whitty
Dealer / Materials Provider
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2005
- Messages
- 6,005
So after 6 months of carry and tons of use I felt it was time to break my ZT0456 down and give it a really good cleaning. I carry my 456 everyday and use the mess out of it. I also flip it like crazy while driving or watching TV. Most of the time I use it for cutting up boxes, tape and general stuff around the shop. I also have carried this knife on all my hikes, in rivers, while jogging and doing plenty of yard work. It has gotten wet, sweat all over it and more dirt than I can begin to describe. I have always washed it out decently, cleaned the blade and oiled the pivot when I have gotten it wet. Today I decided it was time to see what things looked like behind the scales. I was also hoping to answer questions folks have raised about the bearings riding straight on the titanium.
So here it is before cleaning. As you can see, it has been used but not abused, and it has some good wear on the pocket clip and pivot screw.
https://flic.kr/p/L4xWWw https://www.flickr.com/photos/57703464@N02/
Opened up you can see there was a good bit of dirt and gunk in the bearings and all around behind the scales. Shockingly I was expecting a few rust spots on the blade, but did not see a one! Even more shocking is with all the gunk, the knife was still flipping perfectly.
https://flic.kr/p/Lv1vRH https://www.flickr.com/photos/57703464@N02/
The gunk in the bearings and on the rest of the knife cleaned right up with some alcohol. I then oiled and wiped it all down with some ballistol. It basically was as good as new.
https://flic.kr/p/Ky1PSw https://www.flickr.com/photos/57703464@N02/
While I had the knife apart and everything cleaned I figured I would take the time to look in to the concern some have had with ZT not having a washer between the bearing and the titanium. I have seen in the past that a few people have had worry that the bearing is going to wear in to the titanium and cause a track, eventually over many years becoming an issue. You can see in the picture it looks like there might be a very small track forming. You can also see on the blade itself there is a small line in the blade from the bearings. After really getting in there it is very clear to me that these are just superficial small small scratches. I can not feel any detention in the scale or in the knife. I rubbed my finger, then used a pencil and finished with a small razor trying to feel a little bump of a track at all. I honestly could not feel or tell anything! So after roughly 10,000 openings in 6 months I really do not think this will ever become an issue.
https://flic.kr/p/Lo6ABc https://www.flickr.com/photos/57703464@N02/
All cleaned up, back together and ready to go to work. I will do this again in another 6 months and report back my findings.
https://flic.kr/p/L4CDkj https://www.flickr.com/photos/57703464@N02/
So here it is before cleaning. As you can see, it has been used but not abused, and it has some good wear on the pocket clip and pivot screw.
https://flic.kr/p/L4xWWw https://www.flickr.com/photos/57703464@N02/Opened up you can see there was a good bit of dirt and gunk in the bearings and all around behind the scales. Shockingly I was expecting a few rust spots on the blade, but did not see a one! Even more shocking is with all the gunk, the knife was still flipping perfectly.
https://flic.kr/p/Lv1vRH https://www.flickr.com/photos/57703464@N02/The gunk in the bearings and on the rest of the knife cleaned right up with some alcohol. I then oiled and wiped it all down with some ballistol. It basically was as good as new.
https://flic.kr/p/Ky1PSw https://www.flickr.com/photos/57703464@N02/While I had the knife apart and everything cleaned I figured I would take the time to look in to the concern some have had with ZT not having a washer between the bearing and the titanium. I have seen in the past that a few people have had worry that the bearing is going to wear in to the titanium and cause a track, eventually over many years becoming an issue. You can see in the picture it looks like there might be a very small track forming. You can also see on the blade itself there is a small line in the blade from the bearings. After really getting in there it is very clear to me that these are just superficial small small scratches. I can not feel any detention in the scale or in the knife. I rubbed my finger, then used a pencil and finished with a small razor trying to feel a little bump of a track at all. I honestly could not feel or tell anything! So after roughly 10,000 openings in 6 months I really do not think this will ever become an issue.
https://flic.kr/p/Lo6ABc https://www.flickr.com/photos/57703464@N02/All cleaned up, back together and ready to go to work. I will do this again in another 6 months and report back my findings.
https://flic.kr/p/L4CDkj https://www.flickr.com/photos/57703464@N02/
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