Spyderco Forums

I just received the 2018 PM2 Forum Knife today. The action on it is terrible! It’s gotten worse the more I’ve flicked it open......which I’ve done a lot today. Now it it won’t even flip open all the way, even with an assertive “spidie” middle finger flip. The centering of the blade looks perfect and after carefully looking the knife over, I don’t see any sign of a defect......beyond the action being so bad. I have a Camo S30V PM2 and a Bento Box M390 PM2. They both work absolutely perfectly with extremely smooth, free dropping action......and require very minimal pressure to flick open.

Any thoughts on what the problem could be? Does it sound like I got a defective knife? Should I return it to Spyderco?

Lube the detent ball.

Try washing it out around the blade and pivot with some warm soap and water. Once its dry follow up with a few drops of your oil of choice. Mineral oil, nano oil, gun oil etc. I have had several spydies that were too tight or gritty and this has fixed almost all of them.

Thanks. Where can I go in and buy nano oil? Or is it pretty much only available online??

I really like the nano oil 5wt. It makes knives smooth as glass and stone it's thin it gets where needed.

Is it only on opening, or also on closing?

Holding the knife horizontal (blade on bottom), pressing the lock bar all the way against the scale, rocking the knife back and forth, does the blade swing freely?

It does not swing 100% freely without rocking it back/forth with greater pressure than my other two PM2 knives require. But yes it will swing freely with the greater rocking pressure applied

Doesn't appear to be related to the detent ball, or detent itself.

It could be as simple as cleaning and oiling the pivot. But it is more likely that the stop pin needs to be loosened. I have several PM2s, and some of them required a combination of stop pin and pivot adjustment in order to get the desired action.

anycal wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 05, 2018 2:33 pm

Doesn't appear to be related to the detent ball, or detent itself.

It could be as simple as cleaning and oiling the pivot. But it is more likely that the stop pin needs to be loosened. I have several PM2s, and some of them required a combination of stop pin and pivot adjustment in order to get the desired action.

True dat.

Mike, have you tried loosening one of the pivot screws a tiny bit?

On the left (non-clip) lock-side of the knife:

1) Remove stop pin screw and pivot screw (T8 and T10)
2) Clean loktite from screws, if necessary
3) possibly add lube to washers and detent, but there should be plenty since the knife is new
4) Add new loktite to the screws (just a little!)
5) tighten and adjust the two screws to your liking. Normally - for me - that means tightening the stop pin screw "finger tight" (meaning not too much), and the Pivot screw as far as you like the action to work.
6) stop playing and wait 24h for loktite to harden

You need good Torx drivers. If you don't have/want to buy, rather send the knife in.
If you don't have loktite, ask your wife for nail-polish, works similar.

Roland.

Yeah I’m thinking I’m gonna send it back. I really don’t want to have to adjustments on a brand new knife to make it function properly. I’m pretty pissed off about it to be honest! My two other PM2 knives worked perfect right out of the box and have continued to work perfect!

Seems like not much quality control went into this Forum Knife PM2. I’m extremely disappointed at the inconvenience of this all.

Mike51772 wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 05, 2018 10:51 pm

Yeah I’m thinking I’m gonna send it back. I really don’t want to have to adjustments on a brand new knife to make it function properly. I’m pretty pissed off about it to be honest! My two other PM2 knives worked perfect right out of the box and have continued to work perfect!

Seems like not much quality control went into this Forum Knife PM2. I’m extremely disappointed at the inconvenience of this all.

Do what works best for you, but I've easily adjusted dozens of Para 3 and PM2s. A few quick tweeks and it's all good.

I recommend this (sorry non-Spyderco) tool. I have 3 and they are used often.

https://agrussell.com/knife/CRKT-Get-A- ... r--CL-9094

My Cruwear arrived very stiff. Washed it all out under water, compressed air, blue lube, good to go. Like night and day.

Mike51772 wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 05, 2018 10:51 pm

Yeah I’m thinking I’m gonna send it back. I really don’t want to have to adjustments on a brand new knife to make it function properly. I’m pretty pissed off about it to be honest! My two other PM2 knives worked perfect right out of the box and have continued to work perfect!

Seems like not much quality control went into this Forum Knife PM2. I’m extremely disappointed at the inconvenience of this all.

I've had 7 PM2s and 5 Para 3s. The action on about half of those were to my liking. The others I loosened one of the pivot screws a little bit (1/8 turn?) and they were great. I don't see this as a QC issue as the knives functioned as they should. It's certainly nothing to be PO'd about.

I agree, extremely easy fix! Literally takes 2 minutes of your time. A lot less time than constantly flicking it open and closing it. No need to send it out.

Water, lube, micro pivot adjustments. A spray of canned air might even fix it.
I could almost see (barely) being all PO with a $400-$500 knife, but this really is not an issue.

Also consider that adjustment of the Pivot is a taste issue. For example, many here open the PM2 with their thumbs, and your knife would be OK. Others like a free falling blade - I do not, makes no sense for a user for me. I adjust the pivot so that the blade falls - say - 10-20 degrees by itself. The rest I close with hand movement. Etc. I have about a dozen PM2 and half a dozen PM3, and they all came adjusted differently from the factory. Now they all behave the same :)

Roland.

Yeah I expect things that are Brand New to work properly WITHOUT first requiring ‘adjustment maintenance’ to do so! Like my Camo S30V PM2 and my Bento Box M390 PM2 did! You shouldn’t have to get up to $400+ on a knife to expect that! $160 is plenty of money to spend and reasonably expect the knife to show up without terrible action! Not just ‘less than perfect’ or not ideal action.......terrible action!

Mike51772 wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 06, 2018 9:38 am

Yeah I expect things that are Brand New to work properly WITHOUT first requiring ‘adjustment maintenance’ to do so! Like my Camo S30V PM2 and my Bento Box M390 PM2 did! You shouldn’t have to get up to $400+ on a knife to expect that! $160 is plenty of money to spend and reasonably expect the knife to show up without terrible action! Not just ‘less than perfect’ or not ideal action.......terrible action!

Nobody is really disagreeing with you, but we're just saying that it's such an easy fix that there isn't a reason to raise a stink about it or send it back. That's all. I personally like adjusting my knives and get them to my liking. I don't have a single knife that I haven't made at least a minor tweak to. Different strokes for different folks!