Hi all,

I just picked up a HK 14210, it's a very nice knife, but when I received it I was disappointed to find that the movement of the blade was nothing like my son's (2 week old) Mini Grip 556. It's far stiffer where his 556 is buttery smooth and will close the blade using gravity alone when I release the Axis lock. I have to close mine manually. It's not super tight and I don't have to force it, but it refuses to close even with a sturdy wrist flick.

I suspect this is because his blade is polished and mine is a matte finish. While the action has freed up a bit it's still nothing like the mini grip. I've tried adjusting the pivot screws to no avail. The only way to get the action that free is to adjust it out til you have side to side blade play.

I suspect that at this point the steel that's worn off the blade where it contacts the bronze washers is plugging up the surface of the bronze washers.

Any ideas what I can do?

I'm not even sure how you are supposed to lube this thing since you can't just remove the pivot pin and pull the blade out.

Thanks.

Hi BitByte, the two Torx drivers you need are the T6 for the screws and T10 for the pivot. You might try backing the pivot to the left a little to see if it loosens the blade up.

On my 14210 the pivot on the left side of the knife is the one I make the adjustments on.

Also on lubing, I usually place a drop or two on either side of the blade right into the pivot washers.

Hope that helps.

Bitbyte, you mentioned that you suspect the blade coating or as you said, "matte finish" is keeping yours from being as smooth as your son's. I agree. Just loosen the pivot until you get the movement you want then use it for a few days. Then tighten the pivot a little after the use has smoothed everthing internal. Keep this up until fixed. If you use this method, flick the knife a few hundred times to get is smoothed out.

If you are impatient, remove the blade and polish the offending areas with 800 grit black sand paper. If the knife has a "single" adjustment pivot screw, remove it then punch the pivot out the other side with a small rod or nail. At that point the blade and both washers will slide out the front. To re-assemble, push the pivot in a bit and put a washer on it, then put the blade in and push the pivot through the blade. At that point, slide the last washer in and push the pivot all the way home. Reinstall the screw and give it a try. Add some oil the way Joe described above.

-fj

Ok good suggestions.

As I mentioned I've tried adjusting the pivot screw. But it's still nothing like my son's mini grip. I should never have opened his knife, it ruined my expectations of other knives forever. haha

What lube do you recommend? I've seen Blue lube, Militec and Tuf Glide all mentioned. None of which I can buy locally. I can order some but in the interim what would you suggest?

Also, will I void my warranty by removing the pivot and blade to lube and clean it?

Thanks.
Bit

Hi Bit,

Just like FastJan, I read you already adjusted the pivot, so mis-cue on my part. There's no damage done by removing the blade as described above, it's easy. And given the 7 to 10 day turnaround if you did send it up a little piece of 800 grit paper might make all the difference in how it operates.

On pivot lube, my choice is Tuf-Glide. It's not messy and doesn't attract lint as it's a 'dry' oil. Militec's pretty good too.

Joe

I think you could use any good quality gun oil, Breakfree CLP, or even WD40..Ive used all of these, I like CLP the best though.Just a couple of drops where joe said will help.

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the fast responses.

I'll order up some Tuf-Glide soon.

I realize that I won't damage the knife by taking out the blade, I'm more referring to Benchmade's policy that taking apart the knife voids the warranty. I'm very confident I could rectify this myself by removing the blade, I just don't want to void my warranty since I'm not sure what they consider taking it apart versus normal maintenance.

I'd actually love to get at the pivot area with a buffing wheel mounted on my Dremel and some jeweler's rouge.
Cheers.

I understand your concern so it's more a judgement call on your part. On one hand if you took the blade out, used the dremel and rouge, and it turned out perfect you'd have the knife working as you'd like it to.

On the other hand, there are other knife makers that invite you to disassemble their knives as you'd like because they know you'd do it anyway.

Benchmade is more than fair in their warranty repair policy. Even if messed up, they would still only charge a small amount to fix the thing if not replace it, as has been done for many of us.

So in other words you can't lose. I'm a big fan of that model, I just hope it works for you as it should.

I personally use Militec. If you want Tuf-Glide look under the name Sentry Solutions at Knifeworks or any other fine retailer....Ha!

If I had to buy some oil to hold me over, I'd get some RemOil at the gun counter in any Wal-Mart. Heck its probably as good as the others anyway. I think it has teflon in it to smooth out that pesky 14210.

Joe is the expert on Tuf-glide. It might be better for not grabbing all the lint in your pocket.

-fj

OK guys, thanks very much for the feedback.

This is my first benchmade (HK) so I wasn't sure how ornery and militant they were about the warranty.

I'm going to have a look for some Breakfree at Ace hardware tomorrow to use for cleaning and to tide me over til i get the tuf-glide.

Rest assured I'll be buying more Benchmade knives.

Right now my only two other knives of any value are a Benchmark Rolox Viper that I bought many years ago (before Gerber bought Benchmark and made a mess of the knives) and a Lakota Lil'Hawk. Both quality knives for the time they were bought. But the action on them is nothing like what I've seen on the Benchmades.

Thanks again, it's nice to see avid fans who share useful information with each other.

Cheers.