Sage 5 Lightweight Blade Play/Pivot Adjustment

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Geronimo11P

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Jan 11, 2020
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So I just got a Sage 5 Lightweight a few weeks ago for Christmas. After carrying it consistently for a few weeks I've started to notice some blade play. This knife is my first Spyderco and my first knife over $100 so I'm a little disappointed that it's developed this problem so quickly. I've attempted to adjust the pivot and I've even disassembled the knife to try and see if I can spot any obvious problems but I have had no luck.

If I tighten the pivot the action gets really stiff, which is also annoying. From what I understand, the Sage 5 Lightweight differs from the standard Sage 5 in that it has a pivot bushing. I thought this was supposed to prevent you from being able to over tighten the pivot to the point of significantly stiffening the action. My only guess at this point is that I might have a pivot bushing that is out of spec or has just worn to the point that it isn't flush with the actual pivot.

I don't have a huge knife collection yet and I haven't had much experience with knife maintenance yet so I'm just wondering if I'm missing something or if anyone has had similar problems with the Lightweight. Any tips or suggestions are appreciated.
 
If it's anything like my Pm2s and para 3 (pivot bushings) free action/no blade play is a battle of very small screw turns.

Go ahead and tighten up the pivot to where you have no play. Then, back the screw out in very, very small increments until it has the action you want and no play. You should get it pretty quickly, but if you go a little too far you'll have play.

Battle or millimeters...
 
Hmm, ok. The problem right now is that I’ve got it tightened to the point that the action is no longer fall shut but the blade still has horizontal play. I’ll try disassembling the knife again and I’ll try your technique when I reassemble it
 
You sure you have the pivot assembled correctly? It is keyed, and if you don't have it in all the way it won't tighten up properly.

Just a thought. If you still can't get it after reassembly I'd see about sending it to spyderco. It shouldn't have blade play and be difficult to open. All of my compression lock knives drop freely and have no play, including my para 3 lightweight.
 
Just reassembled the knife by referencing Nick Shabazz's video. I used your technique and it seems to have worked. It took me about 20 minutes of just fiddling with the pivot to find an adjustment that gave me no blade play and a free action. I'm a little surprised at how sensitive the pivot was to adjustment. Seems like the margin of error can't be more than a degree or two of rotation. Thanks for the help
 
Glad it worked! Yes, the pivot is very sensitive, takes me a while to get my para 3 set right. The Pm2s are a little easier because of the heavier blade.

Glad spyderco upgraded the Sage. My sage 5 was good and smooth, but would never be as nice as a pm3. I wonder if they are going to upgrade the regular sage 5 with a bushing as well.
 
It wouldn't surprise me if they did a CQI version of the standard Sage 5 with a bushing, kind of like they did with the Kapara. I'm hoping they will eventually do that with the Manix 2 Lightweight.
 
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