After taking this knife apart, cleaning it, and lubricating it, I’m submitting this review as an edit to my previous review, in which I gave this knife 4 stars.
I gave this knife four stars because it came stiff and greasy and would like to retract this statement. Yes there was grease on the button track and in places on the knife, but that is completely understandable as the manufacturer would want to keep the knife lubricated while in storage, and grease is great for that.
Also, in regards to the “stiffness” or difficulty opening, this is my first otf, so I didn’t realize that stiffness is a good thing with OTFs as it is a measure of safety against accidental deployment. Yes the action is a bit hard to open, but when it does, it is a very short switch throw and rapid response. It’s incredible. The return is just as snappy. The movement of the blade itself and the button are not at all ‘stiff’, everything moves smoothly on track. The switch just requires some oomph to fire, but it isn’t much.
The knife is far easier to disassemble and reassemble than I imagined it would be, with my only hiccup being that I needed to learn that the spring is directional in terms of how you put it in. It has bent tabs on either end, one short and one long, that latch onto the slide plate. I didn’t realize that the short end goes on the front of the plate, and the long on the rear. Also, though it may seem counterintuitive, you can’t have the blade locked back when assembling, it needs to float about halfway along the length of the railing and you’ll be able to get everything back together.
