Lightning OTF Knife ( switchblade)

[Funner]

I ordered one of these for a on sale price at $20.00. Just for a pocket knife, daily uses, etc.

Does anyone have one and what's your thoughts?

I will let you know my thoughts when I get mine.

http://www.bladehq.com/cat--Lightning-OTF--1837

Here's a vid comparison.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0DRnf_fPp0Q

 

[slimshady]

They are not a microtech. Just got 8 of them in on a group buy with my friends. 4 worked fine out of the box. Several had loose screws, two were missing and at least one was missing because the threads were stripped out. The rest needed a fine tuning to be reliable, essentially if the retraction fails you need to file a bit off the blade where it locks in. If it fails on the extension, the thumbpiece needs filed to allow it to travel further forward, or the frame it moves inside needs filed to allow it to move forward more. One was also a little rough on the casting and took some firings to smooth out. Takes a really small Torx driver, Sears has them though. The paint under the thumbpiece also is gummy, makes the button action a bit stiff until it wears off.

Blade is a bit wobbly, but most OTF are unless you get a hand fitted piece. Haven't used it for anything besides opening boxes, so far still sharp after a couple weeks. may be getting another order up, we got the silver blade black handle, may go the green camo. I would avoid the black blade models, if the paint is similar to the handle paint it will gum up the action.

BTW, we got ours here, about $17 each shipped if you buy 6, $22 for singles.

http://www.directknifesales.com/search.html?search[keywords]=lightning&_a=category

 

[rescue161]

Had one for years. As slimshady pointed out, the quality control just is not there. We also did a group buy and all of them had to be taken apart and fine-tuned. Once that was done though, the knives worked very good. Lock-up is good, but the blade is wobbly. You can't go wrong for $20 though.

 

[Funner]

thanks for the input.
I have not got mine in the mail yet, but i will keep you updated. I was thinking of ordering 6+ for the $15.00 price in the future.

 

[Funner]

I see that direct knife has China made knives. Thats what I ordered. Aren't the Taiwan made the way to go. Oh well we will see.

 

[Funner]

Got it in. Its a sweet knife. You can't beat it. Fun to play with.

 

[Funner]

Crap. Update is it has started to fail to lock closed. China made is junk in my case.

 

[slimshady]

It just needs tuned. Look below the sharpened edge of the blade, there is a notch there that the latch fits into when retracted. Either the blade is not traveling far enough back or the angle of the cut is bouncing the latch out. Either disassemble or pull the blade out against the spring tension to expose the notch. Dremel the rear edge of the notch so it is 90 degrees flat. If that doesn't help, move that edge back farther.

BTW, you can get failures due to "limp wrist", you have to hold it firmly when firing or the force imparted to the blade movement gets reduced.

 

[Funner]

It worked fine when i got it. I probably opened and closed it 100 times. Then it started failing to close every other.

"Limp Wristing" thats funny.

I guess my next it to take it apart and check it out.

Thanks

 

[slimshady]

You'll need a T8 Torx driver, Sears carries them. Be careful, they strip out easy.

Yeah, limp wristing or even trying to "help" the action by flicking your wrist when firing will make them malfunction. They operate sorta like a blowback auto, if the housing moves any it soaks up the force that would be used to move the blade.

You might have some dirt or shavings in it too, a couple of mine the burr left over from machining the blade track was still attached and easy to break off.

Hey, they probably cost $4 each before the middlemen got ahold of them!

If you don't find an obvious problem, tune it.