Changing a pivot to bearings / ceramic detent?

[Comeuppance]

I'm in the process of turning a DLC junkyard dog into a TRUE junkyard knife. I'm modifying basically everything.

I'm considering replacing the washers with a caged bearing system, and switching out the (already flattened and weak) detent ball with a ceramic one.

Any advice / parts sources? My primary concerns are finding a thrust bearing system that is thin enough, and finding an appropriately-sized ceramic ball.

 

[bpeezer]

You will have to mill the liners or blade to house the bearings. I did this with a Spyderco Tenacious, it did not quite come out perfect. Try alphaknifesupply.com, knifemaking.com, or knifekits.com at first. If you can't find what you need there, try vxb.com. vxb has TONS of different bearings, but it's not knife specific so you will have to wade through a lot of other stuff to find what you need.

 

[fsatsil]

Finding the bearing is the easy part if you search "mini thrust bearings" you will come up with lots of places that sell them in all sorts of sizes. The hard part is milling a pocket in the frame/handle where to bearing will sit.