So . . . I Broke My Kershaw Cryo

[Luis G.]

Just as if you were to bend a coat hanger back and forth quickly, your spring will fail from this destructive practice.

I wasn't aware a coat hanger was a spring. A spring is MEANT to be flexed. If it fails during that flexing (Can't say it over flexed since it's locked into place), then one can be sure it was a defective spring.

Definitely not user error just caused it to fail faster.

 

[Karda]

All he did was expedite the process that would eventually happen down the road.

I wasn't aware a coat hanger was a spring. A spring is MEANT to be flexed. If it fails during that flexing (Can't say it over flexed since it's locked into place), then one can be sure it was a defective spring.

Definitely not user error just caused it to fail faster.

Springs are not made to cycle faster than the steel can inherently handle.
Repeated fast cycling (flipping) causes premature breakage which is neither the manufacturers or the parts fault , but the fault of the user. Which is user error. Kershaw steps up a lot and replaces many, many parts that they just don't have to, kudos to them for that. But it still doesn't make it right.

 

[NM08SRT8]

So if a spring on a car breaks prematurely from constantly being flexed and unflexed, is that user error?

It's a heat treat defect in the metal, simple.

 

[alex1577]

So if a spring on a car breaks prematurely from constantly being flexed and unflexed, is that user error?

It's a heat treat defect in the metal, simple.

It also has to with the way i closed it, since i was using my left hand i put much more pressure on the spring than normal. I would consider it user error, but i also have heard the wierd clicking sound that happened when it broke multiple times before

 

[Interloc]

Springs are not made to cycle faster than the steel can inherently handle.
Repeated fast cycling (flipping) causes premature breakage which is neither the manufacturers or the parts fault , but the fault of the user. Which is user error. Kershaw steps up a lot and replaces many, many parts that they just don't have to, kudos to them for that. But it still doesn't make it right.

Everyone say hi to buzz killington over here. Lol.

Ok so you are saying that repeated flipping of the knife causes pre mature wear. So do you only use your knives when you need to cut something? You've never just played with your knives while watching tv?

Did you know that cutting stuff causes your knife blade to become pre maturely dull? If you never cut stuff it Santana sharp for longer.

To the op. Contact kershaw and they will sort you out.

 

[Karda]

So if a spring on a car breaks prematurely from constantly being flexed and unflexed, is that user error?

It's a heat treat defect in the metal, simple.

You've picked a very poor analogy.

If a car spring breaks Prematurely it would indicate a manufacturing defect.
If it broke after a lifetimes of flexing, it would be end-of life.
If it broke because the user needlessly and senselessly repeatedly drove over the same speedbump ...it would be user error.

 

[Karda]

Everyone say hi to buzz killington over here. Lol.

Ok so you are saying that repeated flipping of the knife causes pre mature wear. So do you only use your knives when you need to cut something? You've never just played with your knives while watching tv?

Did you know that cutting stuff causes your knife blade to become pre maturely dull? If you never cut stuff it Santana sharp for longer.

To the op. Contact kershaw and they will sort you out.

Sure I play with my knives, but I don't senselessly flip them open, just like I don't try to cut railroad track with them.
Anything else?

 

[whateatsrabbits]

karda you make a lot of sense. With my spped safe knives they always flip out best that first flip or 2 after sitting. Then after that the spring must be heating up or loosing up,because it flips softer. Thanks for the tip for extending the life of the torsion bar.

 

[MNofUSN]

I took my torsion our because of all the problems people had with it breaking & i filled the space with a little J B weld and it works great just as a flipper

 

[JakeSnake]

Same thing happened to mine not long after i got mine, snapped in the same exact spot too. Kershaw is good with their customer service and should help out pretty quick.

 

[Luis G.]

Springs are not made to cycle faster than the steel can inherently handle.
Repeated fast cycling (flipping) causes premature breakage which is neither the manufacturers or the parts fault , but the fault of the user. Which is user error. Kershaw steps up a lot and replaces many, many parts that they just don't have to, kudos to them for that. But it still doesn't make it right.

I think one of us may be confused.
When you flick a knife open you are exerting force on the blade to pivot, AIDING the spring's tension. Wouldn't that actually reduce the tension on the spring it self since the spring's potential energy is not being used to it's fullest?
Also as far as springs are concerned don't you think if you took the spring out of the knife and you compressed it and when you let it flex back to it's original form it would be a lot faster than the knife could possible open even with one flicking it?

Lastly before you mention the tension of the blade suddenly stopping, most of that if not all of that energy is being transferred to the blade stop not the spring.

Never heard of a spring failing prematurely because of accelerated use, I have of course heard of springs failing because they were flexed way past their specs but not because they were "aided" thus reducing tension. I am quite sure at this price point, it should last 10,000 openings with no problems.

To give an idea how good springs can get: An automatic watch doing 8 beats per second or around 28,800 beats per hour has a spring flexing at that frequency.
In one day that's 691,200 times a day with a tolerance of around .03% (accounting for 30 seconds @8 beats a second gain or loss or mean/day of variance).
That watch when properly oiled can last approximately 4 years give or take before needing maintenance.

That's about 1,009,152,000 times in that four year period without breaking. Plus after servicing, I am sure it could last another decade with ease. This is of course the product of a very ridiculous R&D budget and probably in the extreme of "springs".

 

[Karda]

I think one of us may be confused.
When you flick a knife open you are exerting force on the blade to pivot, AIDING the spring's tension. Wouldn't that actually reduce the tension on the spring it self since the spring's potential energy is not being used to it's fullest?
Also as far as springs are concerned don't you think if you took the spring out of the knife and you compressed it and when you let it flex back to it's original form it would be a lot faster than the knife could possible open even with one flicking it?

Lastly before you mention the tension of the blade suddenly stopping, most of that if not all of that energy is being transferred to the blade stop not the spring.

Never heard of a spring failing because of accelerated use, I have of course heard of springs failing because they were flexed way past their specs but not because they were "aided" thus reducing tension.

Yes, it seems you are quite confused.
It's common sense really. The older I get, the more i'm finding it's not so common and is possibly dying out with our forefathers.
Everything on this planet has a breaking point. Everything. When someone chooses to push something beyond it's inherent limits. It breaks.
Most often due to ignorance and lack of common sense. If you respect your tools, they will return the favor.
Our forefathers could make a simple slipjoint pocketknife last a lifetime of hard honest proper usage, yet many here can't seem to keep a spring in a knife for more that a month or two.

Something is wrong here..... and it is neither the manufacturer nor the steel that is at fault.

 

[Luis G.]

Yes, it seems you are quite confused.
It's common sense really. The older I get, the more i'm finding it's not so common and is possibly dying out with our forefathers.
Everything on this planet has a breaking point. Everything. When someone chooses to push something beyond it's inherent limits. It breaks.
Most often due to ignorance and lack of common sense. If you respect your tools, they will return the favor.
Our forefathers could make a simple slipjoint pocketknife last a lifetime of hard honest proper usage, yet many here can't seem to keep a spring in a knife for more that a month or two.

Something is wrong here..... and it is neither the manufacturer nor the steel that is at fault.

You haven't explained as to how flicking a knife can cause the spring to open at a speed that it was not intended or exert it to stresses past it's specifications. By flicking the knife open you are adding energy into the action, thus reducing the energy required from the spring.
If anything at all opening an assisted knife SLOWLY would actually hurt it because you are keeping tension on the spring at it's maximum.

It would appear that you forget this is not a perfect world and there are things like friction, and mass to account for. I can assure you if you flicked the knife open, you would NOT make the spring flex back to true faster than it would if it were outside of the knife, with no tension working against it.

Let's not get into personal attacks or make this youth vs old. As of yet humanities progression into the dominant species helps support this simple common sense: The youth usually are better than the previous generation, enabled and thanks to the efforts of the previous generations. It's quite an interesting thing to be honest, building unto the pillar of knowledge.

 

[mattmanyam]

You haven't explained as to how flicking a knife can cause the spring to open at a speed that it was not intended or exert it to stresses past it's specifications. By flicking the knife open you are adding energy into the action, thus reducing the energy required from the spring.
If anything at all opening an assisted knife SLOWLY would actually hurt it because you are keeping tension on the spring at it's maximum.

It would appear that you forget this is not a perfect world and there are things like friction, and mass to account for. I can assure you if you flicked the knife open, you would NOT make the spring flex back to true faster than it would if it were outside of the knife, with no tension working against it.

It's not a question of the speed with which he is flicking it...
it is the repetition that is causing heat to build up in the spring, unnecessarily work-hardening the spring, causing premature brittleness.

 

[Morrow]

I've carried and used Speedsafe knives for many years. Off the top of my head, I can think of 2 Leeks and 2 Blurs that's I've opened countless times. Of the four, I replaced one torsion bar. I replaced it not because it broke but because it was sluggish and slow to open. When I need to use the knife I opened it and never felt the need to repeatedly open and close a knife just for the sake of doing it. I've also had two other Speedsafe knives, one Leek and and an import (I forget which one) that had torsion bars break with very little use. It's a spring about the diameter of piano wire...stuff happens sometimes.

 

[JakeSnake]

when mine broke they just sent me a new bar after I emailed them with a picture of the broken bar. The other guys are correct though. It is a tool and a tool should be taken care of and used correctly. It isnt a particularly expensive tool but still, if you sit there and flip anything open a million times, it's going to reach a stress limit and snap. So. if you're going to play with the knife you might be better off without a tortion bar. I ended up removing mine, drilling a detent hole in the blade and using it as a manual folder, It works just as well. Also, Im not a fan of assists.

Gentlemen, I completely agree that the current "growing up" and mid 20's generation are getting too used to everything being disposable and not really valuing really nice things. It's all about the next cool shit that comes out these days. I was taught to respect, and honor the things you have and they will last a lot longer, I thank my dad every day for those teachings.

 

[JakeSnake]

I dont know if they changed it or not, It happend to me when they first came out so maybe it was a wide spread issue that was a problem so they just sent it out instead of having to deal with the postage etc...every can can be different. I also called and kinda chatted with the guy a bit, so a bit of schmoozing and talking to the CS agent like they are nice people might have helped.

 

[Karda]

It's not a question of the speed with which he is flicking it...
it is the repetition that is causing heat to build up in the spring, unnecessarily work-hardening the spring, causing premature brittleness.

Thank You, Matt. You understand.

 

[Luis G.]

It's not a question of the speed with which he is flicking it...
it is the repetition that is causing heat to build up in the spring, unnecessarily work-hardening the spring, causing premature brittleness.

What temperature is needed to make a spring brittle? Last I checked something as low as 360 farenheit can destroy a spring's heat treatment but not make it brittle.

Honestly this sounds more like the spring was bad, than the user somehow managed to spring it to ends of life 10,000 times in a period of 1-2 months or managed to open it many times a second.

 

[JakeSnake]

I think mine was a manufarcturing defect. It snapped about 3 weeks after i got it and i didnt ever flick the hell out of it. I do have a leek that I have had for years and there has never been a problem. Who knows, sometimes they just break....but flicking it incessantly doesnt help.