What's the deal with Kershaw and lock failure?

D

DGladden

Gold Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2010
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585
I had to send my Blur in several months ago because the lock failed and I sliced my finger to the bone. A few weeks ago a co-worker was showing me his new Leek he bought at Wal-Mart and I did a few spine whacks (with permission) and the lock failed on it. I get home from work this morning and my new Needs Work is sitting on the kitchen table. I tore into the USPS box and began playing with my new knife. I eventually got around to testing the lock and guess what? It failed! Now I have to send my brand new knife off to them and wait for it to be repaired before I can actually carry it.

My Leek has a solid lockup and so do both of the Chive's I bought for my Sister's. The Blur had full engagement and a rock solid lockup after repair. My co-worker never sent his Leek in and still uses it, but is caution. This is starting to get annoying. I will say that Kershaw's CS is second to none and I don't dread having to contact them but when I buy a knife I want to be able to use it when I get it.

So, has anyone else run into these issues lately or did I get all the lemons? LoL
 
I haven't had any issues with any of my Kershaws or ZT knives having lock failure during solid day to day use. That being said I do not spine wack my knives so I can't speak to that testing or results.
 
ArchAngel said:
I haven't had any issues with any of my Kershaws or ZT knives having lock failure during solid day to day use. That being said I do not spine wack my knives so I can't speak to that testing or results.
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Same here. Supposed to cut with the sharp side. ;)
 
I wouldn't spine whack the knife, yea customer service will fix it but why spine whack it? just grab the spine of the blade and put a little bit on downward force to see if the lock will hold, no need to re-enact a cold steel demo video.
 
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Allen R. said:
I wouldn't spine whack the knife, yea customer service will fix it but why spine whack it? just grab the spine of the blade and put a little bit on downward force to see if the lock will hold, no need to re-enact a cold steel demo video.
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This is what I do. I never spine whack a knife either.
 
Yea doing a spine whack could possibly take a knife that has nothing wrong with it and it be the cause of the lock failure, So the knife may of been fine , but depending on how hard you hit it , you could of been the one to damage the lock, also depending on what you hit it one your gonna have a scratch or something showing on the spine , and I'm sure theyre gonna look the knife over and if they see you did it on purpose they may not warranty the knife but i could be wrong.
 
Just remember that folding knives should be used for slicing and not much else; SAKs and many traditional folding knives have been used for decades with out any locking mechanism. It may serve you well to go with a fixed blade for edc, then you can spine whack all you want without a lock failure.
 
Just to clarify, I don't beat the hell out of the knife when I test them. I give the spine a "tap" from a few inches off the surface of whatever I'm testing it against. Also, I CAN cause the lock to fail on this Needs Work by applying pressure with just my hand. After close inspection, when the blade/liner were matched they cut the angle too steep and the lock slides off the blade when pressure is applied. I tried to print the warranty form and found out my printer is out of ink! I'll print one at work tomorrow and get this knife on it's way this weekend. I know CS will take care of this and they usually only take a couple weeks.

I didn't get cut with the Blur when testing it if that's what anyone was thinking. I was actually using it to cut some grass away from my weed eater head. Instead of closing the knife or just laying it down, I stuck it into the bench I was working at, that's when the lock failed and it closed onto my pinkie cutting it right to the bone.
 
BRab said:
It may serve you well to go with a fixed blade for edc, then you can spine whack all you want without a lock failure.
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I literally busted out laughing when i read this, good thing I'm not drinking anything or it would of been sprayed all over my pc.
 
Also to the OP could you close it by hand before you did the spinewhack or afterwards?
 
I didn't try to close it by hand before. I only tried that because it took very little effort to cause the lock to fail on the first strike. Also, I just took the knife apart and noticed that the liner wasn't bent out very far. I adjusted it and reassembled the knife and now it has full lock engagement. I can no longer force it closed by hand and I have not tried a spine whack and most likely will not. The knife has a more positive "click" when opened now as well. There is no blade play and the blade sits perfectly centered. I'll carry it for a while and see how I like it.
 
Last time I tried doing spine whacks, they locked me up for assault and impersonating Bruce Lee...

That being said...I rarely hear of stop pin failure. I wonder why that is? Probably because everyone is busy spine whacking their folding knives.
 
I dont consider a spine wack a test of a lock. You wack the spine of a blade and the force is going to travel to the lock, the shock will move it. I can make my 0301 "fail" if I start wacking things with the spine. I dont see a real world use for this test.

I have made the lock on my Blur fail before once was when I was cutting hard and twisting, my hand slid over the liner lock and disengaged it. The second time was with a 7 year old, hard used blur and the lock barely engaged. I took it apart and bent the liner a little and problem solved.

The leek is a small knife, I cant imagine any need to place strain on the spine of the blade. If the lock functions fine then the lock is fine, the spine wack isnt a legitimate test of a knife lock.
 
Spine whacks are abuse, if you need a knife to pass a spine whack test get a fixed blade. I once spine whacked a perfectly good skyline, and I made the lock fail. Not only did it fail, I ruined the lock up and I could close it by hand. Upon disassembly I saw I had damaged the lock face of the liner.

What I did to fix it was gave the bur a couple taps with a hammer then filed it flat. Its been fine ever since, locks up a little later but I cant defeat the lock by hand.

The moral of the story is spine whacks ruin the lock face.
 
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