UK Pen Knife

[HornyToad]

I bought the original UK Pen Knife with the S30V steel and G10 scales. It has very strong detents. I bought the new cheaper one with fiberglass scales and the detents are noticeably weaker. Is this by design? I prefer the stronger detents. Feels more secure, obviously.

 

[yablanowitz]

They have designed a new spring for those that will give a stronger snap. I don't know if they will be available for retrofitting yours, though. Sal posted that on the original, they had to use a blade steel for the spring because the vanadium carbides in the S30V blade would wear the springs out too quickly. Those springs were not easy to make, and there have been several instances of them breaking in normal use. When they went to a different steel for the FRN version, they were able to use a more conventional spring, but it doesn't have the snap that the original had.

 

[HornyToad]

The spring on my orginal knife broke just like you mentioned. I sent it back and they did replace the spring. The detent feel was the same before and after the replacement. I thought maybe the G10 being a stouter material was the reason. Maybe it is was tighter because they expected the spring to wear down and make the detent lighter.

 

[yablanowitz]

I think the stronger snap on the originals is just the result of the harder steel and specific heat-treatment they had to use to make it work. The FRN model uses a different steel, both for the blade and the spring, and with the lower hard carbide volume in the new blades, the springs don't have to be as hard either. The result is a softer snap with less spring breakage. I saw in the Amsterdam report where they designed a new spring for the FRN version because you aren't the only one who like the stronger snap of the original.