The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is $300 $250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Agreed. But the old XHP model that I have is so far the best in my experience.
I don't know if I'd go as far as put them to shame....but yeah the Taiwan makers does seem to have a better grasp on overall quality on these. especially considering the Taiwan made has a much lower price with identical materials, minus the steel choice.
May have found the reason for gritty action E EatingSarma
Popped mine open today figuring it would be broken in enough that I'd take a loaded felt wheel to polish up all the contact points and get it loctited back together, and it'd been good to go.
Well, I couldn't see them looking in that there are actually Teflon washers in there. Being a CS I should've expected I guess, but I really couldn't see them. One side had a Teflon washer and two paper thin pb washers, while the other side only had the Teflon and a single pb. The pb ones are crazy thin, dished, scratched, and you can see they got pinched by the pivot being put together. The Teflon aren't in much better shape; one the center had totally ripped off, and it's outer edge had partially frayed. Overall...not very pretty. The one good thing I'll say is it's nice they use a wide radius washer so the blade rides on more material.
I replaced them with the spares I put in all my CSes (dimensions in one of the pics). Feels a million times better even not broken in, but to be fair I also cleaned it so who knows.
Washers it came with, how they look first opening (and by the way I had to break the loctited to open it, so it was exactly at factory tightness):
Another where you can see the piece of Teflon washer that separated and stayed on the pivot:
With the replacements, only need one per side (and the missing Teflon washer center taken off the pivot):
Curiously only one of three clip screws had loctite. It was the lowest, so maybe there's a reason:
Shot of the inside of the handles, for reference:
Another thing, it wasn't the stop pin rattling. That is stepped and doesn't have a separate collar as I thought. Both pins were stuck in there pretty tight so it must not have been those rattling. I'm guessing it's one of the other smaller body pins. Lazily I just threw grease on the ends of everything, and it seems okay.
So sorry to see that man. I hope their warranty will make it right to you...Welp, I'm a little pissed. It broke. It's not even broken in and I've cut with it a handful of times. All of a sudden it started to feel like the pivot was loose, then it wouldn't stay closed. It looked fine and clean just peering in the handle, so I popped it open, and the lock spring is bent! Compare it to the pic from a few weeks back I quoted
This part is bent when it was straight before
Notice how the lock bar stays up without the blade in there
Guess I'll be trying that now infamous Cold Steel/ GSM warranty. I've never seen a bent spring like that before. Anyone else? I've seen reports of old knives breaking that spring, but I've never seen one bend from just opening and closing. Guess it's not the proper hardness/temper. That's fun.
Edit: Delivered April 26. Didn't make it a month. RIP baby Italian Recon 1
Aside from any potential fitment issues, would only work if the spring is “good”. Really doubt they’re using different springs for different blade steels, but could be a bad batch.
Great minds
.... I had the same thought and grabbed my other to give it a quick look last night. The cross sectional shape is different (square or rectangle cross section versus rounded), but I don't see how that would matter. I will it at least to see if it worksthis weekend and will update the thread.
Let me know how it goes manGreat minds
Xhp version:
Jantz also sells lock bar spring stock, so I'll be grabbing some of that and trying my hand at making a new one. Even if I get a replacement under warranty (filed last night), I'll just be waiting and wondering when the new one will stop working.
This is kinda depressingOne more quick update, on closer inspection, it did crack, not bend. Also I'm not sure why I thought it was round..
This thread is becoming more awesome by the day! This is ton of info. Thanks for posting!Welp I got home for lunch early and took a shot at switching out springs. It does work.
Swapping the MC blade into the Taiwanese handle, everything fits together, but there's a slight bit of rock that way. By eye the pivot looked different, but they're the same diameter. The blade tangs are shaped slightly different, so I'm guessing that is the issue swapping.
Took comparison pics in case anyone wants them
Italy on top
Only differences I see are the insert at the pivot into the g10 instead of making the g10, and (just mine?) the Taiwan one came with a hole drilled but no pin below the lock spring (never had an issue so just assuming it is/was intended).
Mine does.Well, I have a less than fun update.
First things first, no response from customer service about it.
Second, some may have seen I posted in GKD about making my own spring bar Monday. If not: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads...arrying-today.1573161/page-7572#post-23091947
I was carrying the knife today and put a few hundred openings on it frankly, like 2-300 by best guess. Slow, deliberate, pressing no more than needed to get the lock bar to stop catching (though that's naturally pretty deep with triad locks), but still a few hundred over the day. My replacement lock bar broke, exact same spot!
Looks the same from the side
So I went back to look at the Italy vs Taiwan pics I took for here. I noted then that there is no pin under the lock bar into the back spacer. Looking again, this time I noticed the back spacer is g10 for Taiwan and aluminum for Italy. I'd say that means the Italian version's back spacer doesn't have flex that the Taiwan version does. My current theory is has changed from bad lock bar steel to not enough flex in the backspacer. I always wondered why my Taiwan Recon 1 didn't come with a pin there when the hole was drilled.
I popped in a thicker spring for now but also will be trying it without the pin at least and see how that does.
Just to be sure, does anyone with a Taiwan model have a pin there, under the lock bar as shown in this image?
I think this is correct, the correct spring design should not rely on the support to flex. The pin is likely there to prevent such a thing. I also agree that a sharp corner at the bend point would likely cause a stress concentration point for the spring. A curve or radius there would be much better IMO.
The original and replacement springs both go in there tightly. Maybe that's it or part of it.
Appreciate that. I guess the g10 was an old Taiwan thing
Appreciate the pic too. My Taiwan I purchased back when they made xhp ones and had seen a ton of carry and use too, never an issue. I have maybe four more of Triad Cold Steels and have never had a spring break (actually I've never had a spring break on any back lock), else at this point I'd put the blame on me (still could be I suppose).Mine does.
Sorry for not having a better picture, it's been a while since I disassembled my Recon1 and I changed phones since, so IDK how I even missed this one (I deleted most of knife pics during phone swap, this is cropped from bigger photo, but you can still see the pin).
EDIT: This knife has also seen fair share of use as daily EDC for over year and a half by now, and the spring has 0 issues.