I'm utterly humbled by the wealth of knowledge that you folks have to offer. I guess that I have soo much reading to do... And I thought I was a knife collector >> until I found this forum. :p

My collection of auto's is piddely in comparison to other members - both in number as well as quality.

Here goes anyway:

I have 3 Frank B Italian stilettos...
All of which seem to have issues:

- 9 inch FB 1: Has a strong spring but the blade seems to intermittantly not want to lock into position.

- 9 inch FB 2: This one seems to have a weak spring... the blade never makes it to the locking latch. It looks like the spring is close to one of the inner walls and may be causing some friction that prevents it from deploying with full force.

- 11 inch FB: Locks into position fine but lacks the kick-back that it once had. So spring may also be weak.

So all my issues seem to be related to springs.

Any wisdome regarding how I could go about fixing these issues would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks!

Hi, welcome to the forum. I am new here also but I belong to several other forums. I have about 20 of Franks knives in my collection and I have had some of the same issues you are having. I haven't gotten one with a weak spring yet, but I have discovered that with any man made product, even handcrafted quality ones issues can occur. On the knives that didn't want to lockup everytime, this happens on new knives a lot, try cleaning the knife with alcohol and a toothbrush or Q-tip and then oil the knife with a light oil, sewing machine oil will do, and work the blade by hand back and forth a lot. I have had some of Franks knives that were tight at the bolsters and this worked and now they fire fine.

I also wanted to tell you most of us collectors started out one knife at a time. I buy what I like and I don't care if it is worth something or not. All of the knives I have mean something to me and a lot of them are not what you would call "collectable". I have Chinese and Taiwan knives also and I like them. Most of mine are autos but not all. I treat them all the same. I give my $3.00 Peanut knife as much care and attention as I do my Frank B. knives. Be proud of what you have. They are yours, and keep collecting, one knife at a time and you will get there.

Thank you Dennis for you kind reply.

I have managed to properly clean and oil my Franks nicely - And as a result I'm getting fewer misses when the blade is released.

The very first Frank B that I ordered directly from Italy has an unbelievable kick-back along with the infamous "stiletto click" sound. As for the 2 others (that I had purchased 2nd hand) - I'm sad to say that even with all the cleaning and lubricating that I was unable to revert them back to the state of my 1st bought stiletto.

I guess I'm expecting too much from a used auto.

I make it a point to always store my auto's in the "open" position when not in use.
I believe that this should help preserve the integrity of the spring over a longer period.