Stiffness in opening blade on Charge AL

[stevieb]

Hi Everyone,
I am new to the Forum so first let me say thanks for having this forum.  It great to be able to communicate with fellow multitool owners.  I am the proud new owner of a Leatherman Charge AL.  The tool is awesome.  I love the solid feel of it.  I am however having one issue.  I have to struggle a bit to open the 154cm blade with my thumb.  Is this stiffness normal?  Will it loosen up over time?  Is there anyway to adjust the tool so that it is not so tough to open?  The serrated blade opens very smoothly and easily.  It is just the plain edge blade.  Other than this, I love the tool.  It's a keeper!

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

[Spoonrobot]

Hi stevieb!

*Before doing anything I recommend a wash with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush. I've had a few tools that were way too stiff that magically got better after a good scrub down. Not sure what was being removed by the cleaning but it's worked for a few NIB tools that were too tight.

The tool should loosen up over time, a lot of people like to sit and watch a movie/t.v. for a few hours while opening and closing the blade. It loosens and smooths the mechanism as it breaks in.

But if you want a quicker remedy you have a few options.

1.) Use a pair of channellocks to loosen the fasteners ever so slightly. The problem here is that you need to cover the jaws with something to avoid buggering up the heads and chances are you will need to heat the fastener to break the lock-tite from the factory before you can adjust the tension. If you want to go this route just be careful not to unscrew the fasteners too much. Putting the Charge back together again is kind of a pain.

2.) My personal favorite for this is to squirt a bunch of toothpaste into the pivot and general area and then open the blade @50-100 times before washing it with soap and water to remove the paste. It acts like a light rouge and I feel really loosens/smooths things out and helps clean out any crud from manufacturing that is trapped in there.

Good Luck!

[Poncho65]

Welcome to the forum Stevieb  Glad to have you onboard  I think that in time it will loosen up but Spoon knows his stuff.    You could also try a shot of WD40 in the offending area see if it helps any

[Spoonrobot]

 

I completely forgot the first thing to do with stiff implements. Lubrication!

So, I shall graciously agree with Poncho and echo his suggestion that, first; you put a few drops of your favorite lubricating stuff on the pivot and open/close it a few times.

[Leatherman123]

Yeah, I had similar experiences with my LM Charge ALX! I watched two movies and after that it was smooth!

[665ae]

Hi Everyone,
I am new to the Forum so first let me say thanks for having this forum.  It great to be able to communicate with fellow multitool owners.  I am the proud new owner of a Leatherman Charge AL.  The tool is awesome.  I love the solid feel of it.  I am however having one issue.  I have to struggle a bit to open the 154cm blade with my thumb.  Is this stiffness normal?  Will it loosen up over time?  Is there anyway to adjust the tool so that it is not so tough to open?  The serrated blade opens very smoothly and easily.  It is just the plain edge blade.  Other than this, I love the tool.  It's a keeper!

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to the forum!

Is the blade just hard to start?  Or is it stiff all the way until it's fully open?  On my AL, the blade would drag against the inside of the handle when I would first start to open it, then after it cleared the handle it would open fine.  It would also catch when closing.   I just loosened up the fastener a little bit and it seemed to help, but there is still a little bit of drag.

[stevieb]

Spoon,

Washing with hot soapy water did the trick!  She opens smooth as silk now!  Awesome!!  Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!  Here's what I did.  I got the water from the tap in my kitchen sink as hot as I could get it, then put the tool under it and let that hit for a minute.  Then put a drop of dawn dishwashing soap on an old toothbrush and scrubbed away at the hinge of the 154cm blade.  Opened it a little and scrubbed some more.  Then rinsed with extremely COLD water and then scubbed some more and rinsed again with cold water.  I actually think the cold water made the metal contract a little and allowed the soapy water to penetrate better.  When she was all rinsed out good, dried her with a towel and shook out as much excess water as I could.  Here is a good tip - I also used one of those cans of compressed air to blast out excess water.  Worked like a charm.  I then opened all the tools and let her air dry for about 30 minutes.  Oiled her up after that and the opening action is as smooth as butter!

Thanks Everyone for your Advise.  This tool is a real working tool and I plan on having many years with it by my side!

Stevieb

[J-sews]

I just love a happy ending.

[Leatherman123]

Don't we all!

[Poncho65]

I completely forgot the first thing to do with stiff implements. Lubrication!

So, I shall graciously agree with Poncho and echo his suggestion that, first; you put a few drops of your favorite lubricating stuff on the pivot and open/close it a few times.

See I told you Spoon knew his stuff Don't ever doubt your know how  me I am still really a newbie to alot of this stuff   especially MTs, knifes I am just a little better but not much

[wojtek_pl]

Hi,

I read a review of Charge ALX and a question: are those really rivets that are holding the tool together ? Not screws ? So there is no possibility to regulate the stiffness how the tools open ? Other than soapy water or oil that is? 

[getpower]

Wait LM123, is that the ALX that I now have?

Thats cool, I got a pre-worked/loosened brand new Charge ALX!!!

[Benner]

Hi,

I read a review of Charge ALX and a question: are those really rivets that are holding the tool together ? Not screws ? So there is no possibility to regulate the stiffness how the tools open ? Other than soapy water or oil that is? 

No they aren't rivets, but knurled screws.

[wojtek_pl]

No they aren't rivets, but knurled screws.

That's a good news ! Thanks !

[DoughDTD]

I had a similar problem, except with ALL of the inner blades of the tool.  I washed, dried, then lubricated the whole tool with machine oil and opened and closed the blades about 100 times each, and they are still stiff as they were out of the box.  I've split a few fingernails trying to pry some of these out.  I think the next step will be to try the toothpaste thing, after that, who knows.

-Dough