Any Benefit to Upgrading Kershaw Concierge Hardware?

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tuffluv

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Feb 24, 2015
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I have the concierge in brown micarta and D2 blade steel. I'm wondering if there's anything I can change to improve the flipping performance? Seems like the bearings are the only hardware that can be easily changes. The detent ball is what it is. Would swapping thicker bearings of the same diameter tighten tolerances?

thanks.
 
Seems I saw a video of a guy who changed the bearings in his high-end flipper to Skiff bearings, and it looked like a marked improvement. Maybe a Shiro. Anyway, the original bearings, caged in a single row, were fine but the owner wanted better flipping. There were two possible diameters of the bearing rings and the owner did not know which would work, so he bought 2 sizes from Skiff, and one worked.
 
tuffluv said:
I have the concierge in brown micarta and D2 blade steel. I'm wondering if there's anything I can change to improve the flipping performance? Seems like the bearings are the only hardware that can be easily changes. The detent ball is what it is. Would swapping thicker bearings of the same diameter tighten tolerances?

thanks.
Click to expand...

I don't have the knife in question but thicker bearings probably wouldn't fit. Skiff bearings or "rocket glide rings" are high quality bearings set in a phosphor bronze ring. Aside from better materials or overall quality, they usually fit more balls in the same space. This can help with stability. In some knives, I notice an improvement in action. In most knives, the real benefit seems to be in the range of pivot tension between solid lock-up and good action. In other words, getting good action without blade play can be a lot easier in some knives.

To try Skiff Bearings, you would want to first take apart your knife and check the stock rings. You can use a caliper to take some measurements. There are several standard sizes in common use and Skiff offers replacements for many of them.

BTW, even if you don't try a swap, simply cleaning and properly lubricating things in there could help. If you don't already know, knives can leave the factory with all sorts of gunk and grime up in there. There could also be burrs or other issues. So I put all of my knives through a "new knife rotation". They get taken apart and cleaned thoroughly with concentrated isopropyl alcohol (do not use on wood scales). Most metal surfaces besides the action then get wiped down with ordinary non-toxic mineral oil. I like Lubriplate FMO 350-AW as a lubricant for knife and gun actions. It's non-toxic, "just right", and relatively inexpensive. Search Lubrikit.com for "FMO Gun Oil".
 
Don’t know if the concierge has changed from when I purchased mine but the limiting factor in the flipping action is the detent ball. Or the lack thereof. Common to many super budget knives, on mine there is not an actual steel or ceramic ball installed, but a little nubbin of the lock bar material that was pushed up from the other side when the part was pressed. It’s an incredibly cheap way to make a detent for a liner lock and it makes for a super sloppy and mushy flipping action.
 
It’s sad because it’s truly a very nice design based off of the Sinkevich Canabis but in a more pocket friendly size.

The problem is that the design is hobbled by the budget. It is soooo cheaply made. I’d totally buy one that was made to a $1-300 price point. Enough to afford a decent steel, more finished machines parts. Ti liners. Etc.

I’ve been tempted to try to replace the nubbin with a ceramic ball but I’d probably just screw it up even more.
 
DrFish said:
It’s sad because it’s truly a very nice design based off of the Sinkevich Canabis but in a more pocket friendly size.

The problem is that the design is hobbled by the budget. It is soooo cheaply made. I’d totally buy one that was made to a $1-300 price point. Enough to afford a decent steel, more finished machines parts. Ti liners. Etc.

I’ve been tempted to try to replace the nubbin with a ceramic ball but I’d probably just screw it up even more.
Click to expand...

This is a big part of my problem with Kershaw. This is a $60 knife! I could probably come up with fifty current-production knives at that price or less that don't suffer from this kind of problem. Just look at the Civivi and Kizer knives that cost $60 or less! Just to drive this point home, the base model of the Concierge in 8Cr13Mov is a $40 knife. How many knives could I find at that price that don't suffer from this kind of problem?

To put it politely, they really need to pull their head out of the sand on the stuff they make in China. They are getting smoked hard by the companies making knives next door, or potentially on the next conveyor belt over. For instance, Harnds has been suspected of doing some of Kershaw's OEM work over the years. Look at their $40ish knives, such as the Talisman or the Harvest. Both have nice blades in 14C28N and truly drop-shut actions using bearings and actual detent balls.
 
You know what, I was wrong.

Thinking back I couldn’t believe that they would be THAT cheap on this knife so I took it apart, and it does have a separate detent ball.

Mine was quite dirty and the top of the detent ball had worn flat so it was shining and I assumed it was part of the liner. My bad.

The bearings are pocketed into the blade, so if you want to replace them the dimensions will need to be pretty exact.

As for the detent, I suspect that it is steel not ceramic due to the wear, but changing it out may be a possibility. The effect on the flipping action will be hard to predict since there are so many variables there.

Again, sorry Kershaw for maligning the detent. It just feels so soft, mushy, and cheap that I assumed it was worse than it is.
 
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