greyling22
Member
I bought a kershaw bareknuckle back in the fall, and while I like the lines and feel of the knife, the action was garbage. As so many people have mentioned, any pressure onteh lockbar and the knife locked up. The detent was so strong that it took serious effort to deploy the knife.
I let it break in a few months, but was so frustrated with my bareknuckle and the ridiculously strong detent that I decided to lighten the lockbar tension back in December. I took it all apart, but I couldn't get the subframe liner out because the back screw on the clip side wouldn't come out. So I put the knife away for a few months then tried again today.
I filed flats on the spacer screw that I couldn't keep from spinning when I tried to unscrew it, broke a t6 bit, ground it down, broke it again, and was about to give up in disgust when I dropped the scale on the workbench and the whole screw/post came out! That's when I discovered that the back screw is not 2 small screws going into a spacer like every other knife I have ever seen, but instead it is essentially another pivot screw, where the screw head and shaft are 1 piece press fit into the scale, then another small screw threads into it from the show scale side.
But once I got it out, I popped the liner out, lightened the lockbar tension with a little bending, put it back together, and it's a whole new knife! Effortlessly deploys, drops shut, smooth as glass, and putting tension on the lockbar no longer locks the knife up. Why oh why can KAI not do this right from the factory I do not know. (actually I do know. it's because they don't care. my brother used to work with KAI, and he showed me the demo knifes they took to pitch to walmart and other retailers, and they weren't quality controlled at all. offcenter, blades draggin on scales, detents all wrong, clips too tight, it was bad. I asked him about it, and he said that management didn't care at all)
Regardless, if you're thinking of taking a bareknuckle apart, hopefully this will save you some frustration.
I let it break in a few months, but was so frustrated with my bareknuckle and the ridiculously strong detent that I decided to lighten the lockbar tension back in December. I took it all apart, but I couldn't get the subframe liner out because the back screw on the clip side wouldn't come out. So I put the knife away for a few months then tried again today.
I filed flats on the spacer screw that I couldn't keep from spinning when I tried to unscrew it, broke a t6 bit, ground it down, broke it again, and was about to give up in disgust when I dropped the scale on the workbench and the whole screw/post came out! That's when I discovered that the back screw is not 2 small screws going into a spacer like every other knife I have ever seen, but instead it is essentially another pivot screw, where the screw head and shaft are 1 piece press fit into the scale, then another small screw threads into it from the show scale side.
But once I got it out, I popped the liner out, lightened the lockbar tension with a little bending, put it back together, and it's a whole new knife! Effortlessly deploys, drops shut, smooth as glass, and putting tension on the lockbar no longer locks the knife up. Why oh why can KAI not do this right from the factory I do not know. (actually I do know. it's because they don't care. my brother used to work with KAI, and he showed me the demo knifes they took to pitch to walmart and other retailers, and they weren't quality controlled at all. offcenter, blades draggin on scales, detents all wrong, clips too tight, it was bad. I asked him about it, and he said that management didn't care at all)
Regardless, if you're thinking of taking a bareknuckle apart, hopefully this will save you some frustration.
