Well my Axis lock broke...

L

Lone Hunter

Joined
Mar 2, 2000
Messages
1,526
I've had my 710 since they first came out,love it,but now its going back to BM for new springs.It got wet(2 house fires my first night in)so the next day I was lubing it as the water had made it slow and harder to open.After I put in the lube in I was working it back and forth,till all of the sudden It stopped locking open,wtf? Nuts the Axis is broke!

So off it goes.I've read other posts that this is rare etc.But when its your knife thats little comfort.Others have said but with 2 springs one will act as a backup if the other fails.Well,that may be so IF you know that the first one had failed.I had no idea till I had no springs.

I really hope it gets fixed so this don't happen again,as I'm starting to think about only lockbacks once again.I had liner locks wear all the way across and now my Axis fails where as the only problem I've had with lockbacks has been a little lint that I can remove myself.
 
Sounds like you may be losing trust in the axis . Maybe after it got wet there was some rust and it bound it up which made it snap . I cant tell from your post how long it was from the fire and it got wet till the time it broke. You had 2 fires in one night ??? Maybe you should look at the greco folders , I hear they are as tough as they get:) Well sorry it broke , BM will fix it up.
 
Sorry to hear about that, Lone Hunter. Don't know how to tell when one spring has sprung, but my guess (and keep in mind that I'm not mechanically inclined) would be if the opposite side of the lock didn't stay parallel with the side you're pulling back to disengage it.

If a not view of a closed axis is |-| and an unlocked axis (with the lock still pulled back by your thumb) is |_|, then a broken spring axis may look like |\| (to a lesser degree, of course) when pulling back to release it.

Have you considered the wonderful world of framelocks?

I hope you learn to trust the axis lock again and never receive another reason to distrust it. They're very nice.
 
If I had issues with water, I wouldn't hesitate to buy
some knide of knife with titanium Like MISSION folders
or a Cobolt bladed knife (stellite, talonite, whatever)
 
Anecdotal evidence of the axis lock's reliability is nonetheless very, very impressive, given that the design itself suggests these knives could certainly be much more temperamental than they have been in the field ... a tribute to Benchmade's QA.

Nonetheless, I've never particularly liked any mechanism that relies on 'hairpin' (or similar type) springs, even when there's redundancy designed in, as with the axis lock's dual springs. And as your experience illustrates, the axis may not be the easiest mechanism for the user to foresee, or forestall, impending mechanical failure.

For 'mission critical' work like fighting fires, I would much prefer a fixed blade to any folder.
 
Well I still like the knife and Axis,IF I know the fix will really FIX it.I carry a small fixed blade that hangs from my turnout coat,and a sak in its pocket.The 710 was clipped to my uniform pants,but it still sometimes gets wet from both water and sweat.I was cleaning it the morning after,and it doesn't get wet at every fire.

Yes I almost bought a Greco folder awhile back when they were on sale for $50,and was thinking about a Buck Strider as well.I do like the much hated 50/50 for work though.The 710 is strong enough for my uses but a total lock failure,well thats one reason(backup)that I carry 3.:D
 
have you considered Frame-Locks?

There was a poll here not long ago that seem to show the opinions favored the frame-lock -
here's a thread in the Knife Reviews & Testing section that might be useful (linked) -

Frame-Locks (ala Sebenza)
 
I've never had a problem with my BM 556. When I first got it, the the lever I used was rough, sent it to Benchmade and now I love it :)
 
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