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smooth opening Stretch ?

J

jlaplant

Joined
Mar 8, 2013
Messages
103
Has anyone had any luck getting a stretch to open and close smooth without excessive blade play ? Its one of my favorite Spyderco designs but it bothers me the way the blade drags. My delica and endura are both smoother. I have thought about taking it apart and polishing it but thought I would check on here first. I use only Nano oil on all my knives.

Thanks
Jim
 
Any lock back ive ever owned has more resistance on open/close cycles than most any other knife. The spring along the back of the knife seems to put more tension on the blade than the typical liner lock or frame lock. I have 5 spydie backlocks and they are all my stiffest knives to open and close. I don't mind I just open them normally, flicking isnt my thing. Now I will say my Delica has loosened up to be very flickable with no blade play and no lube now that its been cycled a few thousand times. Give those washers and the back spring a good breaking in and I suspect in time it will loosen up to your liking.
 
I can thumb flick my SB Stretch open and it has no blade play. It's not as smooth or easy to thumb flick as some other locks, but it's doable on mine.
 
As I stated my Delica and Endura are both a lot smoother than my Stretch and I have used the Stretch way more than the other 2. I have had a few lock backs over the years and this one doesn't feel right. I can see rub marks on the blade by the pivot screw
 
Im not sure what you mean by rub marks from the pivot screw. That portion of the blade is hidden in the liners.
It is possible the knife is out of spec, only you know for sure that it is not right.
You can:
1) Take it apart, voiding you warranty, and tweak it to your liking.
2)Send it in to Spyderco and see what they think.
 
No blade play or roughness problems with any of mine. Some have less opening and closing resistance than others, but all of them feel smooth to me.

Stretch%20Eleven.JPG
 
Very nice Deacon. What is the inlay on the model second from the top on the left? Micarta and pearl? Also, I want that CF sprint ;)
 
leafstorm said:
Very nice Deacon. What is the inlay on the model second from the top on the left? Micarta and pearl? Also, I want that CF sprint ;)
Click to expand...
The inlay is brown canvas Micarta, the oval in the middle is just the SS "landing pad" for the clip that's part of the original Stretch's handle.
 
leafstorm said:
Im not sure what you mean by rub marks from the pivot screw. That portion of the blade is hidden in the liners.
Click to expand...

The FRN is rubbing on the choil, causing friction (and rub marks). Here's a pic from Screwdriver on another thread:

P1010803_zps5bd2ae37.jpg


I have two Stretches- VG-10 and SB. I can smoothly rotate the blades with my thumb, but neither flicks. Looking into the underside of the knife with the blade open on my SB, I'm pretty sure why. The parts of the FRN scales that make up the finger guard bend into the path of the blade. When the blade closes it has to push the FRN scales outward out of its path. In other words, the scales are pinching the blade. Pivot loosening and polishing isn't going to counteract that. Only sanding the FRN is going to do that. Same thing is going to be occurring at the ends of the scales, but I can't see them bending into the blade's path because the choil is too close to the gap between the scales at that part of the knife to actually see them bend in.

Edit:
They flick open with my thumb, but not with my middle finger. Neither blade drops when I release the back lock. I have other lockbacks that drop, but none of them have FRN scales.
 
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The only Stretch I have is a Blue Nishijin/Damascus Sprint, and it is very smooth, much more so than my Delica SB or Endura ZDP. Excellent lock up too so far, it is carried and used a bit, not as much as others but it does get a day in the pocket from time to time.
 
I only have one standard black VG10 Stretch but it opens pretty smoothly without excessive effort. I have a number of other Spyderco lockback models and there are variations in the opening/closing from sample to sample. One of my Delica 4 models is very stiff, the other two are fine while an older model Delica is still pretty stiff. My Native LW is butter smooth and light opening, the Centofante 3 is smooth but requires more effort and the four Dragonflies are all easy to open but vary in the strength required. My old original behemoth Manix always opens easily and smoothly and locks with a thunk.

I think these are all normal variations--some stiffer than others, some exceptionally light and smooth. I don't flick or flip my knives open so none of this really matters to me. I love 'em all but, in the end, they're meant for cutting and they all do that really well. You can always play with the pivot adjustment on the screwed-together knives and sometimes find the sweet spot on opening/closing effort.

"Blade play", in my definition, is a blade that is loose when in the locked position. Lockbacks can have a tiny amount of front-to-back movement even when locked if enough effort is applied to the blade--that, again, seems pretty normal to me. More than just a barely perceptible amount of movement is a no-no.
 
delphidoc you are correct thanks.I can feel it rub and the marks on the blade are getting more noticeable . I am going to sand the frn some and see what happens
 
jlaplant said:
delphidoc you are correct thanks.I can feel it rub and the marks on the blade are getting more noticeable . I am going to sand the frn some and see what happens
Click to expand...

I haven't gotten around to removing the scales to sand the edges on the underside of the knife. If you're going to remove the scales (voids your warranty) and sand them down I would suggest not sanding any further back than the forward-most screws (not talking about the pivot screws here). If you sand the entire inner scale surfaces on a piece of sandpaper the scales will not be flush with the backspacer anymore.
 
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