Review Check the bearings on your ZT

[TRfromMT]

^^^thought they were Ti. Hope it is at least some grade of SS.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[soc_monki]

^^^thought they were Ti. Hope it is at least some grade of SS.

Thanks for the heads up.

I did too, but it is a stainless steel of some sort, probably 410ss or similar. Under the scale is what you have to worry about, where moisture can get trapped.

 

[lex2006]

I have taken 2 of these apart, this is the 2nd one and why I took the photos because of the rusting liner.
Bearings are fine but the crud from the liner does make a mess of the interior of the knife , my guess is the
corrosion starts to eat at the bearings if they are dry.

 

[TRfromMT]

I'm gonna wax and apply some grease between them. The corrosion on the liner would bug me.

 

[sharp_edge]

I have taken 2 of these apart, this is the 2nd one and why I took the photos because of the rusting liner.
Bearings are fine but the crud from the liner does make a mess of the interior of the knife , my guess is the
corrosion starts to eat at the bearings if they are dry.

I have taken apart four. Two of them had rust on the liner just like yours. When flushing the knife after use for a while, even hot air of a hairdryer could not get all the moisture out. I guess that's the cause. Some People say ZT/hinderer is better than hinderer. At least this part is not.

 

[stabman]

My bearings are fine.
The liners have not rusted.

I swear some of y'all must take your ZTs deep sea diving or sweat acid.

 

[Murdamook]

I’ll stick with phosphor bronze. My Spyderco GB1 is possibly the smoothest knife I have ever handled. It drops free and is glassy when I open it. On the other side of things, the two BB knives I have had developed some odd grinding while opening.

 

[soc_monki]

My bearings are fine.
The liners have not rusted.

I swear some of y'all must take your ZTs deep sea diving or sweat acid.

While working in the yard I sweated so much I was starting to get rust spots on the blade of my shaman. Was also starting to rust the stop pin. So yea, pretty caustic... Lol

 

[3L3M3NT]

If mine ever rust I may upgrade. Until then I'll just keep using them. KAI will also replace them for free, so might be worth getting a new set from KAI and a ceramic set and compare new to new. Maybe one day.

I just picked up a 0562 on the exchange and for the heck of it ordered a set of ceramic replacement bearings. Knife is relatively new and smooth, I'm told, so I will do a comparison and post here.

I ordered the ceramic bearings because I specifically got this knife in -204P to have an all-weather flipper I can use wearing gloves in wet weather. Or if I'm out hiking and decide to go river/creek exploring. I otherwise have mostly carbon steel folders. This will be the knife on board if I expect wet conditions.

So I am wondering what else on the knife may exhibit corrosion if left for a little while. Guess we'll find out.

Lucky for you guys I already have 2 videos comparing the flipping action of a ZT 0562CF with factory bearings installed, to a ZT 0562CF that has ceramic bearings installed with phosphorus bronze cages for the bearings.
This video is the one with factory bearings:

Then this video has the knife that has ceramic bearings installed with phosphorus bronze cages for the bearings:

The only other items on the knife that could possibly rust would be the hardware that's used to hold it together. If you wanted to you could upgrade to titanium hardware to eliminate the chance that anything could rust besides the blade itself.
Here are a few options:
MXG Gear https://mxggear.com/collections/for...and-clip-for-zero-tolerance-zt0562-zt0562cf-1
xxxadrenalinxxx https://xxxadrenalinxxx.com/collections/titanium-parts-for-zt-knives
Bladeswelove https://www.ebay.com/itm/Titanium-S...005666?hash=item284dcd8222:g:racAAOSwQiFaXoqC

I have taken apart four. Two of them had rust on the liner just like yours. When flushing the knife after use for a while, even hot air of a hairdryer could not get all the moisture out. I guess that's the cause. Some People say ZT/hinderer is better than hinderer. At least this part is not.

Once Eric has fully recovered from having the coronavirus you guys could have him make you a liner delete scale for your ZT 0562. https://www.instagram.com/p/ByJdWw6nOID/

I'm more than likely going to have him make 2 liner delete scales here once he opens his books again, since not only does it delete the liner it saves ~1.2 oz over a standard 0562CF, so you're killing 2 birds with 1 stone. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bea70konSnM/

 

[soc_monki]

so i didnt personally see any reason to go from the stock bearings to ceramic from those videos. if anything it seemed the knife was too tight in both? mine seems much smoother and easier to manipulate in it's current configuration.
the solid CF scale does have me intrigued, but I probably would pass simply because Im fine with the knife as is. i do love my 0456cf though...so it is something to ponder. and I did have Ti hardware but got rid of it. came with the knife (used) and got a new set from ZT to replace it. No reason other than I wanted the black screws again, although they didnt include the lockbar insert and lockbar stabilizer screws, so i will have to get back to them on that once they reopen warranty and repair.

 

[sharp_edge]

3 3L3M3NT - honestly I do not see much difference between your two videos in terms of flipping action. All my 0562s with the factory ball bearings are smoother than them

That said, one of my 0562s exhibits sporadic gritness for reasons unknown to me. At one moment it's the smoothiest ZT while at the next moment some gritting clicks would show up and then go away. Not sure if it would help by switching to the tacobearings.

 

[3L3M3NT]

so i didnt personally see any reason to go from the stock bearings to ceramic from those videos. if anything it seemed the knife was too tight in both? mine seems much smoother and easier to manipulate in it's current configuration.
the solid CF scale does have me intrigued, but I probably would pass simply because Im fine with the knife as is. i do love my 0456cf though...so it is something to ponder. and I did have Ti hardware but got rid of it. came with the knife (used) and got a new set from ZT to replace it. No reason other than I wanted the black screws again, although they didnt include the lockbar insert and lockbar stabilizer screws, so i will have to get back to them on that once they reopen warranty and repair.

Yeah, it's hard to notice in those videos the difference and to be up front that's not me flipping those knives. I had a friend who isn't as familiar with flipping knives help me out, since after my diving accident, which caused a spinal cord injury, so I don't have the dexterity I normally had before my accident. Which makes it impossible for me to properly flip them the way they were meant to be flipped.

They maybe could use some adjusting, but unfortunately I don't have any friends that are as big into knives as I am that could help me out.

Getting one of Eric's liner delete scale is the next thing on my list of things to mod on my 0562s. It's great that it gets rid of the liner that apparently can rust over time and then saves 1.2 oz.

3 3L3M3NT - honestly I do not see much difference between your two videos in terms of flipping action. All my 0562s with the factory ball bearings are smoother than them

That said, one of my 0562s exhibits sporadic gritness for reasons unknown to me. At one moment it's the smoothiest ZT while at the next moment some gritting clicks would show up and then go away. Not sure if it would help by switching to the tacobearings.

One thing that maybe doesn't get picked up by the camera is the audible difference between the 2 knives. The knife with the ceramic bearings even sounds smoother than the knife with the factory bearings.

I guess the only way to see if the tacobearings would eliminate the sporadic grittiness would be to buy a set and see if you notice a difference.

I'd be more than happy to send either of you my 0562CF that has the ceramic bearings installed and see how it compares to your personal knife. If you think my knife needs some adjusting to get the action you're after, be my guest. I would have even sent you the other 0562CF so you could experience both knives in person, but I sold the one with factory bearings over the weekend.

 

[soc_monki]

Yeah, it's hard to notice in those videos the difference and to be up front that's not me flipping those knives. I had a friend who isn't as familiar with flipping knives help me out, since after my diving accident, which caused a spinal cord injury, so I don't have the dexterity I normally had before my accident. Which makes it impossible for me to properly flip them the way they were meant to be flipped.

They maybe could use some adjusting, but unfortunately I don't have any friends that are as big into knives as I am that could help me out.

Getting one of Eric's liner delete scale is the next thing on my list of things to mod on my 0562s. It's great that it gets rid of the liner that apparently can rust over time and then saves 1.2 oz.



One thing that maybe doesn't get picked up by the camera is the audible difference between the 2 knives. The knife with the ceramic bearings even sounds smoother than the knife with the factory bearings.

I guess the only way to see if the tacobearings would eliminate the sporadic grittiness would be to buy a set and see if you notice a difference.

I'd be more than happy to send either of you my 0562CF that has the ceramic bearings installed and see how it compares to your personal knife. If you think my knife needs some adjusting to get the action you're after, be my guest. I would have even sent you the other 0562CF so you could experience both knives in person, but I sold the one with factory bearings over the weekend.

Wow, that's quite a gesture! And I can see how having someone not so into knives being a problem. I was wondering why he was wrist flicking them, when I've never had to do that with any ZT I own. The knife may be perfectly fine, he just didn't close them the way I'd normally see someone close a bearing knife when checking for smoothness or "drop shut" action.

 

[TRfromMT]

Second hand 0562 arrived here last night. It's been a long time since I've had a ZT. The last one was an assisted 0566.

First few flips with the 0562 my stomach sank because I thought, "this thing is assisted! I did not want an assisted knife!"

Obviously I was wrong, but it sure fires out. Definitely smooth. I'll be tinkering with it when the new bearings arrive.

 

[soc_monki]

Second hand 0562 arrived here last night. It's been a long time since I've had a ZT. The last one was an assisted 0566.

First few flips with the 0562 my stomach sank because I thought, "this thing is assisted! I did not want an assisted knife!"

Obviously I was wrong, but it sure fires out. Definitely smooth. I'll be tinkering with it when the new bearings arrive.

Glad you're enjoying it! The 562 is a great knife and is still in production for a reason. The 566 was my second ZT and I have deassisted mine. Flips great, don't understand why they made it an assisted knife, but it's like a premium Kershaw Cryo 2 so I guess it was to get people to trade up?

 

[3L3M3NT]

Wow, that's quite a gesture! And I can see how having someone not so into knives being a problem. I was wondering why he was wrist flicking them, when I've never had to do that with any ZT I own. The knife may be perfectly fine, he just didn't close them the way I'd normally see someone close a bearing knife when checking for smoothness or "drop shut" action.

Yeah, just let me know if you wanna take me up on my offer.

My friend actually makes his own custom fixed blade knives, so it makes sense that he wouldn't have the proper technique for opening or closing a flipper knife. I'll have to let him borrow one of mine so he can practice.

Second hand 0562 arrived here last night. It's been a long time since I've had a ZT. The last one was an assisted 0566.

First few flips with the 0562 my stomach sank because I thought, "this thing is assisted! I did not want an assisted knife!"

Obviously I was wrong, but it sure fires out. Definitely smooth. I'll be tinkering with it when the new bearings arrive.

It's great to hear that you're going to give ZT knives another shot. If ZT was smart they'd offer the 0562 in different configurations of scale colors and blade steels, much like Spyderco has done with the PM2. I already have 3 different 0562s and would consider picking up a few more if they had a different steel or scale color.
Here's my current collection of 0562s.

 

[TRfromMT]

Swapped over to the ceramic bearings. He provides backing washers as well. Centering and action are spot on!

The knife was a little gunked up and needed cleaning. I will attribute all improvement to this alone.

Only a little corrosion on the thinner steel liner, oddly enough on the open side. Side to the C.F. was clean.

I cleaned it with some steel wool and oil, then Windex, then waxed it with car wax, finished with a decent coat of oil over the whole surface in between and on the blade side.

Bearings themselves were fine. No lube on them any more, but no corrosion.

The new bearings are smooth, but mostly I am just glad everything is perfectly centered and solid.

 

[BD_01]

TRfromMT
Awesome you like the knife!
Are you planning on making scales for it?

TBH, the stainless liners are what kept me away from the 562 & 562CF. Nothing wrong with them, they just seemed out of place to me on an otherwise titanium knife. By the time the 562Ti rolled around my tastes had moved on from TFF’s (though the ones I own ain’t going anywhere ). Still a great knife though!

 

[TRfromMT]

TRfromMT
Awesome you like the knife!
Are you planning on making scales for it?

Ha! No. No scales. I have only ever attempted scales for a folder once - a Gayle Bradley 2 - and it was a failure. Pulled the blade way off center. I don't have a CNC to do it properly. I'll stick with scales on fixed blades.

 

[3L3M3NT]

Swapped over to the ceramic bearings. He provides backing washers as well. Centering and action are spot on!

The knife was a little gunked up and needed cleaning. I will attribute all improvement to this alone.

Only a little corrosion on the thinner steel liner, oddly enough on the open side. Side to the C.F. was clean.

I cleaned it with some steel wool and oil, then Windex, then waxed it with car wax, finished with a decent coat of oil over the whole surface in between and on the blade side.

Bearings themselves were fine. No lube on them any more, but no corrosion.

The new bearings are smooth, but mostly I am just glad everything is perfectly centered and solid.

That's great to hear that you like the taco bearings and they fit as good if not better than the factory ZT bearings. Yeah, your bearings don't look too bad at all compared to what I and others have posted. It's sounds like it's worth upgrading if the taco bearings seal contaminants out from the bearings. Now I just need to order a set for my 3rd 0562.