What will happen to assisted opens (when the spring wears out)?

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ukknifer

Joined
Jan 30, 2010
Messages
424
Hi
Sorry for this stupid question:

What will happen to assisted opens (when the spring wears out)?
Will it open and close normally like a non assisted? Or will it jam and need to replace spring? or what?
 
When the Torsion bar broke on my Kershaw Speed Safe Chive, I could still open and close it, but it was very stiff, and I could hear the pieces of teh torsion bar rubbing together. Still functional, but definately annoying.
 
Torsion bar snapped on my kershaw leek, to be fair after god knows how many openings. Could still open manually. E mailed kershaw, they sent new torsion bar within a few weeks, free of charge, Kershaw are great company. Easy to fit , knife running like new. HOPE THIS HELPS FARON
 
It probably depends on where the spring/bar breaks as well as the design of the knife. When my Blur's spring crapped out, the blade would shoot open about an inch and then jam up. Most of the time, though, I find the knife in question just immediately starts acting as if the bar/spring were never there in the first place.
 
The only time I've had a torsion bar break is when I was closing the knife. They seem to always break at the bend and depending on the knife it will either work like a manual knife or it will not want to stay closed because the lack of a blade detent.
 
What will happen to my assisted open when the spring wears out?

I will call Kershaw and have them send me another spring. In the mean time I'll use another knife. ;)
 
Same tale as Bobusx. My buddy had his Chive blow out. His habit of playing with it shortened its life considerably. We removed the broken spring, and he used it manually till the replacement from Kershaw showed up. They handled the claim quickly and without any problems. Seems all A/O springs have a finite amount of opening events. The more you play with it, the sooner it will fail.
 
Like everyone said above me. The knife will still work as long as when it breaks it doesnt jam itself in the pivot screw and keep it from opening. My blurs torsion bar snapped on it too and it worked just fine. I actually got used to it and kinda liked it more than AO but then i started to miss that snap of the blade when it opened so i sent it in to be fixed.
 
I have several kershaw and zt knives no failures yet. If something did occur I would either remove the spring and make it a manual,granted it still have some type of retension to keep the blade closed. Or call either company CS for a replacement spring
 
Does anyone have experience with one of Sog's AOs breaking? If so, how was that?

Fortunately my Aegis is going strong, but I am curious what will happen when the coiled spring/wire/whatever snaps.
 
I've been through a couple of torsion bars on my Leeks. I opened and closed them many 1000s of times before they broke.

Kershaw sent me several extra bars free. The design of the Leek is very simple, I found it easy to replace the torsion bar. Anyone could do it. I don't know if other manufaturers' AOs are as easy to fix.
 
The shop I get my knives from is a local distributor of SOG and they supply the army with SOG multitools, so they brought in some non-assisted Aegis and I handled them. They are tough to open, stiff and tight.
 
Hi ukknifer. You didn't mention what brand of AO you own. If it is a Kershaw, you should get good service out of the torsion bar. Kershaw tests them for 10,000 cycles (one cycle being an open and close) and I have yet to have one fail. The knife that sees 95% of my pocket time is an AO Mini Cyclone in Ti and ZDP. Well worn, it's coming up on beginning its fourth year, and no problems. If a Kershaw spring breaks, a call or email and a replacement will be on its way to you. Don't be surprised to find two of them, along with screws in the package. As for SOG or BM, I have no idea how good their CS is in taking care of these issues.
 
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