Thu Mar 10, 2011 9:52 pm by Erenoth
So after fooling with my 440c BM42 for upwards of six hours today, and trying out nearly every combination of washer polish level/thickness/tightness using those .330 OD X .197 ID X .O15 washers, I'm not entirely sure it was worth the effort over the stock stainless washers. I'm new to flipping, so perhaps I didn't follow everything perfectly, but the handle/blade play results were mediocre at best in comparison to stock. I also noticed that although I perfectly aligned everything into the handles while reassembling, the washers appear much smaller in circumference than most photos I've seen of other user's knives.
The first hour or so I was reconfiguring the knife I had spent putting a shiny mirror polish on both sides of every washer, without taking off too much metal. It was a hassle to fit everything back and reinsert the pivots, but there was zero play. The drawback to this, however, was that regardless of how meticulously I cleaned out the parts, the pivot action was incredibly slow. When I attempted to do a basic fastdraw, the blade would usually lock up mid-air. Albeit, I didn't militec treat the pivots, and still haven't, because I'm waiting for the 242 to cure inside it. Is this normal behavior? I've noticed many people have said that with a "perfect fit", the action will be slow, but I wasn't expecting the knife to be unflippable.
On a sidenote- I've yet to contact Benchmade regarding it, but does anyone know if they still sell 40x parts? Specifically, I'd like to replace the pivot and blade altogether. The fellow I bought it from blunted the edge quite a bit, and from the looks of it, had a couple coats of old crusty red loctite on the screw threads. My slow action is probably a side effect of this.
Many thanks in advance!