Military.

Holding the tip of the blade and wriggling it also shows some up/down bladeplay.

As you can see in this video, the liner flexes slightly and slides back on the lockface.

Any of your Millitaries behave like this?

Here is a vid i made of it:

[video=youtube;vy8TAF5v65w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vy8TAF5v65w&feature=g-upl&context=G244c80fAUAAAAAAAAAA[/video]
 
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Just checked both my Military's that I have nearby (regular G10 S30V and a CF BG42), both locked up solid with no blade play.
 
None of mine do that. Note that when he's flexing it you can't see enough to get a feeling for how much force he's applying. Given the short length of the locking leaf and the way it's nested into the G10, it should take a huge amount of force to flex that steel locking leaf like that.
 
JNewell said:
None of mine do that. Note that when he's flexing it you can't see enough to get a feeling for how much force he's applying. Given the short length of the locking leaf and the way it's nested into the G10, it should take a huge amount of force to flex that steel locking leaf like that.
Click to expand...

Its me in that video. I am not leaning on it in any way, it only takes a small amount of pressure on the spine to cause the linerlock to slide.

I should add that its a second-hand Military that i just received. I am not satisfied with it, so i am sending it back and getting a refund.
 
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I tried to replicate this problem with my military and could not get one iota of flex in mine. I would contact Spyderco about yours.
 
I would send it in to Spyderco instead of getting a refund because that bg42 cf is a little hard to come by at a good deal
 
Thanks for the clarification...and before I got to the second paragraph, I was thinking "I wonder if he's the original owner...?" I think I'd definitely send it back to someone, either the seller or (if it shows no signs of being effed with, and if you got a good deal on the knife, and if you don't mind a wait) back to Spyderco for warranty service. Given the chances that any issues might not be covered under warranty, though, sending it back to the seller seems best. Again, I cannot make any of my Militarys do that.

PropThePolecat said:
Its me in that video. I am not leaning on it in any way, it only takes a small amount of pressure on the spine to cause the linerlock to slide.

I should add that its a second-hand Military that i just received. I am not satisfied with it, so i am sending it back and getting a refund.
Click to expand...
 
Don't have a military but my Bradley Alias has been doing that. If I press hard enough the lockbar slides right off the tang and the lock disengages.
 
The locking liner needs some bend in it. A knife that does the way you have described, does not have enough bend in that liner to put sufficient pressure and has a tendency to slip back when you have pressure, and to exhibit vertical bladeplay due to loose lockup.

DM, same applies to yours. I've had a few knives this way over the years of collecting, and decided that this was the problem and so I started this process. Fixed everyone of them, and now I do this first thing, because I like having a stiffer lockup on my folders. Some say that it increases the chance of wear, but I have not experienced that on any of mine.

Prop, the ZT0200 is with my son and since he doesn't live that close to me, I've had a difficult time getting the knife. BUT, I will!
I'm really sorry that I haven't done this as I told you I would.:o:o:o
 
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I would send it in and ask for a larger stop pin, that should make the problem go away without making it harder to unlock. It's debatable whether Spyderco will do this, but that would be my solution.
 
Just for the record, i gave the Military another go, as i was just plain unlucky the first time.

I received another one in digicam S30V and this one is flawless :thumbup:
 
This type of thing makes me wonder if radiusing the blade tang is beneficial in the long run. I'm sure spyderco knows what they're doing, but whenever I've had a frame lock with a radiused blade tang it eventually developed some sort of play.
 
Initially when I got my M390 Millie I thought the lockup was solid, but later when I started playing with it, I found *exactly* the same sliding lockbar issue. Hand-pressure on the spine would let the lockbar slide on the lock face, but the lock would not fail.

There was some pivot oil on the lock mating surfaces, which I cleaned up, but still no joy.

I tried to break it in with a few hundred open/close cycles, still no joy.

Later I noticed that the blade had a little side-to-side play, which made me check all the screws - one of the stop pin screws was not tight at all. I loosened up everything, tightened it down, and now the lockup is solid and the blade is centered. I've been using it for a few weeks now, and I still have no play in any direction.

Seems like the Millie (mine at least) is very sensitive to the tightness of the pivot and other screws, which kinda makes sense if you think about it!

I'm keeping a close eye on it though...
 
Heiheit said:
This type of thing makes me wonder if radiusing the blade tang is beneficial in the long run. I'm sure spyderco knows what they're doing, but whenever I've had a frame lock with a radiused blade tang it eventually developed some sort of play.
Click to expand...

I can't watch the vid because of a really slow connection ATM, but don't militaries already have radiused tangs?
 
PropThePolecat said:
Just for the record, i gave the Military another go, as i was just plain unlucky the first time.

I received another one in digicam S30V and this one is flawless :thumbup:
Click to expand...

Glad to hear you got one you we happy with. About the lock, that would worry me for sure. Maybe Sal can weigh in on this.
 
JNewell said:
None of mine do that. Note that when he's flexing it you can't see enough to get a feeling for how much force he's applying. Given the short length of the locking leaf and the way it's nested into the G10, it should take a huge amount of force to flex that steel locking leaf like that.
Click to expand...


It's not flexing, it's slipping, at least on mine. Doesn't take much force. One of my 5 M390 Millies does it.
 
JNewell said:
Five? Yeow.

These M390/CF knives seem to have very early lockup. Does the one that's slipping have very early lockup?
Click to expand...

Haha yeah I went a little crazy, although it is my favorite Spydie to date.

The other 4 have really early lockup like you said, but this one is later than most millies I've ever seen at about 50%. I have thought about robbing the stop pin from my beater Millie to see if it makes a difference.
 
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