- Joined
- Nov 20, 2006
- Messages
- 268
I've had my MOD CQD Mark I for a long time now, and I noticed about a couple of months ago that it had begun to develop some vertical blade play. Or something.
It might not even have qualified as blade play at all. There wasn't any visible movement, but more of a very perceptible "clicking" sensation in the fingers pinching the blade when forcing the blade backwards and forwards. Whatever you call it, it wasn't there when the knife was new, and it was annoying the crap out of me.
Anyway, I took the knife apart to try to figure out where the looseness was coming from. The lock button assembly and the notch that it mated with were solid as ever so the problem had to be elsewhere. I found that clicking feeling again when moving the pivot pin against the washer/spacer between the pin and the blade itself. So I figured that maybe the washer had worn a little bit and there was some excess space between it and the pin. I put the knife back together and brainstormed for a solution. I tried a couple of ideas before finding one that worked: teflon tape. It fills the space, lubricates the joint, and helps prevent further damage from abrasion or impact.
Starting with a fully assembled knife with the blade locked in the open position, I unscrewed the pivot screw and pushed the pivot pin out the other side. I gently put the knife down to preserve the alignment of the holes for the pivot pin and screw, to make reinsertion easier. I got some teflon tape and wrapped two layers of it around the body of the pivot pin, making sure to leave about an eighth of an inch of the tape's width hanging past the mouth end of the pivot pin. That little bit sticking out over the end made it easier to ease the now-wider pivot pin back into the same hole. I used my fingertips to firmly smooth out the teflon tape on the pin before twisting and pushing the pivot pin back in place.
When you do this, you can expect that some of the teflon tape will bind and not enter the pivot hole. Hopefully, if you do it carefully, enough of the tape will remain on the pivot pin.
Then I put the pivot screw back in.
That removed the vertical play. After less than a hundred cycles, however, the clicking sensation returned, though it was much milder than it was originally. So I added one more layer of teflon to the pivot pin, and that did the job. More than a month and several hundred cycles later (It's my favorite knife and I play with it a lot.), the blade lockup is still as good as new and I firmly believe that that's going to be the last time I will ever be bothered by that annoying looseness.
It might not even have qualified as blade play at all. There wasn't any visible movement, but more of a very perceptible "clicking" sensation in the fingers pinching the blade when forcing the blade backwards and forwards. Whatever you call it, it wasn't there when the knife was new, and it was annoying the crap out of me.
Anyway, I took the knife apart to try to figure out where the looseness was coming from. The lock button assembly and the notch that it mated with were solid as ever so the problem had to be elsewhere. I found that clicking feeling again when moving the pivot pin against the washer/spacer between the pin and the blade itself. So I figured that maybe the washer had worn a little bit and there was some excess space between it and the pin. I put the knife back together and brainstormed for a solution. I tried a couple of ideas before finding one that worked: teflon tape. It fills the space, lubricates the joint, and helps prevent further damage from abrasion or impact.
Starting with a fully assembled knife with the blade locked in the open position, I unscrewed the pivot screw and pushed the pivot pin out the other side. I gently put the knife down to preserve the alignment of the holes for the pivot pin and screw, to make reinsertion easier. I got some teflon tape and wrapped two layers of it around the body of the pivot pin, making sure to leave about an eighth of an inch of the tape's width hanging past the mouth end of the pivot pin. That little bit sticking out over the end made it easier to ease the now-wider pivot pin back into the same hole. I used my fingertips to firmly smooth out the teflon tape on the pin before twisting and pushing the pivot pin back in place.
When you do this, you can expect that some of the teflon tape will bind and not enter the pivot hole. Hopefully, if you do it carefully, enough of the tape will remain on the pivot pin.
Then I put the pivot screw back in.
That removed the vertical play. After less than a hundred cycles, however, the clicking sensation returned, though it was much milder than it was originally. So I added one more layer of teflon to the pivot pin, and that did the job. More than a month and several hundred cycles later (It's my favorite knife and I play with it a lot.), the blade lockup is still as good as new and I firmly believe that that's going to be the last time I will ever be bothered by that annoying looseness.
