My Mantra Made Make it Out of the Box and into My Pocket

[dreadpirate]

I ordered a Mantra late last week. Based on what I have read here and seen on You Tube - I most likely will return my Mantra as soon as it arrives. What concerns me the most is folks are saying it does not get better with use - it gets worse.

[EDIT] Got it today and it's perfect. Don't know what all the fuss is about.

[Bill1170]

What gets worse?

[dreadpirate]

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=72930#p1127028

"It concerns at the very least the Domino, Mantra, and Advocate. No, the problem does not go away with use, it gets worse. "

[Bodog]

If you like the size and steel and ergonomics you'll probably find you will still like the knife despite the action. The one you receive may not even have a problem. I still enjoy mine because the overall design overrides the issue with the bearings. But if I didn't like something else about it, too, it'd be gone. If it's already on the way there might as well give it a shot. You may find yourself feeling the same way.

[Bill1170]

Okay, thanks for pointing me to the other thread. Looks like some CQI is needed on the Mantra bearings.

[Liquid Cobra]

My mantra flipped great. I hope yours does too.

[SF Native]

Don't know if it matters, but my rubicon, mantra, and dice all flip fine. No issues. Can't say the same for all the pm2's that I have received.

[Sharp Guy]

My Mantra was as smooth as can be right out of the box and continues to be perfect several months later. A local friend, who I met through the forum, has one and his really smooth too.

It's been clearly shown that these bearing systems can have some issues. But that doesn't mean they all have issues. I'm typically not a betting man but I'd be willing to bet that there are far more knives out there without bearing issues than there are knives with them. People who are having issues with a product tend to be more vocal about it than people who are satisfied. Give the knife a chance. Hopefully you'll be one of the many who are perfectly happy with it. If not, send it in to Spyderco W&R and give them the opportunity to correct it.

[remnar]

Mine's flipping awesome! Flips as good or better than any other knife that I've handled.

[tap78]

Mantra is a fantastic knife... give it a chance...
https://youtu.be/JOOxHycVeCI

[demoncase]

My Mantra 2 is smooth and hitch free after 6(ish) months of use and regular flipping. No issues....as it's the model where you've really only got the flipper as the opener, it's a confidence builder
My Domino is smooth and hitch free after 12 months of my ownership and maybe the same again with the previous owners unknown level of use
My Southard is smooth and hitch free after even longer of regular flipping (Though it has a liner-delete bronze scale on oneside, so we aren't comparing apples with apples in this case)

My recommendation is get the Mantra out with an open mind and go from there.

EDIT: Addendum....I would say the flipper action on all three is noticeably better than the Boker Kwaiken Titanium model, running on IKBS bearings,

[Surfingringo]

Mine arrived as smooth as butter 6 months ago and remains as smooth as butter today. Flips great!

Remember that when you hear folks complaining about an issue on the internet, it is often a very small percentage of owners. The thousands of folks that have perfectly functioning Mantras don't feel inclined to talk about it on the internet while the handful that have an issue do. This can lead to an inaccurate impression of the prevalence of the issue. Now that's a completely normal phenomenon and I'm not in any way implying that the issue is not real or should not be looked into. I'm just pointing out that it is probably FAR more rare and isolated statistically than it might seem.

[animportant]

My domino and southard are absolutely perfect after years, although they admittedly haven't gotten a ton of use. They're on the upper end of knives to me.

I guess I wouldn't be too upset had they just come with PB washers considering how smooth my PM2s are (with some adjustment).

Unless I really had to I would never take my bearing knives apart.

[Jazz]

Good grief. Really? You might want to do your own thinking.

[MacLaren]

Been playin around with my Southard and Domino.
The Domino is better at flipping, but will still fail a few times when not really focusing. The Positron I had was the same way. The ZT's and Brous flippers are automatic. Night and day difference just to be totally honest. They fire out with absolute authority. Theres just no if ands or buts about a ZT or Brous.
I love Spyderco, but thats just how its been for me.

[Evil D]

This thread is the perfect example of what this whole thing has caused. Now everyone buying one of these bearing pivot knives has a preconceived negative idea of what to expect, and if they so much as feel a piece of lint stuck in the pivot then by God they have a defective knife. I suspect most of you weren't around back when the Para 2 had pivot issues. Yes, that's right, the knife that can do no wrong had blade play issues for at least the first year it was out.

[FCM415]

If you like the size and steel and ergonomics you'll probably find you will still like the knife despite the action. The one you receive may not even have a problem. I still enjoy mine because the overall design overrides the issue with the bearings. But if I didn't like something else about it, too, it'd be gone. If it's already on the way there might as well give it a shot. You may find yourself feeling the same way.

Good job Bodog. Spyderco's a brand that will not only listen to your complaints, you even have enough clout in their forum to make purchasing decisions for some members.

I hope you appreciate it, I'm sure it's not as nice getting the exact opposite reaction for just trying to make the knife world a better place for everyone.

*EDITED - No need to bring in unrelated threads from other forums. - TazKristi

[ABX2011]

My Mantra had a bumpy feeling when cycling. No longer own it.
Had 2 Dominos - both great action. Kept one.
Had 2 Southards - both great action. Both gone.
Have an Advocate and it's got some bumpiness.

[Larry_Mott]

I can't help but wonder how the bearing pivot Spyderco's would be using IKBS. My CRKT's with IKBS are so smooth and light (action-wise) that you'd swear they have blade play (they don't)

[Bodog]

If you like the size and steel and ergonomics you'll probably find you will still like the knife despite the action. The one you receive may not even have a problem. I still enjoy mine because the overall design overrides the issue with the bearings. But if I didn't like something else about it, too, it'd be gone. If it's already on the way there might as well give it a shot. You may find yourself feeling the same way.

Good job Bodog. Spyderco's a brand that will not only listen to your complaints, you even have enough clout in their forum to make purchasing decisions for some members.

I hope you appreciate it, I'm sure it's not as nice getting the exact opposite reaction for just trying to make the knife world a better place for everyone.

Good job taking the terrible spirit of another forum and trying to bring it here. I doubt very much anyone is basin their decision on my opinion alone. It's a pretty common problem and now spyderco is looking into it. The least that can come of this is that they'll rethink using these ball bearings and if they do stop using them in exchange for something better then all of these people coming out of the woodwork who explain their bad experiences will have a reason to rethink buying bearing knives from spyderco. I've refrained from proving anything to you bottomsuckers on BF because I could show you all the proof in the world and you wouldn't believe it because you and people like you are just really rotten spirited people. It'd take some of you guys coming out and actually doing what I do to understand how it is and why I'm able to say what I say. Doesn't matter if you believe it or not. But good job with the shiny footprints.

And yes, spyderco IS a good company because they DO listen to their customers. All it took was some people expressing their opinions. Sorry it wasn't just entirely candy canes and lollipops about anything and everything. There's obviously some kind of issue and now spyderco knows about it and that it's not isolated to just a couple of knives.