A flipper thst won't flip

C

ColonialKnifeFan

Joined
Feb 9, 2005
Messages
181
Hey everyone, I would post this in the Kershaw Sub-Forum but since it does not exist anymore I will ask it here. I own a kershaw zing and for the life of me I cannot flip it like I do the rest of my flipper type knives. Is it due to size or something to do with inner components? I adjusted the pivot so it's not as tight but it makes a minimal difference. When I go to flip it, it deploys maybe half way and then I need to flick my wrist to make it go the rest of the way. It's really cool knife but the flipper/not flipping thing is kinda bothering me. Any suggestions? BTW I think it stinks that the use nylon instead of bronze in the pivot :grumpy: Oh well, beggars cannot be choosers huh.
 
The few knives I have without assisted opening and a flipper I find I have to give it a little wrist action to complete the lockup. I would do as I am assuming you have and adjusted the pivot so it swings smoothly and has no play then I would work on some sort of lubricant to aid in being able to open it with just the flipper. Good luck.
 
Did you put some oil/lube into the pivot? Worked it some to get the new knife stiffness out? I don't have this particular knife, but some flippers that I have encountered just can't be flipped open fully with just the flipper, no idea if this is one of them.

Just did some searching and it looks like the flipper should be able to flip open with no wrist action. If lubing and adjusting the pivot and working the stiffness out doesn't solve it, maybe you got a bit of a lemon?
 
Be sure to push straight into the handle too, not just down. Seems to give it the extra boost needed to snap into place.
 
Does your’s lock up tight? Or is there a little wiggle?

I’ve bought a number Zings, all but one of them flipped nice and fast. That one also had blade play were the others locked up tight.
 
ColonialKnifeFan said:
BTW I think it stinks that the use nylon instead of bronze in the pivot :grumpy: Oh well, beggars cannot be choosers huh.
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I had a problem with one of my designs and the makers suggested changing from bronze to nylon and send me a sample, we put it on the test machine and checked it every 20,000 cycles (opening and closing). At 288,+++ cycles the test machine bearings gave out, the knife was still in perfect tune. I do not think that you have been short changed by getting nylon.
 
Well now lets say the nylon did fail when the test machine did. Lets see, at 288 checks with each check at 20,000 cycles that would be 5,760,000 knife openings. Assuming opening and closing the knife 50 times every day that would mean the knife would only last at least 315 years before the failure.

Gosh, nylon, only good for 315 years. That is a ripoff.:rolleyes:

Mr. Russel,
That sure is good information. So many folks whine about bronze vs nylon.

Thank you, sir, for posting that.
 
knarfeng said:
Well now lets say the nylon did fail when the test machine did. Lets see, at 288 checks with each check at 20,000 cycles that would be 5,760,000 knife openings. Assuming opening and closing the knife 50 times every day that would mean the knife would only last at least 315 years before the failure.

Gosh, nylon, only good for 315 years. That is a ripoff.:rolleyes:

Mr. Russel,
That sure is good information. So many folks whine about bronze vs nylon.

Thank you, sir, for posting that.
Click to expand...

I think he meant 288,000 openings and closings not 288 sets of 20,000. Not that it matters I think my thumb would wear away before the washers did.
 
My zing was the same, i had to get the pivot screw just right and put a little oil in it. opens like a switchblade now, and it took me a while to get the motion of flipping it down, but once i did its not so bad, good luck!
 
ColonialKnifeFan said:
When I go to flip it, it deploys maybe half way and then I need to flick my wrist to make it go the rest of the way. It's really cool knife but the flipper/not flipping thing is kinda bothering me.
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So it sounds as if you are not sure if it is your technique or the knife? Could you explain your technique in detail? The reason I ask is that I see more people than not open most flippers half way, and then wrist it fully open. 99% of the time it's because they just need a slight adjustment with their technique. There are a past threads can be searched that address the proper way to open our flippers.
I'd encourage you to position the knife differently in your hand a bit (up or down), and be conscious of not just putting your flipper finger (index, not the other one :)) on top of the flipper, but more on the tip of it. Most likely you will see a dramatic difference.
 
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knarfeng said:
Well now lets say the nylon did fail when the test machine did. Lets see, at 288 checks with each check at 20,000 cycles that would be 5,760,000 knife openings. Assuming opening and closing the knife 50 times every day that would mean the knife would only last at least 315 years before the failure.

Gosh, nylon, only good for 315 years. That is a ripoff.:rolleyes:

Mr. Russel,
That sure is good information. So many folks whine about bronze vs nylon.

Thank you, sir, for posting that.
Click to expand...

Sorry, you misunderstand, it cycled 288,000 times each cycle opening and closing. The nylon was still in perfect condition, keeping the knife tight and centered
 
Some flippers will react poorly to squeezing the handle too much when you flip them too.
 
Thomas W said:
So it sounds as if you are not sure if it is your technique or the knife? Could you explain your technique in detail? The reason I ask is that I see more people than not open most flippers half way, and then wrist it fully open. 99% of the time it's because they just need a slight adjustment with their technique. There are a past threads can be searched that address the proper way to open our flippers.
I'd encourage you to position the knife differently in your hand a bit (up or down), and be conscious of not just putting your flipper finger (index, not the other one :)) on top of the flipper, but more on the tip of it. Most likely you will see a dramatic difference.
Click to expand...

+1 It's most likely technique. I push straight down on my zing--kind of building up pressure. The thing then flies open scary quick. My friends when they tried to open it the conventional way thought it had an automatic button, until I showed them how to build up the pressure within the flipper.
 
Ok ThomasW, I totally apologize. I figured with the knife coming from the store I bought it at with the factory lubrication that it would be good right out of the box. It was not my technique as it was lubrication. I added some oil I use for my knives (3-in-1) and it loosened it up alot. Seems there was not enough from the factory to give it the action needed to swing open all the way. I own several kershaw's both AO and regular and this was the only one that needed tweaking. The Zing works like a charm now, I was a bit worried cause I had never encountered that problem before. Thanks everyone for your input, I read everything and used the lubrication suggestion. Also want to put in, I bought an OD-1 as well and I must say that knife is flawless. The action and attention to detail is quite good and it looks like it was machined to very high tolerances. Have not had a whole lot of use yet with either because I just got them yesterday but I will give them both a work out. Thanks again. BTW why was the Kershaw Sub-Forum closed? With such a huge fan base and all.

Plus my comments about nylon/bronze....what can I say I love bronze :-) More and more knives I find with nylon are quite amazing though, got a 347 Buck Vantage Pro with nylon that you would swear was bronze.
 
ColonialKnifeFan said:
I own a kershaw zing and for the life of me I cannot flip it like I do the rest of my flipper type knives.
Click to expand...

I have the same problem - its the only one - I had a discussion about this a few months back - and other then adding some kinda oil (which I dont have) I took the advice of flipping to break it in - but to me it still doesn't open the way I think it should.
 
Wavester said:
I have the same problem - its the only one - I had a discussion about this a few months back - and other then adding some kinda oil (which I dont have) I took the advice of flipping to break it in - but to me it still doesn't open the way I think it should.
Click to expand...

Ya need the oil man. And if you don't want to buy stuff online, just find some cheap mineral oil used for wood cutting boards locally. Works miracles.
 
I had the same problem with my Zing. I own about a half-dozen Kershaw AO knives and while some open a bit quicker than others, the Zing was the only one I bought that straght-out did not work out of the box. If I was lucky, I could get it to open about half-way with the flipper (even after 150-200 opening cycles). :(

IF I had bought it locally, I would have just returned it as defective. Since I bought it on-line, I ended up taking it apart, oiling the pivot and then playing around with the screw tension to get it to work properly.
 
i'm not sure about the backspacer design on the zing, since i don't own one, but check to make sure the first screw in the backspacer isn't too tight. this can cause the scales to bind on the blade, even if the pivot screw is backed all the way out.
 
Nylon, Teflon or Nylatron are all better than PB washers IMO. Even the master of the Tactical folder Bob Terzuola uses and recommends Nylatron so I don't think they can be all that bad.

Its usually something simple. I've had a couple Zings here for work and they all flipped just fine so yours must have a rough pivot from tight fit or a hole drilled slightly off canter to not allow the smoothest operation if its brand new. If not you may have gotten grit or something else in there to slow things enough to keep it from flipping.

STR
 
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