Tight Para 2

knifephan

knifephan

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Joined
Mar 4, 2009
Messages
440
So I have 3 para 2's, an s90v CF, blue m390 and the orange CTS-XHP, not that the models makes much difference to my knowledge. Anyway, both the blue and the CF are nice and smooth, if I press the lock mechanism the blades will fall closed. The have both been this smooth since I got them. The orange one, however, is a lot tighter. pressing the lock release on it and sort of shaking the knife barely budges the blade. It is also noticeably tighter when opening with the thumb hole. What I want to know is, am I being over picky? I really want to love the orange one, it is my favorite color and I hate that it is nowhere close to as smooth as the other 2 knives. I have opened and closed it a ton trying to "break it in" as well as applied some fp-10 lube, nothing seems to loosen it. Thoughts?
 
Try loosening the pivot just a tad. Imagine you are looking at a clock, go from the 1:00 position back to the 12:00 lube it again and work the blade open and closed. Sometimes the lube can be thick and if the pivot is too tight it won't get in there. Repeat the process till you get the desired result. After it breaks in, you may find yourself tightening it back up. For me, half the fun of owning a knife is tuning it and sharpening it. Also check the screw tightness on the scales... Mine came with loose scales and an over tightened pivot...

Best of luck
 
Wash it, WD-40 the crap outta the pivot and then hit it with the air gun and wipe off any excess junk. Once it's squeeky clean add a little lube to the pivot. This has worked for me in the past. Hope it helps.
 
dcmartin said:
Try loosening the pivot just a tad. Imagine you are looking at a clock, go from the 1:00 position back to the 12:00 lube it again and work the blade open and closed. Sometimes the lube can be thick and if the pivot is too tight it won't get in there. Repeat the process till you get the desired result. After it breaks in, you may find yourself tightening it back up. For me, half the fun of owning a knife is tuning it and sharpening it. Also check the screw tightness on the scales... Mine came with loose scales and an over tightened pivot...

Best of luck
Click to expand...

I should have mentioned, I tried loosening the pivot a tad at a time until there was blade play, even then it is tight, to tight to let close with gravity. The lube I have is nice and thin, it actually came out the pivot screw some when I was loosening it. There is some dark grey/black stuff that came out with it, but mostly it seems pretty clean. I took the blade out and looked, nothing looked deformed, but I haven't taken either of my other PM2s apart.
 
WHen you put it back together, put the pivot screw in first , get it ever so slightly snug then back off 1/4 turn. Now put your scale screws in, snug them slightly then back them off 1/4 turn as well. All of the screws should be about 1/4 turn from from being snug and the blade should have a fair amount of side to side play when closed. At this point you should have very little resistance dropping the lade when you pinch the compression lock closed..... Your blade should drop freely. If it does not look for rough or unfinished sections at the contact points where the blade touches the washers and where the washers touch the liners. Make sure none of the washers are bent.

If The blade does drop freely, snug the pivot screw up just enough for it to drop 1/4 to 1/2 way then snug up the scale screws. Frome here on its just finding how titnor loose you want the pivot.
 
dcmartin said:
WHen you put it back together, put the pivot screw in first , get it ever so slightly snug then back off 1/4 turn. Now put your scale screws in, snug them slightly then back them off 1/4 turn as well. All of the screws should be about 1/4 turn from from being snug and the blade should have a fair amount of side to side play when closed. At this point you should have very little resistance dropping the lade when you pinch the compression lock closed..... Your blade should drop freely. If it does not look for rough or unfinished sections at the contact points where the blade touches the washers and where the washers touch the liners. Make sure none of the washers are bent.

If The blade does drop freely, snug the pivot screw up just enough for it to drop 1/4 to 1/2 way then snug up the scale screws. Frome here on its just finding how titnor loose you want the pivot.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I think that did it. I tore the entire thing apart again, cleaned it again and put it back like you detailed. It now swings shut easily. It has ever so slight amount of blade play when locked open, but it is very very minor. I think I can live with it, if not I can go back to my original plan of buying another one and gifting this one to someone. I was actually surprised how much dirt was back in there after I had it apart last time, but I got new lube, maybe it stripped off something that was missed the first time around. I think the main cause may be the lock bar on this one, it seems to be a LOT harder to press than the other 2 paras I have. Not sure if it will loosen some over time or not, it just feels like it needs more pressure to let the blade swing free.

Thanks again for the help.
 
Awesome! Glad I could help..... Work that pivot for the next week and see if it loosens up some more. If it doesn't free up a bit more, give me a shout and I'll walk you thru another (different) process
 
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