starting to seriously hate the axis lock

Folderguy said:
They can have the warranty they want. To me it's basically a non-issue because when I buy a BM (I have three: the 930, 755 MPR, and the 910) I don't expect to ever send it back to them, unless something is simply defective out of the box, which is very unlikely.

When I read their warranty, I said to myself, "Oh well, this is basically worthless, if the blade chips or snaps or whatever, I'll just chuck it..."

To me, BMs are nice to look at, but don't even think about using them to open a soda can or something like that.

If you say they aren't designed for that, I'll agree with you, and tell you that my Cold Steel Recon 1 or Cold Steel Mini Lawman is WAY superior in the toughness category to any of my Benchmade knives... and I DO like the BMs...
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I do not agree with you on this. I have chipped a scale, snapped the tip off my Benchmade. Sent it in and they replaced it no questions asked.

On another note, a little research on this forum and others would have showed you how to take the knife apart and assemble it correctly. Personally I feel the Axis lock has proven itself. If it was so gimmicky then why has it lasted so long in the knife market? Because it works. It is one of the few locks that even if the springs would snap can still function in the field. You just push a piece of wood behind the bar and the lock will not budge or unlock. That cant be done with a liner, framelock, backlock, tri-adlock, what ever.

Now the truth is some people cannot take a knife apart and reassemble it, even with instructions. There are people that struggle to assemble a Sebenza, Vapor etc. Some of my friends cant figure out how a framelock works........and when they try to unlock it push it in......Now for me its logical, but I have asked them to explain their logic in why they do what they do and they cant....I dont know....If you do not have the skills to wok out how gears, locks etc works from just pictures, then dont try and take it apart.
 
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KennyB said:
I don't find it acceptable for their springs to wear out in a matter of months with any amount of usage. Maybe my standards are high, but I want to be able to open and close an AXIS lock a million times before I ever worry about a spring breaking.
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I had a BM that was over 10 years old, I carried and used it every day, with a lot of flicking for fun.

A low estimate after 10 years of use, 15,000 cycles.
Conservative estimate 43,800 cycles. (12 cycles per day)

I've NEVER had an omega spring break.

1 million cycles is 13,000+ cycles a YEAR if you start at age 0 and live till you're 76 (about average life expectancy for the U.S. male) 35.5 cycles per day.

starting at age 26, that's 20,000 cycles per year every year until you die. 54.8 cycles per day.

I'd really like to know what exactly is going wrong, I've got axis locks from many different years and have never encountered a bad spring.
EDIT: Benchmades warranty is top notch, they have sent me replacement clips and screws to me, no cost even after I told them it was me who stripped out the head of a screw, their support staff deals with knife nuts on a pretty regular basis (mostly those guys who get replacement clips, i think.)
 
marthinus said:
I do not agree with you on this. I have chipped a scale, snapped the tip off my Benchmade. Sent it in and they replaced it no questions asked.

On another note, a little research on this forum and others would have showed you how to take the knife apart and assemble it correctly. Personally I feel the Axis lock has proven itself. If it was so gimmicky then why has it lasted so long in the knife market? Because it works. It is one of the few locks that even if the springs would snap can still function in the field. You just push a piece of wood behind the bar and the lock will not budge or unlock. That cant be done with a liner, framelock, backlock, tri-adlock, what ever.

Now the truth is some people cannot take a knife apart and reassemble it, even with instructions. There are people that struggle to assemble a Sebenza, Vapor etc. Some of my friends cant figure out how a framelock works........and when they try to unlock it push it in......Now for me its logical, but I have asked them to explain their logic in why they do what they do and they cant....I dont know....If you do not have the skills to wok out how gears, locks etc works from just pictures, then dont try and take it apart.
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Since the time I wrote the post you quote, it has become clear to me in this thread that BM actually does provide very good if not excellent service. Their warranty language though is terrible. Some have suggested it's there for legal reasons. Be that as it may, it's definitely weenie language in my book. It's too bad it has taken so much time and trouble to find out they
Will stand behind their pruducts.

Thanks for your suggestions.
 
FWIW, Spyderco and Strider, and probably others, have very similar language and restrictions.
 
knarfeng said:
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I've never figured out why taking apart knives that are fully functional is so important.
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As soon as the blade starts to slow down due to gunk or whatever getting in the pivot area, I'll try a bit of the Slick 50 stuff with PFTE. Only problem is that stuff is so doggone slippery that once it gets on the scales and so on, it's a chore to "clean up" and so on. Soooooo.... that's the time to consider taking the knife apart and properly lubricating it. Every knife I've treated in this manner has, so far, become better and smoother functioning than it was brand new out of the box... YMMV.
 
I carry my Benchmade Axis lock knives in the placket of my shirt which is a severe corrosive environment especially in the summer. When my "action" slows down, I disassemble the knife and brush the rust off the blade, omega springs, lock plates, stops, spacers, washers, screws, and barrel slide. This sounds quite complicated, but the only problem is avoiding sticking yourself with the SS wire brush. I use pliers to hold the parts to avoid brush damage to my fingers. The process takes about twenty minutes if I spit out my gum. I don't lubricate the parts because I am always running water through the knife. I have never broken an omega spring. I have about a dozen Axis Benchmades.
 
I never had any issues with the Axis Lock except the annoying side play that some show straight out of the box (I am talking about side play in the Axis bar, not the blade, that makes releasing it from one side only a bit tricky).

BM warranty is pretty good, maybe not as good as Spyderco's or CRK but on the other hand they do send you small parts like missing screws or clips (Spyderco does not send out parts, whether you are paying them or not).

I changed the scales on all my Grips and on some of my 710s, I never needed to take the Axis lock apart, just removing the pivot and the liner screws is enough. I really can't imagine a situation where the Omega springs would wear out in a matter of months.
I also found that because BM uses a D-shaped pivot on most of their knives there is very little loosening of the pivot, I don't even bother using thread lock glues.

The only big mess I made disassembling a folder happened with a 913, that particular BM has two stop pins, one for the open position and one for the closed position. When I put it back together after cleaning I forgot to install the closed stop pin and the blade hit the stand-off the first time I snapped it closed, causing a major dent on the edge. And by then I could not find that missing pin. Always put your parts on a white cloth, or even better use a tray so that small pieces and screws don't roll and disappear.
 
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