carbidizing the lockbar face

[misterjuiceman]

I was wondering if anyone knew which makers or companies carbidize the lockbar face of titanium framelocks (or linerlocks)?

 

[mete]

It's carburize. I doubt that any maker does that.

 

[misterjuiceman]

I know for sure Rick Hinderer and Tom Mayo do it. why would you doubt that a maker would do it?

edit: I think carburizing is a heat treating process, which I've heard doesn't increase the hardness of the titanium used in knife handles. I thought carbidizing is a different process entirely.

 

[spidyman]

CRK does it as well IIRC.

 

[Kaizen1]

I know that Rick does on his knives. According to a thread on another forum, Carson also does this.

 

[Mitchell Knives]

A lot of custom makers do. I don't know about factory knives.

 

[rbendele]

Here is a link to a thread on BladeForums that discusses it. Apparently a company called Travers (http://Travers.com?) sells it.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=628471

 

[misterjuiceman]

Here is a link to a thread on BladeForums that discusses it. Apparently a company called Travers (http://Travers.com?) sells it.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=628471

thanks, I knew about travers from a thread on USN, where I first learned that Tom Mayo, Rick Hinderer, and I think Kevin Wilkins and Ken Onion said they carbidized their lock bar faces, but they didn't go into much detail on how it actually worked, so that thread was very interesting.

when they use a carbidizer on the lockbar face, do they also carbidize the face of the blade that mates with the lockbar? or are they just able to heat treat that appropriately?

 

[mete]

Sorry about the confusion. I was thinking about carburizing which is a diffusion process to add carbon to steel.You're talking about a welding process , welding carbide to the surface.

 

[rbendele]

I don't know. I doubt that they would carbidize the blade side though. It needs to be a specific angle and I don't think one could carbidize it and keep the exact angle. Most makers I know use an angle somewhere between 7 - 9 degrees. I personally use 8. Also as you indicated, it is already hardened by heat treating.

 

[GianniLion]

I was wondering if anyone knew which makers or companies carbidize the lockbar face of titanium framelocks (or linerlocks)?

There are several companies that Carbidize the lock faces.
You can do it on the lockbar or on blade lock face.
A special machine lets you to put a thin layer of Tungsten Carbide over the face.

Paul Gillespie in 1998, that in that time he was the owner of CRKT, introduced to my company this technical in order to be used it in a knife that I produced for them.
The only purpose of it is to increase the surface roughness. In this way it is more difficult that the lockbar inadvertently could be unlocked.

You can do it in all Titanium or Stainless steel liner-lock and Frame-lock.

It is important to point out that Tungsten Carbide is a thin layer and so it is not able to prevent that the lock part of the blade could crush the Titanium lockbar or Liner.

Nowadays we “carbidize” all the Liner-lock and Frame-lock of our LionSteel production..
We have “Carbidize” knives that we have produced for CRKT, Spyderco, Remington, AG Russel, Xikar, and others US brand.

 

[JonBerumen]

I have a Dendra Tiger Jump that is made by Lionsteel and it is so sticky on the disengagement that it is almost unusable. I have been breaking it in for the past week with only minor improvement. I have also tried applying pencil lead which works only temporarily. is this knife also carbadized?