I recently pulled out my old Linhof Technika III v.5 to play with a bit and the hinged focusing hood is fantastically hard to separate (open) from the ground glass spring back. Everything looks clean, undamaged and in seemingly original condition.

I think it's becoming more difficult to open the more I use it.

A butter knife pops it open pretty easily and although having a butter knife hanging from the camera would be pretty cool… I wouldn't mind being able to open this by hand.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Dennis