Recommendation? Spyderco Warranty

S

SwearImNotASynth

Joined
Oct 22, 2024
Messages
4
So I’ll preface this by saying that I was referred to post this here in hopes that someone at Spyderco would see it and possibly shed some light on this ordeal. I will try and be more accurate in the actual problem as I was downvoted out the ass initially for being unclear in my post. If you want to read that whole debacle, it’s here: https://www.reddit.com/r/spyderco/s/1hS8nTgGLt

Here we go, I purchased a Drunken second hand on knife swap a year, year and a half ago. The original owner (knife god on the swap and I believe has his own shop) cerakoted the clip, backspacer, and hardware. I was told the lock insert and face was protected. With the modification aspect out of the way, I absolutely love the knife. I read how the stock clip isn’t quite the best and agreed with that assessment so I purchased an A. Purvis clip which made the feel of the knife seem on a whole new level. This was about the time I really started purchasing more knives and growing my collection so the Drunken was more or less in a rotation at this point. When the Drunken was actually in rotation, I started to notice that I was having lock failure when I’d use the knife. Disassembled and reassembled quite a few trying to see the issue but to no avail. I was ready to send the knife in for warranty so I put the stock clip back on to send it and it went back to being as it was before I swapped clips. I assumed maybe the Purvis clip was changing the tension on the lockbar so I then purchased a milled Lynch clip for it seeing how it sits completely off of the lockbar. I installed it and had the same exact issue as the Purvis. I went back to the stock clip and it started locking up again but seemed a lot weaker than I remembered and was having more failures than ever before. As it stands now, both of the aftermarket clips makes the knife fail about 90% of the time, the stock clip makes it fail maybe 10% of the time, and with no clip on at all it fails 100% of the time. To expound on me saying lock failure, I can completely open the knife, the lockbar moves into position as it should but it’s like the damn thing is in an oil slick once it touches the blade. If I put any amount of pressure at all on the spine of the blade it will close. I never noticed any sort of rock or play in the blade at all at any point of me having it when it would actually lock up. I sent the knife in and it was received on the 9th of this month, got a letter in the mail on the 21st reading as follows:

Greetings from Golden, Colorado!

We are happy to see that your knife has been put to good use. We regret to inform you that your C235 CFTIP DRUNKEN has an issue that unfortunately is not a warranty issue and cannot be repaired. Because you are a valued Spyderco customer, we would like to extend a special offer to you.

You will have a choice of one of the following options:
  1. As a current owner of a Spyderco product, you can take a one-time discount of 45% off of MSRP on any one Spyderco product based on the product availablity seen on our online catalog at Spyderco.com (sorry, exclusives and coming soon items are not available for purchase with the discount). If you choose this option, your knife will be destroyed or forwarded to our Research and Development department for study.
  2. We can return your original item to you in the same condition we received it.
Please be advised we recommend you retire this item to prevent any loss or injury that may occur from its malfunctioning.

Please keep in mind we are unable to give you a monetary refund for your knife.

You can either contact us at 303-279-8383, ext 3, or ext 230, or you can complete the form below and fax or mail it back to us. In addition you MUST contact Spyderco Warranty directly, this is not valid through the Factory Outlet Store or your local dealer.

If we do not hear from you by 11/15/24, we will return your original knife to you with no further option for replacement Thank you for your continued support of Spyderco Knives and Accessories and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best Regards,

Spyderco Warranty and Repair

I’m at a loss for words on this matter. I understand that the knife was technically modified, but it seems like it’s a mechanical issue with the lock and not something that was aided by me swapping clips or the original owner cerakoting parts. I almost feel like me taking the 45% off of MSRP on a new Drunken will put me in a deficit seeing how they’d keep my knife. For them to recommend I retire the knife if I choose to have it returned also seems off. At this point, I feel like I’m in a corner. I don’t have my knife, potentially have to fork over another wad of cash if I want it replaced, or deal with a knife that they state will cause loss or injury. I still don’t even know what the damn issue is. Again, I’m a newbie when it comes to the grand scheme of the knife world, but I was really hoping for the Drunken to be the first of many Spydercos I’d own and this situation has soured that idea. I apologize for the lengthy post, I’m just trying to be as concise as possible.
 
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I hope you get answers to your satisfaction, but I certainly understand Spyderco wanting the knife retired if it is failing that often and not something covered under warranty, and after being disassembled by you multiple times.

Spyderco is admittedly my favorite brand of folder so I may be a bit biased.
 
Hackenslash said:
Just to clarify, the backspacer and the hardware are still Cerakoted? I’d be suspicious of that effect on the knife tolerances.
Click to expand...
Yes, it’s currently in their hands in that state. Cerakote supposedly adds about .006” to the surface, so .012” total for the backspacer. I don’t know shit about fuck when it comes to how the tolerances stack up and effect a blade as nuanced as that one.
 
I'm in before this one goes south..

I'd personally ask them to send it back and then fix it myself. I totally get when manufacturers don't want to warranty something that's been altered and they could be liable. Happens in my trade from time to time. My personality is I'd rather just fix it myself right then argue for someone else to fix it maybe right maybe not right.

I'd be disassembling it and maybe looking at the lock faces. Do they need squared up or something with a hone? Do you need to bend the lock bar more for more tension?
 
elevator man said:
Don't assume the previous owner didn't already screw with something to "make it better". He could've messed with bending the lock bar or messed with the face of the lock.
Click to expand...
I mean, I suppose he could have, but I’d like to think he’d tell me if he did. Fairly sure he has a custom knife shop and does mod work. Feel like he’d have reputation to lose if he did something shady so to speak
 
SwearImNotASynth said:
So I’ll preface this by saying that I was referred to post this here in hopes that someone at Spyderco would see it and possibly shed some light on this ordeal. I will try and be more accurate in the actual problem as I was downvoted out the ass initially for being unclear in my post. If you want to read that whole debacle, it’s here: https://www.reddit.com/r/spyderco/s/1hS8nTgGLt

Here we go, I purchased a Drunken second hand on knife swap a year, year and a half ago. The original owner (knife god on the swap and I believe has his own shop) cerakoted the clip, backspacer, and hardware. I was told the lock insert and face was protected. With the modification aspect out of the way, I absolutely love the knife. I read how the stock clip isn’t quite the best and agreed with that assessment so I purchased an A. Purvis clip which made the feel of the knife seem on a whole new level. This was about the time I really started purchasing more knives and growing my collection so the Drunken was more or less in a rotation at this point. When the Drunken was actually in rotation, I started to notice that I was having lock failure when I’d use the knife. Disassembled and reassembled more times than I can count trying to see the issue but to no avail. I was ready to send the knife in for warranty so I put the stock clip back on to send it and it went back to being as it was before I swapped clips. I assumed maybe the Purvis clip was changing the tension on the lockbar so I then purchased a milled Lynch clip for it seeing how it sits completely off of the lockbar. I installed it and had the same exact issue as the Purvis. I went back to the stock clip and it started locking up again but seemed a lot weaker than I remembered and was having more failures than ever before. As it stands now, both of the aftermarket clips makes the knife fail about 90% of the time, the stock clip makes it fail maybe 10% of the time, and with no clip on at all it fails 100% of the time. To expound on me saying lock failure, I can completely open the knife, the lockbar moves into position as it should but it’s like the damn thing is in an oil slick once it touches the blade. If I put any amount of pressure at all on the spine of the blade it will close. I never noticed any sort of rock or play in the blade at all at any point of me having it when it would actually lock up. I sent the knife in and it was received on the 9th of this month, got a letter in the mail on the 21st reading as follows:

Greetings from Golden, Colorado!

We are happy to see that your knife has been put to good use. We regret to inform you that your C235 CFTIP DRUNKEN has an issue that unfortunately is not a warranty issue and cannot be repaired. Because you are a valued Spyderco customer, we would like to extend a special offer to you.

You will have a choice of one of the following options:
  1. As a current owner of a Spyderco product, you can take a one-time discount of 45% off of MSRP on any one Spyderco product based on the product availablity seen on our online catalog at Spyderco.com (sorry, exclusives and coming soon items are not available for purchase with the discount). If you choose this option, your knife will be destroyed or forwarded to our Research and Development department for study.
  2. We can return your original item to you in the same condition we received it.
Please be advised we recommend you retire this item to prevent any loss or injury that may occur from its malfunctioning.

Please keep in mind we are unable to give you a monetary refund for your knife.

You can either contact us at 303-279-8383, ext 3, or ext 230, or you can complete the form below and fax or mail it back to us. In addition you MUST contact Spyderco Warranty directly, this is not valid through the Factory Outlet Store or your local dealer.

If we do not hear from you by 11/15/24, we will return your original knife to you with no further option for replacement Thank you for your continued support of Spyderco Knives and Accessories and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best Regards,

Spyderco Warranty and Repair

I’m at a loss for words on this matter. I understand that the knife was technically modified, but it seems like it’s a mechanical issue with the lock and not something that was aided by me swapping clips or the original owner cerakoting parts. I almost feel like me taking the 45% off of MSRP on a new Drunken will put me in a deficit seeing how they’d keep my knife. For them to recommend I retire the knife if I choose to have it returned also seems off. At this point, I feel like I’m in a corner. I don’t have my knife, potentially have to fork over another wad of cash if I want it replaced, or deal with a knife that they state will cause loss or injury. I still don’t even know what the damn issue is. Again, I’m a newbie when it comes to the grand scheme of the knife world, but I was really hoping for the Drunken to be the first of many Spydercos I’d own and this situation has soured that idea. I apologize for the lengthy post, I’m just trying to be as concise as possible.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a lockbar tension issue to me. Because the Drunken had a known complaint about the stock pocket clip being “too tight” and pressing against the lockbar, making it hard to clip or remove from pockets; I suspect the stock clip pressure against the lockbar helps to “lock up” your knife 90% of the time. And that’s why, without the stock clip on, it fails. Particularly when you said the Lynch clip actually sits off the lockbar.

So, firstly I would contact Spyderco to clarify what is the “issue that unfortunately is not a warranty issue” with your knife. If it is because the knife had been modified, they would be within their rights to deny warranty.

If so, then ask for the knife to be returned (you may or may not want to take the 45% discount off Spyderco’s MSRP, which is actually not much different from shop retail prices), and try to do some lock bar adjustment yourself by pushing it in very slight increments towards the show side. A bit of trial and error required, I guess.
 
Somebody messed up the knife. You or the guy you bought it from. Why should Spyderco have to pay for that? It makes no sense. They are going out of their way to be nice about it and that apparently isn't enough for you. You already know all this yet you have to try to whip up bad feelings for a company who isn't at fault. What does that say about you?
 
The Mastiff said:
Somebody messed up the knife. You or the guy you bought it from. Why should Spyderco have to pay for that? It makes no sense. They are going out of their way to be nice about it and that apparently isn't enough for you. You already know all this yet you have to try to whip up bad feelings for a company who isn't at fault. What does that say about you?
Click to expand...
Maybe, I’m not expecting them to pay for it if that’s the case, but they’re not saying that. So they’re being nice by keeping my knife for R&D and giving me 45% off MSRP which is damn near the same price that I could get it for at BHQ? I don’t know if I’d call that nice. Already know all of what though? That the knife has been modified? Yeah, technically, but to me, cerakoted hardware shouldn’t affect the lockup. Bad feelings about a company? I don’t think I’d go that far, just saying that I, personally, don’t think I’ll be buying another Spyderco. Don’t get your mastiffs in a bunch.
 
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SwearImNotASynth said:
I mean, I suppose he could have, but I’d like to think he’d tell me if he did. Fairly sure he has a custom knife shop and does mod work. Feel like he’d have reputation to lose if he did something shady so to speak
Click to expand...
send it to him and get him to fix it. since he's a knife modder. sounds from what ive read here like he dumped his problem modded knife on you.......
 
Any knife I buy is assumed to be disposable. If I can't cope with a certain knife possibly failing, wearing out, getting lost, and being a total loss then it is too expensive for me to be buying in the first place. I try not to rely on a warranty because most the time you have to meet certain criteria or you are denied anyways. Kershaw may be the exception to the rule, I have used their customer service a handful of times for spare parts and I hear they are good about replacing blades and fixing knives, or replacing it entirely if unfixable. A Leatherman group I'm a part of seems to have stories of tools being replaced with little hesitation, though with companies like these you have to assume this is adjusted into the purchase price. I personally would rather have Spyderco lower prices and offer zero warranty and put those savings into higher quality control than have to ship a knife miles away just so it can be denied warranty and lose out on shipping costs and possibly my knife.
 
S SwearImNotASynth
What is your expectation?
Did you expect them to pull a brand new Drunken out of stock for you?
For knife you acquired secondhand and modified?

How much bench time & materials cost were you expecting them to commit to a knife that’s been used and modified by a previous owner?

IMO under the conditions, Spyderco is being a good steward. 45% off MSRP is about 25% off MAP. As a consumer and knife enthusiast, I can understand how that might feel like a sting for an expensive knife. But what are your expectations considering you acquired a used and modified knife?
 
Spyderco's Warranty section on their website has this:

✓ Spyderco’s warranty only applies to original, unaltered Spyderco components. Aftermarket parts and accessories added to your knife are not covered by our warranty, nor are Spyderco components that have been altered or modified in any way. If, in Spyderco’s sole determination, the installation of an aftermarket part or the modification of an original Spyderco factory part compromised the proper mechanical function of the knife in any way, the knife is no longer covered by warranty.

The above is pretty clear and you knew the knife was modified by the previous seller. Go back to him and tell him the situation and see what he will do. If he does nothing then you know not to do business with him again. You stated you are new to knives and it is unfortunate how this is playing out, but I really don't think you have a legitimate issue with Spyderco.
 
If the clip's pressure is making it lock better, I'd assume the lock bar is lacking tension and just bend it in myself. Since the warranty is already "void", might be worth a try if you get it back.
 
SwearImNotASynth said:
Fairly sure he has a custom knife shop and does mod work. Feel like he’d have reputation to lose if he did something shady
Click to expand...

And yet, he sold you a knife that turned out to be flawed. Why not ask HIM for a refund?

Bottom line is, any jamoke can put together a little shop in his mom's basement and call himself a blade smith. Seriously. Look at the amateurish work some guys churn out.
 
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