Flex-Cut or Faulty-Tool ?

[luscher]

ok, now i'm scared -- i've been carving/whittlin' for one month (at most one hour a day, building hand endurance and calouses) and the blade of my roughing knife came out

has anyone had similar experiences with Flex-Cut tools ? the blade in the detail knife i purchased at the same time seems to be securely set

the blade did not *fall* out, rather it ''walked'' out as i was cutting down a stick (it now falls out). thankfully i finally noticed, and there was no injury, but the other day my new 9-piece Flex-Cut carving set arrived ... if i should return it, i need to know now

and how do i go about fixing this ? there is no pin to secure the tang, and i seriously doubt Flex-Cut will do more than reply to my email with a ''golly, we're sorry you had a problem ... that's never happened before'' cut-and-paste response

given the hardness of the metal, i suspect drilling a hole through it will be out of the question (to secure it to the handle with a pin of my own) unless i take it to my local machine shop ($40/Hr)


please tell me :

1) are Flex-Cut tools prone to problems ? is Flex-Cut all marketing or a solid line of products ?

2) how do i approach repairing this ?


thanks for sharing your expertise !

[Tom Ellis]

lusher, You can search some other threads about this problem, but I think I would try to rough up the tang a little with a file, or sandpaper, and stick the blade back in, and then use some of the thin superglue, and run down inside the handle, That should hold.

Good luck, Tom

[Sharon of the Dell]

Contact flexcut or the place you got it. most places if you you let them know the problem and talk to them with a good attitude will bend over backwards to solve the problem.
I have flexcut tools and like them.

[mpounders]

I don't use their knives but I have never had a problem with their palm tools that I have used heavily for a couple of years. I am sure Flexcut would replace it, but if it happened to mine, I would just use epoxy or superglue and fix it rather than waiting for things to get shipped back and forth. I sometimes make my own knives and just epoxy the blades in, rather than pinning them.

[Nomad]

I agree with Mike. It's a simple fix with a little epoxy. Whatever glue Flexcut uses, on occasion it breaks loose and the blade comes out. It only happened to me once but I've seen it happen to others on this board so it's not uncommon. Sometimes if a glue does not completely fill a gap, it will pop loose from the wood from all the torsion of carving. Epoxy will fill the gap and you should not have a problem. Just clean the blade and dig out the old glue before regluing.

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

I would contact whoever you bought it from first....if they won't take care of the problem, which I am sure they will...its a good company...then last resort...I agree with the above post use two part epoxy to put the blade back in..not crazy glue.....but if you have to do that...put the blade in a vise and file a few notches in the edges of the tang.....it won't come out then....EVER lol

[Inadv]

Luscher,

This issue seems to crop up about once every 2 or three months or so on the board, The advice others have given you is your best approach. Contact the seller first. Most of them would just replace it and not ask you to send the defective one back. If they don't, or if they don't ask you to return it, then reglue the blade in place per the instructions from others. If you're lucky you'll end up with a spare knife!

L.P.

[One Thumb Carver]

Luscher
I had the same problem I called FlexCut they sent me a new knife and did not want the old one back. So I super glue the blade back into the handle and now I have two goood knifes the same.

[luscher]

wow -

truly amazing how many of you took time out of your busy day to advise me about my problem - thank you all

as for Super Glue, i honestly can't imagine doing that myself (while it apparently works, it is not a long-term solution for me)

epoxy is was an option, provided i split the handle first and made recesses in the wood to provide mechanical locking (my epoxy fetish solves many problems around here)

after reading that some of you had cordial interactions with the company, i decided to return it (it just went out - should be there Friday, return by 3-day UPS, i imagine)

in the meantime i am preparing my indoor shop to make a mold of the handle (using my large detail knife) so that, if needed, replacements can be made of a durable urethane, with epoxy or metal pin on/in the blade (for mechanical interlock)


also thanks for the reassurance that the palm tools are good quality !


i remember back when i was a kid, Magnavox made a TV with what consumers called ''junk-in-the-box''. from the front of the TV the owner could pull (with a big T-handle) an electronic 'brick' from the console and drive this down to their local Magnavox repair shop, bringing home a new block to install - all the troublesome control and timing electronics that proved unreliable were localized in one place, and made conveniently removable - why re-engineer a long-term solution ? product design has not improved much in these US, in my experience

well, at least people in general are still gentlemen - thanks again for all your help

[luscher]

oh - should mention that my local dealer is one of those small businesses that makes one wonder how it survives. returning it to him could be an economic hardship on a small business, quite frankly, and i want him to stay in business. he has displayed a spinner loaded with Flex-Cut tools for five years. about half are gone - hard to imagine him tying that kind of money up in inventory that does not turn over

anyway, the related costs of handling and shipping seem like the kind of thing a manufacturer should absorb - plus it provides incentive to address problems, rather than burden their distributors (to everyone's peril)