Utterly Disappointed with New Kershaw/Emerson Line's Construction

[Nomo4me]

Ok well I guess I'm an exception to the rule then? I like to be able to take apart my knives and clean them up/tinker with them. Whether they are cheap or expensive makes no difference to me. I have a Kershaw Zing Tanto that I stripped of all its thread locker, never put more on, and it has been performing just fine for years, so I just see no reason for them to use such a strong thread locker and so much of it on their knives. I guess that's true that they are marketing it to people who will never ever bother to even care what kind of stand-offs are being used, or want to thoroughly clean it every once in a while.

Maybe Kershaw built this low $$ knife to hold together for folks that are going to use them, subject them to vibrations in blue collar working enviros, etc.

If you return this knife having admitted that you ruined it cosmetically by your hamhanded engineering student ministrations you are showing very poor morals by my sense of right and wrong.

 

[EZhotshot511]

Alright well I haven't returned the knife yet and I probably wont (might try to find some torx hardware for it). Please explain to me how I can break this thread locker more easily. I dont intent to stop buying kershaws and I dont intend to stop taking my knives apart either. If there is an easy way to defeat this stuff please advise.

 

[josephrogers]

Heat like a hair dryer or an inexpensive little soldering iron put right into the screw will usually be enough to break the screw free with little force.

 

[Popsickle]

Alright well I haven't returned the knife yet and I probably wont (might try to find some torx hardware for it). Please explain to me how I can break this thread locker more easily. I dont intent to stop buying kershaws and I dont intend to stop taking my knives apart either. If there is an easy way to defeat this stuff please advise.

Soldering iron to the screws. Don't over do it but get them hot enough and it should make the thread locker loosen. That being said.... i get that your an engineering background but don't force something that doesn't want to give lol. Stripped a screw and you kept on going? Common sense would say to stop

 

[mqqn]

Alright well I haven't returned the knife yet and I probably wont (might try to find some torx hardware for it). Please explain to me how I can break this thread locker more easily. I dont intent to stop buying kershaws and I dont intend to stop taking my knives apart either. If there is an easy way to defeat this stuff please advise.

Heat from a heat gun or maybe a blow dryer, but heat enough to soften the locker and not damage the parts is one way.

If the screws are already buggered up, then you can sometimes cut a slot in the head of the screw with a dremel and appropriate cutting tool, and then use a screwdriver to turn the screw out.

On the other side, you can use a longer screw and two nuts (not sure where to find them in that small size, but check RC hobby shops, or even ebay) and lock the screw on the opposing side so you can prevent turning of the barrel spacer, or alternatively, clamp the spacer carefully in a vice, but be careful, they will crush fairly easily. They are not made to withstand crushing, just to keep your liners spaced evenly.

As you will see in the following picture, I did not need to remove the spacers from both sides of the knife to get it sufficiently disassembled for my purposes, which I believe were the same as yours, eg simple curiosity.

good luck!

best

mqqn

 

[WuGod]

Hairdryer, heat gun, oven, stove, grill, clothes dryer, iron, heat pad for your menstrual cramps, candle, deep fryer, cast iron pan, propane torch, bic lighter. What ever will get those lil drops of plastic to loosen up a bit. Some engineer?

 

[OHALLUM]

Alright well I haven't returned the knife yet and I probably wont (might try to find some torx hardware for it). Please explain to me how I can break this thread locker more easily. I dont intent to stop buying kershaws and I dont intend to stop taking my knives apart either. If there is an easy way to defeat this stuff please advise.

Adding heat directly to the screw will in most cases, cause the loc-tite to break free with firm pressure. I personally do not have a problem with you taking apart your knife. After all, you paid for it, therefore it is yours to do with as you please. I think that the bigger problem with your post is that you gave the knife a bad review from your experience with trying to disassemble the knife and failing to do so without damaging it.

The damage done is in no way a negative for the knife or the mfg. It was your fault as you did not know how to break free the loc-tite. If you want to send the knife back to Kershaw for repairs, then do so, and explain to them what you did to it. They may charge you for the repairs, or may take the option to fix it for free in the interest of good publicity. Don't expect them to do this, but if they do, please report their generosity to the forum with a good amount of praise. I hope you get it fixed and maybe learn something in the process.

I have some Kershaw knives and have had good service from them. I have also taken a few apart to see just how they were made/put together. Nothing wrong with that, but I take full responsibility for the resulting damage if any is done. Good Luck with your knife!!

Omar

 

[razorburn]

I for one understand where the OP is coming from,as an owner of a 4K.I can tell you that Kershaw does use an excessive amount of red loctite on their screws. I managed to strip two of them.One of them holding the pocket clip and the other,the opening disc.As it was off centered.On other areas,like the back spacer, the lack of any on one of the brass nuts set into the plastic spacer,prevented easy disassembly.

The reason,I wanted to take mine apart was the blade really rough and hard to open for the first half a dozen openings,and because I forced it open and closed a few times.Succeed in scraping away half of the frame lock ball bearing because the blade tang was catching.

 

[razorburn]

Alright well I haven't returned the knife yet and I probably wont (might try to find some torx hardware for it). Please explain to me how I can break this thread locker more easily. I dont intent to stop buying kershaws and I dont intend to stop taking my knives apart either. If there is an easy way to defeat this stuff please advise.

I'm sure not a fan of philip head screws myself and if you're looking for torx screw make sure to get metric.As the thumb disk is 2MM and the rest is 2.5MM.I know this as I have replaced the thumb disk with a 2MM torx socket head screw and the pocket clip screws with hex socket cap screws,as this is what I just happened to have.

 

[kornphlake]

lesson learned, when you mess something up claim you're a liberal arts student.

 

[flarp]

Please explain to me how I can break this thread locker more easily. I dont intent to stop buying kershaws and I dont intend to stop taking my knives apart either. If there is an easy way to defeat this stuff please advise.

Get a soldering iron. You should be able to get one for $15 (or less). You don't need a high power or expensive/fancy one. I use a Radio Shack branded 25W one that I got about 20 years ago.

Touch the soldering iron to the screw and hold it there for about 10 seconds, and then try to turn the screw. You shouldn't need to exert a lot of force (definitely not enough to where you could strip the screw or deform your screwdriver/torx head). If it doesn't turn, take the iron to it again for another 10-15 seconds. Repeat until the screw comes loose. This has worked for me on all the screws I've tried that have seemed stuck due to threadlocker.

I melt a little bit of solder onto the tip of the iron as well, just to help with heat conduction (more contact surface area). It should work fine without as well, but may take a bit longer. If the solder does stick to the screw (usually won't, since you won't need to get the screw that hot), you can just scrape it off after it cools.

The specs on most blue threadlockers show that it can take temperatures up to 250C (480F) to break, although it can soften/loosen at temperatures much lower than that. At any rate, even a 15W soldering iron can get extremely hot (over 400C), so do take appropriate safety measures. Also, remember that the screws and possibly the frame/liner will also get hot, so give those time to cool before touching them.

 

[fluid_motion]

I personally use a heat gun to loosen screws that have too much thread lock on them, always thought a soldering iron would be too hot

 

[Bludgeon]

Thread locker is easily defeated with direct heat applied to the fastener. Something as simple as a solder gun applied to the screws will do the job.

 

[Morrow]

Yes unfortunately that's the situation I am in. College Student = no ZT.

You took a bit of a beating in this thread and stayed level through it all. I think that deserves a reward.

Give me a couple days and I'll see if I can find a ZT to send you.

 

[singularity35]

You took a bit of a beating in this thread and stayed level through it all. I think that deserves a reward.

Give me a couple days and I'll see if I can find a ZT to send you.

KUdos to both OP and Morrow. :thumbup:

 

[timdgsr]

You took a bit of a beating in this thread and stayed level through it all. I think that deserves a reward.

Give me a couple days and I'll see if I can find a ZT to send you.

No joke, PM me and I'll paypal some $$ your way to throw in on this.

While I don't agree with everything said in the first post, I do think the TS has a point. Supposedly these are designed with phillips screws to be easier to maintain, this is a Emerson concept that breaks away from the normal Kershaw hardware. Why bother with this if you're going to slather so much thread locker and/or use screws too cheap to handle the torque required to break the thread locker.

A little common sense would have helped, but he's an engineering student, not an engineer. He learned from this, and took more abuse than was necessary in this thread.

 

[shecky]

Despite the user error, it does seem like a bad call on the part of Kershaw to use a tenacious thread locker on a knife that is screwed together. If there is one thing they should understand, it's that a knife that is screwed together is going to be disassembled. If permanent thread locker was used to keep the user from disassembling the knife, that's just inviting failure. Even moreso the use of Phillips screws, rather than some kind of proprietary screw or even rivets, is an invitation to disassembly. It doesn't matter that the knife is $30 or $3000. Using common screws and then using too-strong threadlocker to deter user adjustment is a bad idea.

 

[G. Scott H.]

Please explain to me how I can break this thread locker more easily...If there is an easy way to defeat this stuff please advise.

Consider this experience a relatively cheap lesson. I'm sure you didn't think of this at the time you were taking the knife apart, but my advice for the future is: when you run into a problem like this, it's best to stop, come here, and ask these sorts of questions before going any further. It'll save you lots of grief (I know this from much personal experience ). You might shoot Kershaw an email or give 'em a call and see if they can tell you the size of the screws, so you can find the proper Torx replacements. Places like knifekits.com should have suitable screws. :thumbup:

Welcome aboard.

 

[stonproject]

So I bought a Kershaw/Emerson CQC-8K the other day because I liked the idea of a very affordable tactical knife with Emerson features. I got the CQC-8K because I wanted a large "self-defense" type blade, I'm partial to tantos and I liked the idea of G10 on both sides of the handle (I don't mind liner locks). Overall fit and finish of this knife is good. Love the Emerson Wave feature and the design fits my hand really well. Unfortunately I went to disassemble the knife (Who doesn't want to disassemble their knife right out of the box just to clean it up, lube it and get familiar with its construction?) and ran into huge problems. The supposed "convenience" of the phillips head hardware turned out to be a complete nightmare when paired with the inordinate amount of Kershaw's VERY PERMANENT thread locker that bathed each of the eight handle screws. I tried every screwdriver, vise, and fiber of my being I could muster to get these screws separated from the handle and their stand-offs with terrib:jerkit:le results. After myriad expletives and a life's worth of patience expended, I ended up with five completely destroyed/torn-up/stripped, albeit disassembled, screws as well as three screws that utterly refused to separate from their free turning stand-offs with scales and liners sandwiched in between. Thus, I was able to get the knife separated into two halves, but still nowhere near being fully disassembled, and I was left with hardware that was 100% unusable. I have run into this problem with Kershaw's thread locker before but luckily on a knife with torx head screws that were not destroyed in the process. Overall great design, cool looking, fast deploying, cheap (for a 3.5" blade with G10 scales and Emerson features), tactical knife...unfortunately the execution gets a big fat F-. Please share your thoughts or experiences with this line and/or tell me I'm and idiot for trying to disassemble this knife.

Same problem here... EXCEPT, i hit the screws with a bic lighter for 6 seconds and they came right out. Being a guy who takes knifes apart, you should know threadlocker unlocks with heat...

 

[wtlj]

Same problem here... EXCEPT, i hit the screws with a bic lighter for 6 seconds and they came right out. Being a guy who takes knifes apart, you should know threadlocker unlocks with heat...

Anyone with common sense won't be doing this! Direct open flame on G10...really? 😳