Warranty madness

[KennyB]

I went to the post office to send a leatherman in for warranty today. Then as soon as I got back to the house, I cut up some cardboard, and then realized that something is wrong with my Kershaw Needs Work--some kind of rattling in the handle when the blade is open.

So now it looks like I've got another knife to send in for warranty. I wish I could find a fixed blade that I could put in my pocket. First my Benchmade's AXIS springs, now whatever is wrong with my Kershaw. Even my Case Trapper has a little blade play.

 

[Dorito Monk]

I went to the post office to send a leatherman in for warranty today. Then as soon as I got back to the house, I cut up some cardboard, and then realized that something is wrong with my Kershaw Needs Work--some kind of rattling in the handle when the blade is open.

So now it looks like I've got another knife to send in for warranty. I wish I could find a fixed blade that I could put in my pocket. First my Benchmade's AXIS springs, now whatever is wrong with my Kershaw. Even my Case Trapper has a little blade play.

Before you send the Kershaw in, put a dot of grease on the torsion bar. You should find it fixes the situation.

Several of my Kershaws have developed that problem over time. It seems to be due to the torsion bar not fitting as tightly as it originally did in its housing, but I haven't known it to affect the function of a knife whatsoever. It can be rectified by putting a dot of grease on it.

 

[KennyB]

Before you send the Kershaw in, put a dot of grease on the torsion bar. You should find it fixes the situation.

Several of my Kershaws have developed that problem over time. It seems to be due to the torsion bar not fitting as tightly as it originally did in its housing, but I haven't known it to affect the function of a knife whatsoever. It can be rectified by putting a dot of grease on it.

That might be worth it, but will it void the warranty? How complex is it to take this knife apart anyway? I think I saw the inside of a SpeedSafe AO knife before, and couldn't really figure out how it worked--things are generally simpler looking in the real world though.

 

[nevermind35]

This is not a defect but rather a simple bit of maintenance that is required on all Speedsafe knives is you don't want the spring to rattle. All you have to do is pull of the non-locking side scale off and put a thin layer of grease in the scale cutout. As the grease drys up and or gets rinsed out the spring will rattle around inside the cutout. This does not mean that the cutout is too large or wearing away but rather they make it a little larger than the spring so the spring has room to flex how it needs too. You can use pretty much any kind of grease, I use some cheap fishing reel grease and it works great!

 

[Dorito Monk]

That might be worth it, but will it void the warranty? How complex is it to take this knife apart anyway? I think I saw the inside of a SpeedSafe AO knife before, and couldn't really figure out how it worked--things are generally simpler looking in the real world though.

If you're worried about Kershaw's warranty being voided if you take your knife apart, I don't think you need be concerned. Their warranty service is superb. You can double check on their website, but considering that when I've had to contact their warranty dept. about replacing broken torsion bars, they just shipped the parts to me along with the tools needed to do the replacement myself. This ought to indicate that they didn't mind my taking the knife apart to do some repairs. :thumbup:

 

[neuron]

This is not a defect but rather a simple bit of maintenance that is required on all Speedsafe knives is you don't want the spring to rattle. All you have to do is pull of the non-locking side scale off and put a thin layer of grease in the scale cutout. As the grease drys up and or gets rinsed out the spring will rattle around inside the cutout. This does not mean that the cutout is too large or wearing away but rather they make it a little larger than the spring so the spring has room to flex how it needs too. You can use pretty much any kind of grease, I use some cheap fishing reel grease and it works great!

+1 on this. It's just a normal thing that happens on Speedsafe knives due to the torsion bar not being under tension when the blade is open.

 

[KennyB]

Cool, took your guy's advice. When I took open the knife though, it was already pretty greasy in there, so I just applied some white lithium grease to the sides of the torsion bar and the liner since the cutout of the scale was already pretty much covered.

Guess now I just wait to hear back from Leatherman.

Also, the fact that I can take out the torsion bar and make it a non AO knife is pretty sweet. I won't worry about taking it to Seattle now.

 

[canook]

Also, the fact that I can take out the torsion bar and make it a non AO knife is pretty sweet. I won't worry about taking it to Seattle now.

Be carefull if you do this. I'm not sure about the Needs Work but none of my Speed Safe knives have a detent in the blade to hold the knife closed. The ball in the lock bar only acts to reduce friction when you open the knife. It's actually the torsion bar that keeps the knife closed so if you take it out it could open pretty easily in your pocket, happened to me.