Northwoods Muskrat Snapped Spring: Help Wanted

oldmanwilly

oldmanwilly

Gold Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2014
Messages
3,402
Long story short: the spring on my new Northwoods Muskrat snapped and I would like recommendations on someone to repair it.

*Please let me know if the photos do not show up properly*

Full story:
I purchased a Northwoods Muskrat with Italian jigged bone scales from a BF member on the exchange around 2 weeks ago. It was BNIB until I sharpened it and started carrying it in my pocket immediately. It was a perfect fit and I was quite pleased with my new knife.

My only complaint with it was a significant blade rap on the clip blade which only got worse with sharpening. That was my only gripe until last night when I pulled it from my pocket and noticed the spring had snapped completely into 2 pieces (see the pictures below). I have not abused this knife; at most it has been used to cut a steak, some peaches, and a few cardboard boxes. I am disappointed, to say the least, as I have dozens of slipjoints that have been used for years (some have been used for decades) and never seen damage like this.

I can only think of one possible cause for this. To remedy the blade-rap, I wedged a sliver of a match stick near the tang of the clip blade which caused the blade to rest higher up when closed (the sliver is shown below in comparison to a normal match stick). This was the only workable solution I came up with as the blade rested so deeply into the frame that I could barely access the nail nick. Perhaps this caused added stress to the spring when the blades were closed, leading to the fracture. That notwithstanding, I still find it difficult to believe the spring would fail catastrophically due to a minimal amount of added stress.

I already contacted KnivesShipFree and was informed that (i) the knife was manufactured by Queen, and (ii) GEC is unable to repair it. I was not surprised by this at all and was glad their customer service rep was so candid.

Now my only option is to seek help from a talented tinkerer from Bladeforums. Can somebody recommend anyone capable of repairing the spring?

https://imgur.com/lQANyxx

https://imgur.com/FTno5eu

https://imgur.com/bgTsNrx

https://imgur.com/LU27pI8

https://imgur.com/07pOjCy

https://imgur.com/zRTxfuH

https://imgur.com/6TaEqvN
 
Beautiful knife..thats lousy, for sure. I've no theories on the failure, but you might increase your chances of response by cross posting in the Maintenance/Tinkering sub?

Best of luck, gotta be someone hear who can sort that out, a lot of talent on board....or get you pointed in the right direction, at least.

Please follow up on status.
 
Major Bummer there.
What a shame because it's a great looking knife....
So I'm wondering why GEC can't fix it ...OK I get the " not our responsibility" issue and fair enough but
.what ? Not even if you paid for the job?
Fear not .
PORCHCUTLERS ASSEMBLE..!!!
 
meako said:
Major Bummer there.
What a shame because it's a great looking knife....
So I'm wondering why GEC can't fix it ...OK I get the " not our responsibility" issue and fair enough but
.what ? Not even if you paid for the job?
Fear not .
PORCHCUTLERS ASSEMBLE..!!!
Click to expand...
They didn't make it, they're busy running production line and they don't offer a general knife fixing service? I can see their point. Manufacturing a new spring to a pattern you don't make is custom work and probably pretty time intensive.
 
It must be poor manufacturing, your blade rap fix would not impact on the spring's durability. Very tricky though as Queen are out of production. But maybe somebody like Glennbad or others have some Queen spare parts? There must be dozens of springs and bolsters knocking about somewhere and then a knife repairer would be able to fix it. Failing this, trying to buy a user Queen Muskrat and cannibalising it could be an option?
 
I think it's more likely Queen tempered the spring too hard than that your shim did the damage. I had a Queen stockman that spontaneously broke both its springs while closed. Not that it matters, since Queen is no more.
I ought to get mine fixed, so I'll be interested in how you fare with yours.
 
I doubt your shim is what made the spring break. Using a piece of wood as a shim for the same or similar reasons that you did it was a common thing to do on pocket knives. Doing so will not have any real effect on a well tempered spring, so the spring on your knife is likely defective or substandard in some way to have done this rather than it being too much stress. Sometimes springs break and that's just the way it is, I wish you luck in getting it fixed.
 
Wow that is unusual...and not in a good way! As mentioned, your match stick wouldn’t have caused that kind of damage. I have some spare springs around, probably like a lot of us, but unless they are from the same or very similar knife you won’t be able to make them work.
 
ZbtjcH6.jpg

I can definitely feel your pain!!

This happened a few weeks ago...
 
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