Omega springs

N

Nocturnal13

Joined
Apr 18, 2017
Messages
199
Hi guys. I know the omega springs can break now and again. All I want to know is if closing the axis lock from one side vs both sides makes a difference in the longevity of the springs.

Thanks
 
I've owned many BM over the years.

710, 705, Ares, AFCK, Rukus, 14205, Grip 551, Ritter and so on.

I treated every one like a quality tool and never had a spring snap. Even with pulling from one side or both as you mention. It is rare and it can happen.

Honestly though. Using two fingers, pulling on both sides is more natural for me anyway.

You can send it in or make some out of guitar strings. At the end of the day. Life is to short. It's a reliable, strong and time tested lock. The Grip is one of my favorite knives of all time and it's something I avoided for no reason at all for a few years now.

2 are on the way as I speak :)
 
My 940 spring snapped just the other day.

The knife actually still works with one spring.

I pull both sides cause it feels more natural but I don’t see how pulling one side vs both sides will make any real difference.
 
I have ump-teen Benchmades. Haven't had a spring break, although I don't flick them open and closed unless I'm using the knife. I usually only push the Axis lock on one side.
 
at different times i’ve done different things. had a 710 that was stolen a couple years ago that i use since ‘99 & just used my thumb to pull back the axis bar, never broke the springs. nowadays i usually use both sides on my manual bms and just my forefinger on my assists and auto. neither way seems to present a problem.
 
Couldn't say. I just only use one side or the other to close. My longest owned benchmade the adamas has yet to break a spring, 6 years?, opened....at least 10000 times. I have had springs break tho on others, never both at same time so lock didn't perform.

Edit. I definitely use both my pointer and thumb over both sides to close. With auto axis thumb and middle and pointer to push blade down. Much easier pushing both sides down with two fingers.
 
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As another data point, I almost always open all my Benchmades on just one side, and springs on only certain models have broken for me. I take from that it's at least partially design-dependent, not solely based on user method.
 
The official word from Benchmade in the past has been that only using one side will reduce the lifespan of the spring. I don't know if this is true as a fact, but its been stated. I suspect that some models allow more offset to occur to the bar which applies another angle of tension on the spring, but this is pure speculation. As a matter of principal, any spring can break, I think some guys seem to be hard on springs, but who knows why?
 
Before I owned a Benchmade I thought you were supposed to pull from one side for the longest time. After owning one it does feel a lot more natural to use both sides. I’ve never had an Omega Spring break yet and I can never help myself from flipping mine.
 
Well, I'm up here in the land of "bum spankers" and sending anything south of the border will no doubt result in playing Russian Roulette with the CBSA. So when the omega spring broke on my 940-2, I made my own. They are a bit crude looking, but work just fine and when/if any more break, I have the experience to make more. Not to mention, BM's are a snap to take apart and successfully put back together again (hello 580).

Now (not sure I should mention this) but I did contact BM, at the end of June, and a very nice lady said they would send me out a set of springs but could take awhile.
 
Using two fingers feels more natural for me too, that's why I never really cared about one side vs both sides. But my Contego has quite a long handle and with that it's easier from one side. Thanks for all the responses
 
I doubt it matters. I open my Axis locks by holding down both sides of the lock. I still had one of my springs break on the Kulgera. The other one continued to function for about a week before it also broke.

I had to call them and send it in to get it fixed. Took about 10 days. I had emailed them, but like every other email I've sent them, they never responded.
 
On the one vs two side topic, again on differences in designs, there seems to be different amounts of slop between models. Some if I pull just one side, the whole bar still slides back evenly, while others it goes back crooked with the untouched end lagging behind. Anyone else notice this on particular models? I could understand if the latter adds force to the spring in an unexpect and not ideal way.
 
kreole said:
On the one vs two side topic, again on differences in designs, there seems to be different amounts of slop between models. Some if I pull just one side, the whole bar still slides back evenly, while others it goes back crooked with the untouched end lagging behind. Anyone else notice this on particular models? I could understand if the latter adds force to the spring in an unexpect and not ideal way.
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I have noticed, when I occasionally use just one side that the bar does move crooked. I'll check them out later to see what models are worse than others but right now I'm playing with a 0450cf
 
Well I checked my 3 940's, 580, 535, 531, 908, 551-1, 484 and 556 and they all have a slight cant to them when I pull back on only one side of the axis bar, but not what I would consider alarming and not something that I would think would cause the spring to break.

However, I still pull on both sides as using only one side seems awkward to me even though one of the springs did break on my 940-2 after two years.

edit: I am sitting here at the computer and playing with my regular 940 and the bar stays pretty straight when I pull back only using one side of the bar so maybe disregard everything I said previously.
 
I'm not at home now so can't check my others but the Contego's bar also stays fairly straight when pulling only one side. But I have also seen many people talking about making their own omega springs from memory wire so I don't consider this a huge problem. I personally love the axis lock
 
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