True Upgrade for Omega Spring

S

Shamurai

Joined
Mar 16, 2021
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Finally happened to my 940. The omega spring broke. Not a big deal, just got dropped at the post office for a trip home to Oregon City.

That being said, there are many posts here and elsewhere talking about aftermarket springs from etsy/ebay/amazon, that may feel thicker, or stiffer, or be heat treated differently.

Anyone out there know of a true upgrade - with some sort of solid reason why it's an upgrade or empirical evidence to back it up?

Thanks,
JD
 
Shamurai said:
Anyone out there know of a true upgrade - with some sort of solid reason why it's an upgrade or empirical evidence to back it up?
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Welcome to the forum.

You're not going to find any evidence that any aftermarket Omega spring is better than the stock one. None. I've had Benchmades were the Omega spring is going strong after a decade and another where the spring broke after a year.
 
There was a recent post here from someone who replaced springs. That person stated the replacement springs were stronger or something. That user considered them an upgrade.
 
I don't think you're going to find anything beyond "The spring tension feels higher when I pull back on the axis bar, therefore I think the lockup is better" sort of stuff.

Remember, Benchmade recommends against aftermarket springs, especially "stronger" ones with higher tension, and it's not because they're making money off of replacing broken springs for free. It's because their engineers have designed the lock for a certain spring tension and lockup, and gone through lifecycle analysis that most people wouldn't even think of. The Axis lock has been on the market for two decades, and millions of knives have been sold with it. If broken springs were really common like many insist, the lock would have been phased out a long time ago. I think it would be really interesting to see just how many broken springs Benchmade has repaired over the years, and what fraction of knives sold that would amount to. I'm sure they have that data, as well as the approximate age of the knife when the spring broke for all of their models and spring types, but it's definitely proprietary.
 
Man this is not rocket science just a pair of springs made of memory wires. $20 can get you like 10 pairs from the bay. I just got some for my 535-3. They look the same and feel the same as the BM factory ones. I don't foresee they break sooner and when they do, it will take just a few minutes to replace. Forget about shipping the knife to BM just for replacing a spring.
 
I don't see what advantage a stiffer spring offers. Once the lock is engaged there is no force directed against the spring. A stiffer spring would just make the action harder to operate.
 
I'd prefer less tension for the crossbar lock.

I hear Houge did a better job than BM on the crossbar. Hopefully my Deka (gen1) arrives tomorrow.
 
I have used, and am using, both Benchmade and "other" omega springs and while there are differences in the 2, I have no way of knowing which is will ultimately last longer. I use the "other" springs because I can buy them without sending my knife to Benchmade, no other reason.

I can say that the Benchmade are slightly thinner, but I don't have the measurements in front of me at this time.
The "other" springs I have do seem to offer slightly more resistance when pulling the Axis bar back to unlock, but I doubt you'd notice it if I didn't tell you.

One thing I have noticed is that the 'some' of my Benchmade springs do seem to darken and discolor (corrosion?) but I don't know if that contributes to making them weak or will eventually lead to breaking.
I have not seen any of my "other" springs become discolored yet.
 
I am curious if someone can provide more detail about where on the spring the failure point usually is. Is it randomly distributed or are there common points of failure people have found.
 
The three times the springs broke for me, were on 2 separate 940's ( twice on the standard 940 and once on the 940-2) and all three times were the "clip" side springs. They broke near the bottom of the big loop.

I have my suspicions as to why they gave me problems, but I stopped hard flicking them open and haven't broken any more Omega springs for over two years. However, I still like to fidget with them.
 
The omega spring breakage happened only once to me. It was a 535-3. The side and location were exactly the same as what C colin.p described above.
 
Looking for better springs for a Benchmade is a wild goose chase. I’d just use the factory ones, or stop carrying Benchmade. If I have to worry about the springs so much that I’m actively hunting for them, I would just carry something else.
 
Reswob said:
The aftermarket springs are "better" simply because you can order them shipped to your door, and fix your knife without having to send it back to BM and wait for their monkeys to do a simple repair.
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Pros and cons. If people start buying aftermarket springs, Benchmade has no way of doing a Pareto analysis for QC issues and doing things like making better springs or changing the design of the knife.
 
Reswob said:
The aftermarket springs are "better" simply because you can order them shipped to your door, and fix your knife without having to send it back to BM and wait for their monkeys to do a simple repair.
Click to expand...
"monkeys"? What manufacturers do you know that will ship you free parts to do your own warranty repairs?
 
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