Trident S2 handle disassembly?

Y

y2kwindsor

Joined
Oct 18, 2002
Messages
24
I have had a Trident for 11 years and I have not been afraid to use it. Since I moved to the hurricane-ravaged gulf coast, I have noticed that the blade rusts easily in this salt-water environment. I would like http://www.gunfinish.com/ to coat the blade. I would prefer to disassemble the knife prior to delivering it for coating.

I can easily remove the spanner nut on the end of the handle with my spannerbaby (http://www.phlaunt.com/atwoodknives/). However the stacked micarta washers do not appear to simply slide off. I do not want to damage the micarta. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Richard
 
The spanner nut is not supposed to be removed nor capable of being removed. It is supposed to be either soldered or glued in place. The micarta washers should also have been glued in place.

It is not meant to be disassembled and it is highly recommended not to disassemble. I can guarantee that the warranty would be termed "void" by doing so.
 
Hi Ron,

The spanner nut was loose in "94 and I simply tightened it and have had no problems since. I probably should have put loctite on the threads, but it held even when used for chopping (definately not the S2's strong suit, but it was all I had at the time).

I would really like to use this knife around salt water (boating and island camping) but I'm worried that salt water could seep into the inside of the hadle and corrode the tang. A corrosion-resistant coating on the steel parts would make salt-water exposure a non-issue for everything but the edge.

In your experience, has salt water corrosion ever been anything more than a cosmetic problem for tridents?

Thanks,
Richard
 
Hey Richard,

I think it should be fine without taking the knife apart. Let me explain my thought:
  • If you were to choose to keep the knife as a show piece, no need to take it apart.
  • If you were to choose to make it a workhorse (including saltwater diving, chopping, etc.), you assume the fact that you'll diminish the life of any knife and rough up its looks. Accordingly, taking it apart shouldn't be needed and whatever corrosion might happen is inconsequential to the overall life (a "shorted" life) of the knife and likely would be better than the consequences of taking it apart.
  • I've never seen a corroded Trident in my whole life (and I've seen hundreds of well used Tridents). So the AUS8 stainless steel is doing its anti-corrosion duty with honors.
Hope this has helped you out.

I'd also lock down that spanner nut. It's not suppose to be loose.
 
Thanks Ron.

The Trident still is a looker but has been pressed into hard service for such tasks as chopping through ice storm debris, batonning to split wood, and cutting wire. Some of the wire left very minor chips on the edge, but they easily sharpened out. Although my Trident has yet to see direct exposure to salt water, it has had surface rust spots on the blade. I should, however, point out that I have had VG-10, ATS-34, and S30V all rust in the same environments. Direct exposure to salt water will rust any of the above steels in less than 10 hours. AUS8 and S30V are my favorite "stainless" steels.

I will loctite the nut down.

Thanks again,
Richard
 
If you have them perform this process on your knife it will ruin the heat treatment and you will have a useless slab of soft stainless steel instead of a knife. Instead clean the knife often and even put some rust preventative on the blade.

Good luck.

Vince.
 
Cleaning and oiling your blade is the best thing you can do to prevent rust. You might even need to clean and oil it mid-point through your day/outing, depending on the harshness of the conditions you might be experiencing.

Now talking a little outside my knowledge, I know there are some pretty cool rust prevention chemicals out there. TufCloth (sp?) is one of them. You can search BFC to get specifics on rust prevention products. I know it's been talked about a lot.

Good luck.
 
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