Bushings: Bronze vs. Teflon/Nylatron etc.???

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knifenerd

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Dec 27, 2000
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I will candidly admit to a bias in favor of bronze bushings, but I'm not sure if my bias is really based on good engineering or just bias.

There are a whole bunch of top folder makers who use the synthetic bushings and others that stay with bronze.

BM has recently starting switching over to bronze.

In an ideal world, I don't think the bushings are really a heavy load-bearing factor in a folder. Maybe more of a question of smoothness of opening/closing.

It would be informative if some of the custom makers might chime in on this topic.
 
I would also be interested in this. I have always favored the metal bushings over the synthetic's. I don't know if there is a good reason for this or if this is just a figment of my imagination. I have noticed that the J.W. Smith folders I have all have what I believe is nylatron (hard, dark gray, shiny) while the Carson's and Obenaufs have the softer, white, compressable teflon. I would be hard pressed to argue this point over the likes of those three!:eek: ;) :D
 
Yep--two top makers that come to mind who use synthetics are Allen Elishewitz and Deryk Munroe. I'd love to see some good feedback on this issue.

At any rate, I'll be at the NY Custom Knife Show this weekend and I intend to talk with some of the makers about this.:cool:
 
I only use the phospor bronze ones and I make them myself. Phospor bronze is the best way to go. It is oil impregnated so it is self lubricating. It is also the only washer material that comes in .005 thicknesses, that way you can have tighter tolerances. I have only seen nylatron ones that are .010 and thicker and that gives you larger spaces on either side of the blade. I know makers who use two .020 on their knives, .040 is a lot when it comes to tolerances. If you look at really high end knives like McHenry, Williams, Selvideo and others they only use the bronze ones.
 
I personally seem to like the phosphor bronze or brass (I believe Crawford uses straight Brass...) bushings.

Once the metal bushings are broken in they are as smooth as teflon, until then they are usually not as smooth.

I have heard of some types of lubricants eating away the synthetic washers, not sure if this is true or not since I've never experienced it...
 
When you have some of the best makers using nylon or nylatron, Ralph, Carson, I believe Terzuola, Elishewitz and a few others that slip my mind at this point in the evening, I don't spend much time thinking about it.
 
Forgot to mention, Bob Lum uses Stainless washers.
 
i personally think that the bronze washers feel better and work better, the bronze washers seem to just glide, while the synthetic washers seem to have a different kind of smoothness they both feel good but the synthetic washers seem to be more easily destroyed or eaten up by oil or other stuff
 
Ive never had a synthetic bushing eaten away by oil. I use tuf-glide on all knives I make, and ship them with the same. never had any problems!!!;)
 
........is that I sometimes squeeze them to death! I have actually had the teflon type to tear because I tighten the pivot pretty tight. I had to get Kit to send me some extra's several years ago. The nylatron though is hard enough that it doesn't compress, and flexible enough that it doesn't crack under the pressure.
 
Originally posted by rev_jch
Ive never had a synthetic bushing eaten away by oil. I use tuf-glide on all knives I make, and ship them with the same. never had any problems!!!;)
Click to expand...

well, i'm not sure about the eating away part but i have heard that it makes the washers expand, like it absorb the oil? i've just noticed that when i take apart knives with synthetic washers that the washers don't look like they are in good condition compared to bronze washers,
 
This year I have made twelve folders and not had one complaint. I made three last year and no complaints there either (can't remember before that).
 
I may be wrong, but I thought that the advantage to the bronze washers was that they provide more rigidity/stabilization against lateral blade movement. Two knives that come to mind that I've owned are the MT LCC and the Sebenza. Anybody who's owned them knows how rigid feeling they are.
 
More than likely the bronze would be more stabilized.
My experience has been good with nylatron. I have a folder I made a year and a half ago that I carry and the bushings are nylatron, no problems.
 
I was at the NY Custom Knife Show yesterday, and spent the day there. Several custom makers I quizzed on the topic were most eager to chime in with their viewpoints. I won't mention the names, since I do not want to start a "flame-fest", but these were makers that would be well known to just about anyone here.

The opinions seemed to be just about evenly divided: some felt that the bronze bushings were superior since the non-flexible nature of the bronze required more precise machining. Others felt that synthetics were the way to go, since they allowed more of an ablility to "tweak" the end result and saw no degradation in overall performance and longevity.

Bottom line??--Go with a maker you have faith in and trust his/her judgement. That's really what it's all about. And have fun.;)
 
archieblue blah. otraves... I've had the teflon squeez and mis-shape as mentioned here. As long as Chris Reeve tolerances are POSSIBLE, slick as snot, and SOOOOOOOO rigid, I cant see any benefit for plastic (lets face it) washers other than compensation for -not so close- tolerances. Not that you'd want to, but you can tighten the pivot as tight as possible w/out stripping on a Sebenza and it will STILL be a slick opener. If that were possible with plastic washers THERE WOULD be blade play sooner or later depending on the simple equasion use x time.

If anyone dosent believe Chris Reeve has done it, then you MUST believe that the future is near where machines will surpass the human hand. Only re-tooling will reamain Human. Imagine EVERY knife being first rate... It won't happen because there will always be folks like Benchmade who obviously don't re-tool often enough. Though I HEAR that their QC is on the up and up. I MUST mention that I've never even TOUCHED a Carson, Crawford, or Terzuola. HOWEVER.. one visit to the Smithsonian will convince you that plastic is good as dead.

Therefore the question AND answer lie in the same mini-universe...

Do you even use your knife?

I think many of the knives mentioned here ARE NOT users. Sure they are made to POSSIBLY be users. Many will ACTUALLY never know how or IF the thing PERFORMS. So who really cares wether your PAPER WEIGHT's washers will still work in 10 or 30 years. The same principal lies in guitars. People buy a handmade Mike Stevens for $10,000 and NEVER PLAY IT. Whats the point?

Status as placement in society and status as a collector.

I have, therefore I am.
 
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