Axis Lock vertical play?

Fire Beard

Fire Beard

Joined
Sep 1, 2013
Messages
1,359
Note: also posted in the BM forum.

Okay. I debated starting a thread about this because I LOVE this knife. I’m not trying to cast shade on BM or start a thread that hates on them. The knife in question is a new model, the Mini Crooked River. It’s my “modern knife” EDC. It’s beautiful, sharp, smooth and perfectly centered. I carry it daily, use it for everything, and will continue to do so. This isn’t a deal-breaker as much as an inquiry as to the experience of others. I had a BM Rift in the past without this issue. My stepdad carries a Mini Grip that’s rock solid. But my $200 Mini Crooked River has a tiny bit of up/down vertical play. It’s very minimal, but if you grab the tip and the butt of the handle and add pressure, you can feel and hear it. It’s so slight—like a half millimeter, but it’s there. And I don’t understand why. I have a Chinese Kershaw liner lock. Rock solid. Several Spydercos of various locks. Rock solid. The Cold Steel Tri-ad (my favorite lock). Beyond rock solid. But this gorgeous, smooth, amazing Benchmade with the Axis Lock? A tiny bit of up/down wiggle. I know Derrick at KSF says this is normal. I know BM claims this is normal. My question is...why? None of my other locking knives do this. Less expensive or more expensive. I love this knife. Honestly. But why do they get a pass for this when it’s considered such a “great” lock? Discuss?
 
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sharp_edge said:
Tiny bit up and down play with the Axis lock is actually not very uncommon.
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So I’ve heard. But why? This is a simple lock, and on paper it shouldn’t be common at all. I mean there’s a steel bar holding the blade in place. So what’s up with that?
 
I've had half a dozen of the 710 models and they all developed vertical play eventually.
 
Fire Beard said:
So I’ve heard. But why? This is a simple lock, and on paper it shouldn’t be common at all. I mean there’s a steel bar holding the blade in place. So what’s up with that?
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I dont know. Maybe because the Axis bar is not tightly resting in a notch but rather pushed with the tension of two thin omega strings? Honestly I dont worry much about the tiny bit play. The Axis lock is still one of the most innovative locks of modern folding knives.:thumbsup:
 
sharp_edge said:
I dont know. Maybe because the Axis bar is not tightly resting in a notch but rather pushed with the tension of two thin omega strings? Honestly I dont worry much about the tiny bit play. The Axis lock is still one of the most innovative locks of modern folding knives.:thumbsup:
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Agreed. It’s also a lot of fun to fiddle with, if that’s your thing. But my $30 Kershaw Fraxion is rock solid and my $200 BM is not. Not gonna lie. It kinda grinds my gears.
 
Fire Beard said:
Note: also posted in the BM forum.

Okay. I debated starting a thread about this because I LOVE this knife. I’m not trying to cast shade on BM or start a thread that hates on them. The knife in question is a new model, the Mini Crooked River. It’s my “modern knife” EDC. It’s beautiful, sharp, smooth and perfectly centered. I carry it daily, use it for everything, and will continue to do so. This isn’t a deal-breaker as much as an inquiry as to the experience of others. I had a BM Rift in the past without this issue. My stepdad carries a Mini Grip that’s rock solid. But my $200 Mini Crooked River has a tiny bit of up/down vertical play. It’s very minimal, but if you grab the tip and the butt of the handle and add pressure, you can feel and hear it. It’s so slight—like a half millimeter, but it’s there. And I don’t understand why. I have a Chinese Kershaw liner lock. Rock solid. Several Spydercos of various locks. Rock solid. The Cold Steel Tri-ad (my favorite lock). Beyond rock solid. But this gorgeous, smooth, amazing Benchmade with the Axis Lock? A tiny bit of up/down wiggle. I know Derrick at KSF says this is normal. I know BM claims this is normal. My question is...why? None of my other locking knives do this. Less expensive or more expensive. I love this knife. Honestly. But why do they get a pass for this when it’s considered such a “great” lock? Discuss?
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I call BS on it being "normal"! Every Axis lock knife that I have ever owned has been rock solid. Even this old 720, that I just so happen to be carrying today, has been beat on ( literally) and even it has zero up and down play.

EDIT : developing some play over time with wear is one thing but new out of the box this should not be. If I wanted blade play I would buy a SOG.
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I've experienced this and it was always something preventing the axis lock bar from fully nesting. Just clean it out or lube it and you should be good to go. It would be a bummer if it didn't though. I get your point.
 
Not normal at all, AFAIC. Out of all the AXIS lock Benchmades I've had (40 or more) since I got my first 940 in 2006 or so , I've never had vertical blade play in any of them. Some horizontal play occasionally, but never vertical.
 
I own about a dozen benchmades and 1/2 of them has some vertical blade play. I feel like some models are more susceptible to others. E.g. none of my 710 or 940 has this issue, while both my g-10 Griptilian(spear point & sheepfoot) and Axis Stryker has blade play out of the box and will not go away after being broken in.

They all have one common behavior, as soon as you pushed the axis bar forward towards the blade to force it to engage deeper after deploying it, the blade play goes away. I think it's possible that the axis bar is a bit too long so they do not sit flush along the track where they slide(so they can potentially flop along another axis, not just travel back and forth in straight line). Because of that, when the knife is being opened, one side of the axis bar may have engaged deeper than the other side causing blade play.

This makes me think that a pair of stronger omega springs would fix the issue. I own a few Ganzo with knock-off Axis lock(technically not by now) and they all have much stronger springs and never develop any vertical blade play.
 
I've owned many many Benchmades and lots of them have developed up/down play over time, some worse than others. This tended towards the bigger, heavier bladed ones though, Adamas, Contego, 710. For some reason, most of the Griptilians I have owned, have had the most solid lockup of all my Benchmades.
 
I agree. I love Benchmade knives and I have only ever had an issue from one knife. Unfortunately, it happens with all manufacturers.

I agree that certain models are more susceptible to bladeplay. I wonder if it is due to the weight and length of the blade causing additional stress on the lock over time. Any input would be awesome regarding weight/length as a factor.
 
Fwiw, I own several Benchmades with AXIS locks. A 710, 707, 485, 940, and 535. I've tinkered with and tuned them all to have free actions and not a single one of them has vertical blade play although a few have some horizontal blade play. Maybe I've been lucky. Maybe OP got unlucky with his mini Crooked River. Either way, it doesn't sound like it has so much play that it's detrimental to the function or safe use of the knife. However, if it bothers you enough to post a couple threads about it, maybe shoot an email to Benchmade's CS department and see what they can do about it for you? They have stellar CS by all accounts, so they should be able to help you out somehow with this if you so desire.
 
I have two axis locks and have worked on a third that has been very well used several times. I would give it a bit and let the lock settle. I have had play come and go on these 3, and the lock seems to self adjust itself as its designed to. I have even had blade play come up on my manix with the ball bearing lock, which is similar in function but arguably "sturdier" and it also went away after some more use/cleaning.
I would say it is not normal and would send it back to BM if it does not go away. This may or may not be good advice, but when my ball bearing lock on my spyderco starts acting funky (blade play or lock stick) some shock seems to help it. Such as dropping it on concrete or stabbing into something. I discovered this by accident by the way, I do not recomend purposly dropping your pretty new knife on concrete lol
 
In my experience only about 25% of the axis lock models I have owned exhibited just the tiniest amount of vertical play.

I've owned close to a dozen over the years. The griptilian has always been the most solid in my experience.

I have learned at the end of the day the axis lock does not interest me.

The BM plunge lock is my favorite from them.
 
I own three Benchmades; none have any vertical play now. One did briefly, but the lock wore in and it stopped.

Try pushing the lock bar forward as you wiggle the blade, the blade play should go away. The nice feature of the Axis lock is its self-adjusting property; that is any inital blade play during use tends to seat the bar deeper thus eliminating the blade play.
 
I work at REI and a good fourth of our Benchmade stock has blade play in one form or another. It's to be expected unless you handle them in person before purchasing.
 
I've owned several Benchmades. Up and down and or side to side blade play is common. Really annoying for the high prices they command for them. On top of several other qc issues. I'm done buying them because of the poor qc.
 
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