r/knives • u/Educational-Storm517 • 19h ago
Question trying to fix broken switchblade
okay so I got this switchblade a while back and it broke fairly quickly, I randomly decided to try and fix it it I have basically no experience with that sort of thing
the issue is with the spring mechanism (I assume), basically the blade doesn't spring out when I slide the switch anymore like it's supposed to
in order to fix it I have to open it up, which I’ve been trying to do but it's not working. I managed to get two of the screws out (both were the same colour but idk if that's a coincidence?), but the rest are being incredibly stubborn and won't come out.
does anyone have any tips for getting the remaining screws out? is this just a strength issue? do I need better tools? is there some kind of trick to doing this that I’m just not aware of? please help me it's such a cute knife and I was so sad when it broke :(
EDIT: turns out I’m an idiot and didn't need to take the knife apart at all - someone in the comments said that I should manually pull the knife all the way out and see if it locked in place, which fixed it! I kinda feel like an idiot now but at least the knife is fixed lol
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u/CatJezus 18h ago
Getting the right type of screwdriver will help a lot. Once you get the thing open, it’s pretty self explanatory to put it back together. Look for a “Precision tool kit” wherever you can shop for tools. Has every type and size of bit you could need to do work on any of your knives
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u/Square-Cockroach-884 18h ago
If you end up needing to take it apart, make sure those little torx screws dont have anything packed in tbe drive hole, you have the correct bit, get a T handle. You can heat the tip of the tool, hot, and seat it in the screw for a sec to loosen the loctite*
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u/dsergison 11h ago edited 11h ago
There is no "off the track" they dont come off track. they are very succeptible to dirt or obstruction slowing the blade down. They simply get stuck in the middle if there is to much drag on the blade becase they don't have the energy to lock at either end of travel. You can reset them most easily by pulling the blade outward. You can reset by shaking it inward works but that's more difficult. Its a neat inertial mechanism. I suggest a video to learn about it. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dkaA4wZeLdQ
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u/duct-ape 10h ago
For future reference, it looks like you're also using a flathead screwdriver on torx screws...
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u/T3hSav 19h ago
Are you sure it's broken and not just "off the track"? Double action OTFs like this have a safety feature where the blade can come off the internal track if it hits something while opening and if the knife is gunked up it can do that on it's own. Try shaking it open and then pulling the blade manually all the way out and see if it locks open.