I'm also looking forward to your progress. Not yet an owner but if I was I'd be looking to replace the blade with another tool or make the blade only "irreversibly" non-locking.
I'm not currently an owner because I didn't like that the example sent had a 2-3mm misalignment in the handles when closed. Your's suffer from that? Alternatively can you see anything in the plier-end design why there might be a susceptibility to the issue?