After repeated attempts at the blade centering process, I'm starting to lose hope.

S

Samot

Joined
Nov 1, 2009
Messages
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I recently added a hinderer eklipse to my collection to complete the "big three": Chris Reeve, Strider, and Hinderer. I bought it used from the JerzeeDevil forum, (my first mistake?), and was initially very happy with it. I then noticed the blade was off center, actually contacting the scale side. This was disturbing, as was search results indicating that this seems to be a common problem, but found that it has a common solution as well. I attempted the standard process for blade centering, and it seemed to help, but when I loosen the pivot to allow the knife to be opened, I can't seem to get it to the point where it can be flipped without losing centering again. If I leave it tight (doesn't open at all, or flips only part way) it's fine, but once I get to the point where it will flip at all, it's already a little off center, and if I loosen it enough to actually get good flipping action, I'm back where I started.

I tried this more than once, getting roughly the same result, then I tried a complete disassembly following a couple youtube videos, cleaning it and lubing it with silicon grease. I reassembled it using the same process as before, and, while my issues now occur at a different timing on the pivot, they are still present.

I don't know how new the knife was before I got it, there was no visible issues or wear and the lockup seems very early, so I will continue to play with it a bit and hope it "wears in" and eventually acts like a knife of this quality should, but I'd love it if someone could give me some advise to assuage this feeling that the "big three" should really be the "big two".

Thanks for reading.
 
It may be something as simple as the Teflon washers need to be replaced or smaller increments of pivot adjustments.
 
Wish I could help, I don't own an eklipse. As Mike mentions... certainly reach out to Rob. He will undoubtedly have some tweaking/adjustment insight.
 
Give the knife time to wear in. I had this with on of my knifes and the more the knife wore in I was able to center the knife and have it flip great. It took my knife a few months to really break in.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I'm going to give it a little time and see if I see any progress before I bring it to the attention of hinderer. I hope it works out, but I can't say I'm not already disappointed in comparison to some other products.

If anyone has any additional advice, I'd appreciate it.

Thank you.
 
For the most part these knives aren't as simple as disassemble, throw it back together and hope for perfection. I'm pretty confident each is hand assembled and fitted as its born so a bit of fine adjustments may be needed now that it's been apart to get it back to "normal".

I'd start with something as simple as tightening the pivot down pretty sung. Then loosening the handle screws. Loosen the pivot a touch, retighten the handle screws and check the centering and flipping action. If that doesn't help, I'd try even more adjustments and even consider another full disassembly paying attention to the washers, etc.
 
I look at Knives and Guns and Cars and Toasters ALL the same way - They went together once....
They can go back together again and I CAN be the one to do it.
Give me the time and I will become the Expert at it.
 
Need2Know said:
For the most part these knives aren't as simple as disassemble, throw it back together and hope for perfection. I'm pretty confident each is hand assembled and fitted as its born so a bit of fine adjustments may be needed now that it's been apart to get it back to "normal".

I'd start with something as simple as tightening the pivot down pretty sung. Then loosening the handle screws. Loosen the pivot a touch, retighten the handle screws and check the centering and flipping action. If that doesn't help, I'd try even more adjustments and even consider another full disassembly paying attention to the washers, etc.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.

As I mentioned in my original post, I've done these steps (a few times) and have been dissatisfied with the results. I now recognize that with considerable time to (break in) and some tedious tuning, I may get the knife working the way it should. I just had higher expectations I guess.

RubiconSS said:
I look at Knives and Guns and Cars and Toasters ALL the same way - They went together once....
They can go back together again and I CAN be the one to do it.
Give me the time and I will become the Expert at it.
Click to expand...

I completely agree, I'm mechanically inclined and have been collecting, working on, and selling knives for about 4 years, but I don't feel that you should need to be an expert (which I do not consider myself anyway) to get any high quality knife working the way it should.


I'm still hoping to see some improvement from some use, and I'm trying really hard to reserve my final judgement and avoid comparisons to my other knives until I've given this one a fair shake. As I said, I'm not a knife expert, and I'm certainly not a hinderer expert, but if anyone has a "magic bullet" for this problem, besides the one I've already tried, I'd like to learn.

Thank you.
 
In the interest of advancing (Not discussing or Arguing) the issue - I re-read your Op and you make it clear that the Knife was purchased "Used".
Whether it "appears" lightly, slightly whatever - No Way of knowing what the Knifes Life was prior to your Ownership.
Was it used, abused, taken apart, parts/pieces changed or omitted - No Way of Knowing.
This may be a case for shipping back to the Ranch for a servicing with a note explaining the situation (email ahead of time certainly) and then Real Answers and Solutions can be obtained rather than conjecture and "impression bruising".
That is what I would do.
 
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