Warranty work or self fix?

Eodjuggernaut

Eodjuggernaut

Joined
Oct 14, 2013
Messages
107
I am new here and this is my first thread. I am having problems with my spyderco southard. It is getting very sticky on the flip. I'm lucky to get half flips when operating it. Now to be fair it is a great knife and on most days my favorite but it's flipping action has never been great. So my question is this should I turn it in to be fixed or just do it myself.
Actions taken already include oiling (works slightly but only for a few flips) and slight loosening of the pivot (no effect).
I am not new at knife disassembly or repairs in general but this knife is different for two reasons. 1 it cost a lot of money ( enlisted doesn't make much no matter what some government officials would have you believe) and 2. I have never dealt with a bearing system at the pivot.
I feel I should send it in but being stationed overseas the mail system can be a nightmare and I would hate to lose it. Not to mention the turn around sucks and I am so impatient and would is that go crazy over not having my baby with me.
My belief is that the bearing system is gunked up or corroded neither of these situations would make me happy and cause me concern for the long time relationship I was expecting to have with this knife. If anyone has had this problem may have a solution already. Any how what's the verdict BF members.

Just to be clear I am not saying anything bad about the spyderco southard or spyderco in general. I love them both.
 
That sucks to hear, I've been loving my southards action. Since your overseas, I would try it yourself.
 
It may just be dirty. I like grapefruit but if you get a lot of juice in the pivot and let it dry, you'll never get it smooth with just oil. It needs to be cleaned.

I suggest getting some soap and a tooth brush. Scrub the pivot, get a good lather and rinse; do it 2-3 times. Dry with canned air or thin sheets of paper. Lube.
 
Ultrasonic. Water + a small amount of Dawn. Rinse. Regular u/s cleaner. Rinse. Dry with real compressed air. Relubricate.
 
If you try to clean it without disassemble I have had good luck getting the pivot area soapy as mentioned above and using some dental floss to get the soap into the pivot and the floss provides a mild scrubbing action. I have also used the floss to lube the pivot, seems to get into the tight places better than just letting it run or spread by capillary action. Best of luck with your problem.
 
I'd suggest opening / closing it repeatedly in soapy water and a good general cleaning, followed by a WD40 soak to see if the action clears up
 
As mentioned above, you don't have to take it apart to clean the pivot. When I get a knife that has gunk in the bearing system, usually spray the pivot with WD40 and work the knife open, close, open, close.... Re apply the WD40 and work it some more... The WD40 breaks down the gunk better than soap but I wouldn't use just WD40 as a pivot lube. Once the WD40 breaks down the gunk, flush it with WD again until you are sure there is no more gunk lurking in there.... You can usually tell it is flushed out by how smoothly it opens.... then just a touch of thin lube is needed.

I like to put some pressure on the lock bar as i open and close for at least a few cycles. This cleans the detent and the detent path, shake it clean and take a paper towel to it to clean and dry it. Run the paper towel between the scales as well, Blow it clean if you can and then apply 1 or 2 of your drops of your favorite lube to the pivot. See how it goes...If that doesn't clean it, there may be something else going on

Edit: If you plan on using your knife to prepare or around food... 86 the WD and let it soak in hot soapy dawn infused dish water, work that pivot like a mad man and dry it as best you can... then lube it :)

Best of luck!
 
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I hate to be contrary, but I would not use WD40 on my knife, lest you plan on a full cleaning afterwards. WD means water displacement. Unfortunately, what it does is attract and hold dirt/dust.

I use the valve oil they use on woodwind/brass instruments.
 
I have two little syringes with the 18Ga needle blunted, one with mineral oil (my preferred knife oil) and one wih dawn dish soap. That way I can apply oil or soap exactly where I need it. I'd try that to get soap in the bearings, work it around then wash it all out and oil.
 
SunnO))) said:
I hate to be contrary, but I would not use WD40 on my knife, lest you plan on a full cleaning afterwards. WD means water displacement. Unfortunately, what it does is attract and hold dirt/dust.

I use the valve oil they use on woodwind/brass instruments.
Click to expand...

While WD is mostly a water displacement formula, i find that it breaks down old hardened grease and old lube better than most. If you don't like WD then use a PJB or Liquid Wrench. The purpose of the WD is to break down the gunk...then you flush it out and clean it so none (or mostly none) actually remains. Pretty sure i mentioned that :D
 
Assuming you're on, or have access to, a military base you could go to the motor pool, spray the pivot with some carburetor cleaner, then blast it out with compressed air, and repeat as needed.
 
Once in a pinch in the field, I cleaned out an M9 that had become thoroughly packed with sand in a bucket of diesel. You could try the same thing with the knife using either diesel or kero if you're really desperate. Either will leave a very thin coat of oil when you've cleaned off the exterior surfaces.
 
Badly gunked up I loosen the pivot screw then spray it with Remoil and work the pivot and spray till the oil comes out clean. Doesn't take much. Then wash with Dawn and rinse thoroughly. Spray with canned air then lube with TuffGlide. Adjust pivot screw.

Money where my mouth is photo. ;)

639p.jpg
 
1. Hot water
2. Dawn dish detergent

Combine the two.

3. Immerse knife in hot water and detergent solution and proceed to scrub, swish it around and cycle the knife open and closed for a couple minutes.

4. Flush the water and detergent off of and out of the knife with hot water.

5. Dry the knife while it's still hot from the washing and rinsing, there are various methods, I like putting the knife in a dish towel and spinning it vigorously, slipping it into a sock and spinning it, drying with a hair dryer or using compressed air. An alternate method is pouring 90% alcohol over the knife, it works well for removing water and dries easily with spinning/air.

Contrary to those who don't like WD-40, I find that spraying the knife down and again shaking off the excess followed by wiping off the knife does quite well.

For food safe use, mineral oil should lube well.

The second option, which I have found to be less effective is a WD-40 rinse followed by brake/carb cleaner and a drop of whatever oil is handy.

For myself, if washing in hot water and soap,rinsed and dried followed by lube does not work, I would disassemble the knife and see what is causing it to fail and fix it or if unrepairable send it in for warranty work.

In any case, good luck!
 
Clean it up, reassemble without lube. I never lube my bearing pivots, which is advice coming from custom knifemakers whenever I ask them if anything special is needed for maintenance. It's been unanimous, bearings = don't apply any lube.
 
gooeytek said:
Clean it up, reassemble without lube. I never lube my bearing pivots, which is advice coming from custom knifemakers whenever I ask them if anything special is needed for maintenance. It's been unanimous, bearings = don't apply any lube.
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I know there are mixed reviews on the subject but honestly I prefer Teflon, or similar, washers. Just greasy smooth and I've never lubed one ever.
 
Yes, but the OP's question was regarding his Southard, which has bearings.

The only pivots I lube are the ones with phosphor-bronze washers. My Emersons with Nylatron washers are dry after post break-in, and some customs that have teflon are also used dry.

Many of my productions from KAI, Spyderco, and BM use PB/metal washers, and those get lubed. Those are also the problematic ones, getting gunked up very easily because of it.
 
JNewell said:
Ultrasonic. Water + a small amount of Dawn. Rinse. Regular u/s cleaner. Rinse. Dry with real compressed air. Relubricate.
Click to expand...

This would be the best way to clean a knife in my opinion. My list of most used tools 1) Knife 2) Duct Tape 3) Ultrasonic Cleaner. Best $20 I spent and saved me more hours of work than I can count and I owned it for about a month now. Has took away that gritty feeling my traditional slipjoint had while opening it in 3min that I couldn't get rid of after 5+ hours trying by hand.

My way is a few drops of dawn in the ultrasonic with hot water and let it run to degas it. While it's doing that I put dawn in the knife and work it into the pivot and where ever else I want it more thoroughly cleaned, than I finally drop the knife into the ultrasonic and let it run 3-9min (mine does 3min everytime you hit the button), it all depends on what I feel like at the time. After that I rinse it off, dry off with a towel and compressed air and lube.

I worked it out doing it this way as I found this worked best when your just working with dawn, though this was mostly with trial and error with using it on gears and other mechanical parts slathered in grease while working on airsoft guns which is how I found out what worked best for cutting through all the gunk. A few drops of dawn in water gives good results, putting additional on the dirtiest parts and than dropping it into the machine gave significantly better results.
 
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