Best way to lube the little ball on the frame lock that contacts the blade?

S

str8flexed

Joined
Sep 16, 2007
Messages
107
I've just disassembled and reassembled the knife, and the blade swings like butter when I press down the frame-lock part. But with the framelock pressing on the blade, there is a lot of friction. I'm just using mineral oil right now, and I've applied a bit to that "ball" that contacts the blade but it doesn't seem to be helping. Any tips?
 
Hi, the little ball is there to fit in the puka on the
blade when it's closed, thus your closed detent.

Agreed sometimes there is a lot of friction on the
blade from the lockbar creating a stiff opening situation.

You can remedy this by bending the lockbar outward
gently about an eighth inch several times, then test.
Repeat this process until you have your desired tension.

In the event you overbend it and the knife opening
becomes too "loose", take it apart and bend the
lockbar inward and start over - you won't hurt it.

It takes a little experimentation, everyone has different preferences.
I do this all the time for myself and friends. Once you get the bar
tension in your personal desired sweet spot, you're good forever.

Let us know how it goes, or if you have any problems.
Regards, -Ron
 
Greetings Str8flexed: The ball detent is actually a very hard ceramic material. The CRK fluorinated grease works the best for me. A small amount of light automotive grade lithium grease applied with a tooth pick also works quite well. Any thick teflon based oil lube will also do. The ceramic will eventually polish the surface where it rides on the blade and the friction will be reduced. OldDude1
 
Josh K said:
Maybe sending it to CRK is better then bending out the lock bar.
Click to expand...

Actually Josh, that's all CRK may or may not do. I've heard mixed results.

My large beater Seb is going on ten years old, I would never send it in for
anything less than catastrophic failure. Which in my case could only happen
if I drop it in the bull gear of a towing winch, and the knife will probably then
be the least of my worries..

All these guys who send thier knives into CRK everytime a washer gets
dirty could benifit by tearing the knife down once in a while and slapping a
little mineral oil in it. Learn about it. I's just a simple little pocket knife.

-Ron
 
OldDude1 said:
Greetings Str8flexed: The ball detent is actually a very hard ceramic material. The CRK fluorinated grease works the best for me. A small amount of light automotive grade lithium grease applied with a tooth pick also works quite well. Any thick teflon based oil lube will also do. The ceramic will eventually polish the surface where it rides on the blade and the friction will be reduced. OldDude1
Click to expand...

Good info. I've had great results with just Mineral oil.
Non-toxic for food handling and cheap.

-Ron
 
440hard said:
Actually Josh, that's all CRK may or may not do. I've heard mixed results....

...All these guys who send thier knives into CRK everytime a washer gets
dirty could benifit by tearing the knife down once in a while and slapping a
little mineral oil in it. Learn about it. I's just a simple little pocket knife.

-Ron
Click to expand...
+1 100% agree on bending the lockbar to reduce (or increase) the tension if need be. That's all CRK can do. They created a great knife, a masterpiece! ...but (you put it perfectly) it's just a simple little pocketknife. Anyone could easily tune it up. Short of catastrophic failure, mine will never need to go back to the factory either.
 
After 7 years of EDC, my small Seb has worn a nice little polished groove onto the blade tang from the detente's contact. The detente itself has worn a nice little flat spot on its surface also, but everything functions perfectly--Chris knew what he was doing, as I've had some other folders develop play in the closed position due to similar wear.

What I do is, with the blade 3/4 open (while assembled--not open and locked), drop a drop of lube/oil (I like Militec-1, but like OldDude said, any Teflon-based lube will do and will be long-lasting) between the blade tang and the lockbar in the approximate location of the detente ball. Then work your blade open and closed without necessarily letting it lock open, just enough to work some lube into the crucial area.

Works for me, but YMMV.

Professor.
 
I've grown to prefer just using a little graphite for the ball's "track"... I just write on the arc on the tang where the ball contacts with a pencil and it works like a charm! I like it better than lube since the lube just attracts dust and pocket fuzz...
 
Pencil graphite works far better than oil in certain places (sticky framelocks for one), and I agree it works great on the detent are. Just ake your blade out and draw on the shiney line with a good old pencil.
 
Pencil graphite ? That's made of graphite and clay .The clay isn't what you want ! You can get pure graphite powder ,use that , maybe with some oil mixed.
 
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