Gerber Paraframe I Break-In

[magoula]

I just got one of these a couple days ago as a cheap replacement for my ever-aging Gerber that I bought 12 years ago. It seems like a decent enough blade, but I'm having major issues with opening and closing. To open it, I have to use two hands. I tried opening with my thumb and flicking like I can with every other blade I own, but it doesn't move. It takes one hand on the skeleton handle, and the other to open it.

The locking bar is insanely stiff as well. Once the blade is fully open and it locks in place, I can't use my thumb to move the bar at all! It takes two hands to move the bar and close the knife. Using two hands isn't the most ideal thing for a knife like this. I bought it for the convenience of using one hand to deploy and close the knife and quickly get a job done.

I was wondering if anyone else has purchased a Paraframe I and came across similar issues? Did you do anything to fix it? Did it break-in over time (if so, how long?)? I've tried grease and oil and neither of them helped at all.

This is my first post. Glad to finally join up with y'all.

 

[bernard_s3]

Hey welcome to the forums. I had a Paraframe, and the lock bar wasn't stiff, but to deploy the blade, you had to use a weird angle, up and out at the same time. Loosen the pivot a bit, and lube it with some Tuf Glide. If you stick around here long enough, you'll learn most people steer clear from Gerber, and you can get a knife in it's price range that's much much better. Just Google the Kabar Dozier, Spyderco Tenacious, Buck Vantage Select, and just about any off shore Kershaw. They'll not only have better blade steel (Gerber used "surgical" steel on the Paraframe:barf, but you'll also get better quality. In short time that Gerber will rust to hell... I had one and sold it.

 

[magoula]

Thanks for the tips! I checked out some of the suggested knives and I must say those Kershaws look really nice! I might have to pick up one or two and try them out.

 

[Robs92XJ]

I had a paraframe several years ago, and liked it pretty well until I lost it. It's a neat design. Of course the blade steel is nothing special, but the lockup and smoothness were pretty good. There is definetly a problem with this knife, and you should probably just exchange it at the retailer, or buy another knife.

If you want to try to fix it, can you tell if the spring tension in the lockbar is really high, or if there is just a lot of friction from the lockbar/tang interface rubbing on each other when you try to unlock it? If you rotate the knife blade to somewhere around half opened, and just press the lockbar out, is it still really stiff?

The fact that the knife won't open easily suggests that the lockbar tension is too high, since it will rub on the blade tang until locked open. Though it could also be due to the pivot screw being overly tight, or some kind of imperfection with the bushings and their mating surfaces. To rule out the latter, hold the lockbar away from the blade tang and see if the blade rotates freely (be careful not to cut yourself). If it does, then the pivot assembly is fine, and the lockbar must be rubbing so hard on the tang that it prevents it from freely moving. If there's no change in resistance when you hold the lockbar out, then the resistance must be caused by an imperfection in the bushings and/or their mating surfaces.

If you determie the pivot is a problem, I'd take it apart and check that the bushings and blade tang are nice and flat and smooth. Lightly sand them (with a high grit, 600+) on a hard flat backing if they are not. Reassemble and leave the pivot screw just barely snug.

If the lock bar is too stiff and preventing the knife from opening easily, you could try thinning it down near its base where it is narrowed. There is usually a notch at the base of the lockbar to weaken the material, allowing the bar to flex. It's not weak enough, so thin a little more at this notch. A little material removed should go a long way.

If you do all of that and its still difficult to unlock (sticky lock), then there is probably a flaw in the machining of the lock faces on the locking bar and/or tang. That may work itself out over time. You could try to smooth the surfaces out, but there are subtle angles you need to maintain. You could easily ruin the lock. It is a lot like a trigger job on a rifle in terms of accuracy required.

So it's definitely more economical to exchange the knife or just get a different one, but being a fairly cheap knife it is a good one to mess around with and see if you can make it work really well- a learning experience.

 

[magoula]

It's definitely the lock bar. It is the hardest thing to move out of the way to put the blade back down. I think that is also what's causing the opening issue. Since the lock bar has a "bump" on it which fits into a hole in the blade when it's locked, the pressure the lock bar puts against it requires a lot of pressure to get that bump out of the hole.

It doesn't seem smart to file down the bump as the blade would become loose when closed. The only thing I can think of is that the blade is made of a softer metal than the lock bar, so that bump will eventually run grooves into the blade making it easier to open. I don't think any sort of manufacturing defect will change that. I guess I'll just open and close it a billion times and see what happens