Well it broke.

5pins · Feb 23, 2005

I have had this Kershaw burl since last may. It has become my do all knife, I use it for everything. Well to day at work I was flicking it open and close, like I do all the time, and when I closed it I herd a noise. My first thought was I bet the spring broke. For once I was right. Im not surprised; Im constantly opening and closing it and felt it was only a mater of time. I will say this much. It is still easy to open, and very smooth. I guess I will call Kershaw tomorrow and get a new spring.

Roadrunner · Feb 23, 2005

Same thing happened on my Boa. It's just the price you pay for the 'cool' factor of the Speed-Safe. Springs wear out, no matter how well they're made. The good thing is that Kershaw's warranty department has a very quick turnaround and will sharpen your blade (extremely well I might add) before they send it back.

DEA · Feb 23, 2005

it's easy to replace the spring yourself, but i suggest you take a snapshot of the way things are arranged inside before you take it apart
i broke 3 springs so far, and kershaw has been great with sending me the torsion bar thru airmail
they should sell the small kits through retail, i bet they'd make a bunch

migo · Feb 23, 2005

Yeah, I'm on my 3rd Blackout now. I just bring it in to HoK and they give me a replacement when the spring breaks.

Blop · Feb 24, 2005

Don´t you think not a full year is a bit short time?

Have no experience since the only Whirlwind i know from last for, guess, a year and a half, then it was stolen. It was a friends one. He get a new one last Oktober.

But more than a year even flicked constantly.

5pins · Feb 24, 2005

A guy at work has a leak that only made it two weeks before it broke, at least mine made it longer then that.

allyourblood · Feb 24, 2005

i've owned and bought about 5 Speed-safe knives. 1+ years later, with heavy use... NO broken springs! luck, i guess.

abe

tom mayo · Feb 24, 2005

the reason they break is from the rapid opening and closing.
its tempered spring steel, and this action gets it hot and it breaks....if you only open and close it when you use it, it will last forever (most of them anyhow)

Psychopomp · Feb 24, 2005

tom mayo said:
the reason they break is from the rapid opening and closing.
its tempered spring steel, and this action gets it hot and it breaks....if you only open and close it when you use it, it will last forever (most of them anyhow)

Right, but they're just so damn cool! I can't tell you how many switchblade springs I've broken in my life. I got over the coolness factor of opening my SOG Flash II pretty quick and only open it when I need it now... add to that the fact that I just don't carry it very often, it'll probably last forever.

Ben

migo · Feb 25, 2005

tom mayo said:
the reason they break is from the rapid opening and closing.
its tempered spring steel, and this action gets it hot and it breaks....if you only open and close it when you use it, it will last forever (most of them anyhow)

Cool, now I know what to do when I get tired of the nick in my blade

metacarpels · Feb 25, 2005

not trying to be the source of negativity, but this is the reason that im weary of buying a kershaw speed safe. i had a scallion that broke within a few months of buying it. This is a common problem with these knives. Because you never know when it will break, i always feared that it would break in the exact instant that my life depended on the knife opening. just my thoughts.... Its the same reason i dont always like carrying autos.

T. Erdelyi · Feb 25, 2005

Here's the inside of a Chive with Speedsafe, they should be similar, also I can EMail you better pics if needed.

migo · Feb 25, 2005

metacarpels said:
not trying to be the source of negativity, but this is the reason that im weary of buying a kershaw speed safe. i had a scallion that broke within a few months of buying it. This is a common problem with these knives. Because you never know when it will break, i always feared that it would break in the exact instant that my life depended on the knife opening. just my thoughts.... Its the same reason i dont always like carrying autos.

If it breaks you can just flip it open the rest of the way, it'll still lock open.

metacarpels · Feb 25, 2005

actually when my scallion broke the blade wouldnt open at all, i had to take it apart and remove the torsion bar in order to make it operate as a normal one hander. When that happened, i considered using it as a normal one hander until i realized that the ball detent was not designed to hold the blade closed properly without the tension of the torsion bar....