The AXIS Lock springs and I

M

Mephtyrm

Joined
Jan 23, 2011
Messages
245
Around May of this year I got a 746 for my birthday, and about 3 days later one of the AXIS lock springs broke on me.
Since with only one omega spring the lock's detent is practically nonexistent and unsafe, I returned it to the store I bought it from and got a new one.
That knife had a spring break in about 1 or 2 weeks, and this time I couldn't do anything with the store because they only exchange once.
I proceeded to do something I never ever wanted to do; I sent a knife in for warranty.
That is the nails on a chalkboard when it comes to knives with me, due to bad luck or manufacturing completely out of my control
I have to to pay to send it in, risk losing it in transit, and not have the knife bought at full retail price to have in person for several days.

It came back and the springs were ok.

Not for long.
In a week or so one of the springs failed again, and my dad this time refused to send it out;
So this time the one spring had enough detent to not fall due to the blade's weight this time, and so I have been using the 746 with one spring and worsening detent for 5 months.
Aaaaaaand it broke yesterday, and the knife is functionally dead; I'm not using the lock freaking manually, I'm not gonna be sending the damn thing in.
Why won't the lock last more than a year? Why?
I believe a knife shouldn't have to be sent in more than once.
I'm not knocking the quality; the tolerances are so good that it has centers perfectly when the pivot screw is taken out.
Why can't Benchmade send me the parts free of charge like Kershaw or Spyderco?

I don't know what to do. Chinese copies(some rumor they're actually licensed, whatever) have lasted more than 2 years with a single spring failure.
Yes I have to compare them. Why does the original American made product have less length of life than the Chinese copy?
I'll probably send it in for the damn springs to be fixed, but there's a good chance the thing ain't going out of a drawer for a long time instead.
 
Not saying you are lieing but you must be extraordinarily unlucky x 10 for that to happen.

I agree it would be nice if they had the option to send you an omega spring if one breaks instead of having to send the entire knife in. Replacing the silly little spring is not rocket surgery, you just pop a scale off, slip curved end over axis bar and pop the other end in the little hole and you're done....
 
Mephtyrm said:
Around May of this year I got a 746 for my birthday, and about 3 days later one of the AXIS lock springs broke on me.
Since with only one omega spring the lock's detent is practically nonexistent and unsafe, I returned it to the store I bought it from and got a new one.
That knife had a spring break in about 1 or 2 weeks, and this time I couldn't do anything with the store because they only exchange once.
I proceeded to do something I never ever wanted to do; I sent a knife in for warranty.
That is the nails on a chalkboard when it comes to knives with me, due to bad luck or manufacturing completely out of my control
I have to to pay to send it in, risk losing it in transit, and not have the knife bought at full retail price to have in person for several days.

It came back and the springs were ok.

Not for long.
In a week or so one of the springs failed again, and my dad this time refused to send it out;
So this time the one spring had enough detent to not fall due to the blade's weight this time, and so I have been using the 746 with one spring and worsening detent for 5 months.
Aaaaaaand it broke yesterday, and the knife is functionally dead; I'm not using the lock freaking manually, I'm not gonna be sending the damn thing in.
Why won't the lock last more than a year? Why?
I believe a knife shouldn't have to be sent in more than once.
I'm not knocking the quality; the tolerances are so good that it has centers perfectly when the pivot screw is taken out.
Why can't Benchmade send me the parts free of charge like Kershaw or Spyderco?

I don't know what to do. Chinese copies(some rumor they're actually licensed, whatever) have lasted more than 2 years with a single spring failure.
Yes I have to compare them. Why does the original American made product have less length of life than the Chinese copy?
I'll probably send it in for the damn springs to be fixed, but there's a good chance the thing ain't going out of a drawer for a long time instead.
Click to expand...

Not to flame you, but I have owned over a dozen Axis lock Benchmades through the years (going back to the introduction in 1999). I have never had an omega spring break. Ever. My 710 that I bought in 1999/2000 and sold in 2011 never had a spring break, and never had a spring replaced. The multiple mini-Griptilians, the Rifts, Contego, mini-Barrages Admas Presidio, etc. that I've owned functioned flawlessly. Even the 746 my son had for a while worked exactly as it should. I know some folks have had it happen, but when it happens to the same person multiple times and never to others, I'm inclined to look at the knife handling habits of the user. How often do you flick it open & closed each day? Do you do it when bored and don't even notice how much you do it (like twiddling a pencil between your fingers)?
 
loonybin said:
Not to flame you, but I have owned over a dozen Axis lock Benchmades through the years (going back to the introduction in 1999). I have never had an omega spring break. Ever. My 710 that I bought in 1999/2000 and sold in 2011 never had a spring break, and never had a spring replaced. The multiple mini-Griptilians, the Rifts, Contego, mini-Barrages Admas Presidio, etc. that I've owned functioned flawlessly. Even the 746 my son had for a while worked exactly as it should. I know some folks have had it happen, but when it happens to the same person multiple times and never to others, I'm inclined to look at the knife handling habits of the user. How often do you flick it open & closed each day? Do you do it when bored and don't even notice how much you do it (like twiddling a pencil between your fingers)?
Click to expand...

This ^^^ :thumbup:

Also, sounds like you need to contact Benchmades warranty and repair department for guidance. They keep records of all repair work and if your knife was previously sent in for this same issue they might cover the shipping.
 
I'd say I flicked it quite a lot.
A thing I'd like to say is that I don't have a ton of knives so I tend to flick the few I have immensely unlike a lot of other people who have dozens of knives and thus
the amount of flicking is spread out much more.
Yes I flicked it quite a lot. I had read so many threads where people said they'd flicked Axis lock knives tens of thousands of times without a single spring failure
 
I've had my 730 Ares since it was new back in '01, 12 years and no omega spring failure.

I'm not saying this was your problem but I remember reading that because the spring was not SS what happens is that any moisture promotes rust, even if you clean it if you miss a spot that little spot of trust weakens the integrity of the spring and eventually the constant flexing of the omega spring causes it to break.

Again I bought the first gen 730 12 years ago and it still works great, (knock on wood).
 
I bought one of the first 710s sold and have bought scores of Axis knives since then.

Two of my 710s probably have well over a million (1,000,000,000) cycles on them over the last 15 years.

I have never had a single spring break.

I am sure they do, but if yours are breaking as you report, you need to look into exorcism or something similar...

BEBrewster said:
I don't buy this story.
Click to expand...

Redmasta said:
Not saying you are lieing but you must be extraordinarily unlucky x 10 for that to happen.

I agree it would be nice if they had the option to send you an omega spring if one breaks instead of having to send the entire knife in. Replacing the silly little spring is not rocket surgery, you just pop a scale off, slip curved end over axis bar and pop the other end in the little hole and you're done....
Click to expand...

loonybin said:
Not to flame you, but I have owned over a dozen Axis lock Benchmades through the years (going back to the introduction in 1999). I have never had an omega spring break. Ever. My 710 that I bought in 1999/2000 and sold in 2011 never had a spring break, and never had a spring replaced. The multiple mini-Griptilians, the Rifts, Contego, mini-Barrages Admas Presidio, etc. that I've owned functioned flawlessly. Even the 746 my son had for a while worked exactly as it should. I know some folks have had it happen, but when it happens to the same person multiple times and never to others, I'm inclined to look at the knife handling habits of the user. How often do you flick it open & closed each day? Do you do it when bored and don't even notice how much you do it (like twiddling a pencil between your fingers)?
Click to expand...
 
I have read that flicking a knife open repeatedly can heat up the springs which causes them to get weak and break, just like if you bend a wire back and forth. I'm not actually sure it's true, but if it is, it could be the reason that some last tens of thousands or more over several years and some last only a few thousand over a couple weeks.
 
Count me in as well, I have not had an Omega spring break on me either. The oldest Benchmade i had is a mini grip from about 8 years ago, purchased new by me and the springs are still solid to this day. The knife is also used every day by a friend that now owns it.
 
Brian_R170 said:
I have read that flicking a knife open repeatedly can heat up the springs which causes them to get weak and break, just like if you bend a wire back and forth. I'm not actually sure it's true, but if it is, it could be the reason that some last tens of thousands or more over several years and some last only a few thousand over a couple weeks.
Click to expand...

I don't know...I've followed the debates about magazine springs for 20 years. (That's 20,000 years to you ;) ) The general conclusion seems to be that what wears springs is the compress-decompress cycle. I'm not sure whether there's any heat associated with normal room-temp cycles, at least at any rate a human being, rather than a machine could manage? That's a guess.
 
Pictures of the spring breaks?

1 million cycles divided by three years is around 180 cycles per day.... I call that pretty crazy if true.

I'm one of the guys that had a single EDC for over a decade at 2-2.5% of 1,000,000 without a failure, I also carry a first production 710 with no signs of even weak springs.

I'll take you at your word, it sounds like you have a lemon. Call Benchmade and ask if they will RMA the knife.
 
We're talking 15 years...and I flick them while I walk the dogs and watch TV, average ~40/minute.

Skimo said:
Pictures of the spring breaks?

1 million cycles divided by three years is around 180 cycles per day.... I call that pretty crazy if true.

I'm one of the guys that had a single EDC for over a decade at 2-2.5% of 1,000,000 without a failure, I also carry a first production 710 with no signs of even weak springs.

I'll take you at your word, it sounds like you have a lemon. Call Benchmade and ask if they will RMA the knife.
Click to expand...
 
Yeah... I've flicked my Benchmades sooo many times( can't even count). I have never had any problems. Of any kind. These were Chinese knockoffs you say?
 
I have seen threads like this before.
Given my own experience and the experiences of other BM axis lock owners.
I find that though an axis spring failure can occur.
It is highly unlikely that most individuals will ever experience this phenomenon once in their lifetime.
So, 2-3 times in a row with the same knife?
We're definitely missing something here.
 
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