What Did I Do Wrong?? Advice Needed.

N

Nalapombu

Joined
Oct 26, 2001
Messages
300
Hey all.

I’m a Spyderco fan, have been for over 20 years. I carry an Endurance 4, plain blade, standard handle in black. It is a fantastic knife and has never let me me down or failed.

I had done some cutting of fruit and forgot that I had done it until a few days later. Stuff just happens when you’re having fun with family and friends.
Well, I noticed that the blade wasn’t opening as it should and after a flashlight inspection I knew what the problem was.
I took it down, cleaned it all up and out a light coat of lubricant on the intervals and put it back together. When I opened it to make sure everything was good…I noticed that it wasn’t.

In the open position the blade was nice and tight with no play, but when it’s closed, I found that when I pinched the top of the blade at the point end….LOOSE…way loose. I tried tightening the screw for the blade and that did eliminate a bit of the play, but it made it difficult to operate with your thumb. Clearly there is a problem. I took it down again and made sure I was doing everything correctly. Same result.
I then found some videos showing how to properly re-assemble the Endura. I followed it exactly…same result. I even tried putting the “spring” rod into place with the spacer first and assembling it from that perspective…same result. I re-assembled this knife at least 6 times trying my best to figure out what the problem was and if there was something I was doing wrong. Never did find the reason.

I sent it back to Spyderco with an explanation. Spyderco Customer Service was FANTASTIC as it always is. The whole process, including shipping to them, took about 10-12 days. It was back to normal and they put a beautiful razor edge on it as well….which is certainly needed.


Now, what I’m hoping is that you all can give me some ideas as to what I could’ve been doing wrong or what was causing it to be loose like that even though I was doing everything exactly as the videos depicted. Naturally, tge guys showing the videos might not be any better at knife assembly than I am.
I’ve taken it down to clean it previously and it was just fine when I got done. I’d like to know what was causing the tip of the blade to be loose when in the CLOSED position but tight when it was OPEN.

Any ideas what I’m doing wrong? Spyderco didn’t explain.


Thank you for your time and help.
MUHerd
 
Two ideas come to mind. One is the pivot screw can be extremely picky to adjust you possibly were just not dialing it in. The other possibility is you weakened the detent somehow upon reassembly.
Glad to hear Spyderco took care of you. The endura is a great knife.
 
This goes for the Delica, but I can't remember whether it applies to the Endura as well; this is my preferred method of putting together Spyderco lockbacks:

1. Start with the non-torx side and put a liner in the corresponding FRN
2. Put the pivot and other nuts in EXCEPT for the lock bar's pivot. It should all be on the table with the nuts sticking straight up and down
3. Put the backspacer in
4. Put the lock bar spring in
5. Put a washer around the pivot
6. Oil/lubricate the blade before putting it around the pivot
7. Put the other washer around the pivot, on top of the blade
8. Put the liner and FRN scale on top
9. Screw in the pivot a few turns so that it will hold but is not tight
10. Screw in the rest of the construction screws into the backspacer's nuts
11. Making sure to not let the lock spring slip out and with the blade in the open position, get the lock bar's pivot into 1 scale, but do not put it through the rest of the handle
12. Push the lock bar in and align it with the pivot. You will be fighting the tension of the spring
13. Once it is aligned, push the pivot through. I find it easiest to push the handle into the table so that I can easily hold the handle and lock bar in position
14. Tighten the blade pivot to your liking (consider loc-tite)
15. Tighten the lock bar pivot to your liking (consider loc-tite)

This method ensures that the backspacer's nipple goes into and stays in the liner. If you put the lock bar and the blade in with the only 1 scale on, then the tension against the plastic will misalign the backspacer's nipple and the liner, causing a weak detent and other issues

Another common issue is over tightening the lock bar pivot. This pivot should only be tight enough to hold the lock bar and not tight enough to affect the action (opening or closing)
 
If they didn't say then we will never know what Spyderco did with your knife but there's a chance if you didn't assemble it like the post above then you may have deformed the back spacer that has the little plastic nubs that stick out to fit in the handles. Once those are deformed it can cause problems and maybe they replaced it for you
 
yablanowitz said:
Someone needs to say it, so I might as well be "that guy".

Your first mistake was thinking that being assembled with screws means you should take it apart.
Click to expand...
So….I should’ve filled out the form and sent my knife in to Spyderco because it had fruit and vegetable residue on the blade and innards preventing it from opening and closing properly?
 
I find that if you tighten the body screw that’s closest to the pivot screw too tight, that also affects the action. Because that screw holds the lock bar in place, if it’s over tightened, that will pinch the lock bar which makes the up and down action of the bar tight as the blade rotates open and closed. So you can have a loose pivot which creates blade play, but the lock bar has to have the ability to slide up and down as well.

so you essentially have 2 pivots to balance. The blade pivot and the locking bar pivot.
 
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