I've had my para 3 for a few weeks now and overall I like it a lot. One thing I knew that I wanted to change from the get-go is the tip up carry. Coming from an endura I was quite used to tip down and wanted to give it a shot on the para. After going to Lowe's to get a T6 bit to remove the clip screws I noticed something strange. After I changed from tip up to tip down the action of the compression lock became very tight/stiff compared to what it was before. I figured that it has something to do with how tight I put in the screws so I backed them out a bit, to no avail. I took off the clip and put it back to the original tip up carry, then loosened the pivot a bit to get the action back to a free-dropping blade. Any ideas on why this might happen and why it stays like this even with the clip off/screws out? I'm guessing it has to do with the scales being compressed against the liner more but I'm not sure. Thanks.
-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Spyderco Para 3 Clip
- Thread starter behoff
- Start date
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2018
- Messages
- 289
Yep, you got it. Changing from tip up to tip down you may also need to adjust the pivot to get the action where you like it. That's also why I usually don't like a lot of aftermarket scales for the pm2 or para 3, micarta seems to be the worst but the small changes in tolerances can throw the action out of whack.
brando555
Appreciate the response. So will the stiffness work out over time or will I need to adjust the pivot if I want to change the clip? Also does it matter which side of the pivot that I screw to alleviate the stiffness? When I was playing with it earlier, I just loosened the side of the pivot the clip was on. Thanks.
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2018
- Messages
- 289
It may free up over time, I've found Spyderco's usually are a bit stiff but free up over time after breaking them in. Tweaking the pivot screw to the sweet spot won't hurt either. I usually tighten the clip side pivot all the way tight, and then use then tighten the show side pivot until the blade is centered. If you need to back it off a bit to get the centering and action where you want it a bit of blue loctite will come in handy. HTH!
I've already pretty much worked out the initial stiffness that came with the knife. I was more referring to the residual stiffness that trying to put the clip point down has left. Do you think that will work out over time or should I just adjust the pivot. I'm still a bit confused how just putting the clip in a different position made the knife stiff in the first place.
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2018
- Messages
- 289
Yeah I'd just adjust the pivot then. Out of all my pm2 and para 3s the action on a few of them can just be finnicky. I've heard of the clip screws actually being long enough to scrape the pb washers if tightened down far enough, sometimes it's just the play between the scales and nested liners that can upset the action too.
Well sadly I think I may have made the problem worse. After I had the problem with the stiff action from switching the clip I tried a few different configurations of the clip and seemed to have stripped the g10 scales threading. Two of the screw holes on the side I wanted to clip no longer have any purchase and instead spin freely inside of the threading. I will probably end up just keeping the clip in the orientation it originally came. A little disappointing considering I used a degree of force I thought was well within reason for doing this.