Speedsafe and cold weather

Z

zdp189

Joined
Feb 14, 2007
Messages
274
My Kershaw Cryo (ironically enuf, given the name...) will not come even close to flipping open when its been left in the car overnight and is chilled down to about 32 degrees.

At a more normal temp, it flips open like nobody's business so I don't think there's any issues with the pivot being too tight, etc. I haven't fiddled with it at all either, it's 100% factory fresh. It won't flip open past the half-stop either using the flipper lever (if it can be called that) or using the thumb studs.

So my question is. Has anybody else experienced this "flaw" with their flipper? If so, which model? I may try leaving my 566 out in the cold tonight and trying the flipper on it tomorrow morn to see if it has this problem as well. (I'll post the results tomorrow).


Cheers
-Z
 
what kind of oil are you using, if any? Petroleum oils thicken when the temperature goes down, could be gumming up your knife. past that I don't have the slightest clue what it could be. :)
 
9blades said:
what kind of oil are you using, if any? Petroleum oils thicken when the temperature goes down, could be gumming up your knife. past that I don't have the slightest clue what it could be. :)
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Whatever Kershaw uses (?), it's 100% stock.

I tend to agree with you. What else would be affected by the cold in that way? It's not like it has rubber washers that stiffen up. It's dry as a bone too, so can't be moisture freezing up or expanding anything. Maybe the spring itself is affected by the cold?
 
No issues with my ZT 0350 at 0 degrees with a blistering cold -25 windchill.

I would expect the spring steel to be the likely culprit based on it working fine otherwise. How smooth is the action otherwise?
 
Kershaw started putting some heavy grease on the torsion bar and the recess that surrounds it to keep it from rattling when the knife was open. I suppose with the cold weather it's much more viscous? Open the knife up and take the scale off to espose the torsion bar and clean the grease off.

I've never really used my "Needs Work" in cold weather, but I'm heading out later and it's pretty coold out so I'll try it out.
 
My son didn't have any problems with the Scallion I gave him for Christmas, even right after unwrapping it. I gave it to him inside a gallon Ziploc bag filled with water that had been sitting in the freezer since last week. Snapped open nice and quick right after being chipped out.
 
Interesting. I got no idea as it rarely if ever gets that cold down here for more than a couple of hours on a freak cold front. Thank goodness as I can't stand the cold.

My guess and it's just a guess like mentioned above already.....is it would be that Chinese grease not handling cold well.
 
Hmm. Im leaving my wife's cryo outside tonight and trying it myself. Lets find out. It almost jumps out of her hand when its warm lol.
I will say I keep my little chive out in the cold all day today and it was not any different. And its not a smooth knife by any means and relies 100% on the torsion bar.
 
coldsteelrocks said:
Hmm. Im leaving my wife's cryo outside tonight and trying it myself. Lets find out. It almost jumps out of her hand when its warm lol.
I will say I keep my little chive out in the cold all day today and it was not any different. And its not a smooth knife by any means and relies 100% on the torsion bar.
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right on. Looking forward to the results. Thanks for conducting the experiment.
 
They have both been im my outdoor freezer for the past 35 minutes and my electronic temp reader says 17 degrees on both. Give me a minute..
The cryo has factory grease with a drop of rem oil. The Chive just got back from kershaw with the fresh usa oil.
 
The Rem oil did the trick. Mine was also very stiff when cold but worked fine warm. Few drops of Rem oil did the trick. It works better than most other gun oils that I have tried in cold weather.
 
KennyB said:
Kershaw started putting some heavy grease on the torsion bar and the recess that surrounds it to keep it from rattling when the knife was open. I suppose with the cold weather it's much more viscous? Open the knife up and take the scale off to espose the torsion bar and clean the grease off.

I've never really used my "Needs Work" in cold weather, but I'm heading out later and it's pretty coold out so I'll try it out.
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This is it exactly, if you've ever taken a speedsafe mechanism apart the recess is thick with grease which prevents rattle and operates fine at normal temps but when it gets cold it gets like tar.

You could clean out the grease and use a light coat of oil, that is if your comfortable taking it apart.

Another solution would be to warm it up in your pocket before opening it. Personally it's not a big deal of the assist is slow, in not in that big a rush to open a knife and if it is an issue like I said above, I'd just replace the grease with oil the next time I took it apart to clean it out just grab a different knife... That's just me though.

I used to have a thread on here somewhere about how to take apart a speedsafe...
 
also not only the grease in the torsion bar area but many times the washers use the same grease. Also while you dont have to worry about expansion contracting can take place. These knives are usually dialed in with very little room for temp changes. So if you tighten the pivot down in warm weather to have no blade play and still flip (aka the sweet spot) a change in temp can affect this. I would use a light oil on the pivot washers (I prefer quicken nano lube) and tuff glide grease on the torsion bar. Very little is needed to prevent rattle. In both cases less is more.
 
PURPLEDC said:
also not only the grease in the torsion bar area but many times the washers use the same grease. Also while you dont have to worry about expansion contracting can take place. These knives are usually dialed in with very little room for temp changes. So if you tighten the pivot down in warm weather to have no blade play and still flip (aka the sweet spot) a change in temp can affect this. I would use a light oil on the pivot washers (I prefer quicken nano lube) and tuff glide grease on the torsion bar. Very little is needed to prevent rattle. In both cases less is more.
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I think it's a bit easier to bit grease on the recess and parts of the nife that the torsion bar will bounce against to simply muffle the sound, rather than try to apply enough to stop the rattle completely.
 
I went outside this morning after leaving them both in my glove box and they both fire the same again, Im guessing that yours had buildup or crap grease in there. The rem oil with teflon I use never fails me on any knife.
 
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