- Joined
- Apr 29, 2002
- Messages
- 1,273
I've owned a SOG Mini Autoclip for two months, and I love it. It's small and light, and the clip is really nifty.
However, I was just playing around with it, putting a slight closing pressure on the blade to see if it would close. Surprise, surprise, it closes on me. I realize I shouldn't have had my fingers in the way, but that's where they were. Good thing my had was choked up far enough that only the unsharpened little protrusion squashed my index finger.
I tried to reproduce the conditions that led to the lock failure (this time with my hand out of the way!
) I figured out that it happened very easily. The amount of pressure I used was roughly equal to that when you're trying to cut a thick steak with a dull steak knife that you always find at restaurants (but I was applying it to the non-bladed side, of course).
I had just applied some Tuf-Glide to the pivot, so I'll assume it got onto the locking face and the locking pin. It's too bad that I didn't test for lock failure *BEFORE* I applied the Tuf-Glide, so I won't know if it really was the lubricant that's causing it to fail.
I did some searching and found out that lockbacks can fail if there's crud in the mechanism, so I tried removing the stuff I could see, with a toothpick and a cloth. This didn't help the blade stay open while under pressure, so I think I'll have to remove the Tuf-Glide somehow. I think I'll need to take it off of the locking pin, so I might have to remove the blade. Ron, can I safely take off the two screws in the pivot? I just hope to reassemble the knife afterwards, and not have a mess of washers to align.
Question for fellow forumites: Is this a common failure among lockbacks? I seem to get the impression that lockbacks are perceived to be stronger and less prone to failure than linerlocks. It'd be great if someone with an Autoclip could try out the constant pressure test. (Be careful though!!!)
However, I was just playing around with it, putting a slight closing pressure on the blade to see if it would close. Surprise, surprise, it closes on me. I realize I shouldn't have had my fingers in the way, but that's where they were. Good thing my had was choked up far enough that only the unsharpened little protrusion squashed my index finger.
I tried to reproduce the conditions that led to the lock failure (this time with my hand out of the way!
) I figured out that it happened very easily. The amount of pressure I used was roughly equal to that when you're trying to cut a thick steak with a dull steak knife that you always find at restaurants (but I was applying it to the non-bladed side, of course).I had just applied some Tuf-Glide to the pivot, so I'll assume it got onto the locking face and the locking pin. It's too bad that I didn't test for lock failure *BEFORE* I applied the Tuf-Glide, so I won't know if it really was the lubricant that's causing it to fail.
I did some searching and found out that lockbacks can fail if there's crud in the mechanism, so I tried removing the stuff I could see, with a toothpick and a cloth. This didn't help the blade stay open while under pressure, so I think I'll have to remove the Tuf-Glide somehow. I think I'll need to take it off of the locking pin, so I might have to remove the blade. Ron, can I safely take off the two screws in the pivot? I just hope to reassemble the knife afterwards, and not have a mess of washers to align.
Question for fellow forumites: Is this a common failure among lockbacks? I seem to get the impression that lockbacks are perceived to be stronger and less prone to failure than linerlocks. It'd be great if someone with an Autoclip could try out the constant pressure test. (Be careful though!!!)
