Bearings?

[blade_420]

When I was a teenager going to Naked Edge Cutlery in the mall, they had all sorts of Benchmade and Pacific cutlery balisongs for sale in the cases. (How I long for those days...) I guess now, the salesman did'nt know much about them. I had asked why some of the pins were ground flush and others stuck out. He said that the ones with flush pins had ball bearings encased on the pins.
I now know that he didn't know squat.
But I ended up buying a PC69 when I was 16 or 17 years old. It cost me $65.00. That was the most I had ever paid for a knife for sure, and felt guilty about it. I had that knife for about two years, and then it *disappeared*. I had thought my father confiscated it and was holding it until I was "older". I asked him later, and he said he didn't know anything about it.

Anyway... I had the impression that PC balis had ball bearings in them for a long time, and it was kinda a let down when I learned otherwize.
The pivot pins on a balisong have more use and stress than any other knife. I keep thinking about the bearings that I had for my skateboard, and all the use and abuse that they survived. german GMN bearings were brtter than Japanese BHT bearings.

I have seen the same types of closed bearing system in all kinds of different sizes. I am wondering about having Marcucio Dobruski make me a SS bali and trying to incorperate ball bearings.

Have you ever seen any other bali with bearings?

What do you think of the idea, assuming that you could disassemble the knife for cleaning/lube?

 

[Gollnick]

Several custom makers have toyed with bearings, but they're complicated to make and tend to develope problems. They sound strange too. I don't think they do much good either. I have several well-made balisongs with bearings and none is as fast as my BM42.



------------------
Chuck
Balisongs -- because it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!
http://www.balisongcollector.com

 

[Dawkind]

Some of the PC and BM balis had bushings that the pins went through. The pins in Les' custom balis had the pins TIG welded in the handles then the excess was ground, contoured, and polished. The only sucess stories I know of using bearings in knives are Larry Chews designs, being used by him and with permission by a couple of others, and they use needle-roller bearings on the sides of the blade in conjunction with thrust washers and 'contain' any lateral forces; not the radial forces applied on the pivot pin. When the pivot pin(s) and its corresponding hole(s) are properly sized and the materials are properly matched and heat treated they should last a lifetime!