Louis G., you seem to be extremely mistaken in regards to a few things, especially lubricants. Most of what you said just doesn't make any sense.
Okay.
1. Liquid lubricant on a ball bearing system increases wear, it's the same principal as a the coolant/lubricant liquid used in milling operations. Reduce friction maximize contact, increase the speed of the wear. Something like a dry lube shouldn't affect it however since it works by applying a layer on top of the surface which does not move. It isn't much of a difference but does wear in faster. This is from personal and anecdotal experience.
2. Sharpie trick works, but once again it doesn't STOP the lockbar from wearing. Remember the lockbar is NOT hardened it is carbidized. If the carbidizing is worn off, or not present you will have a rapidly wearing lockbar. The wearing of the lockbar can result in a sticky lock forming again.
3. On my ZT561 the carbidizing was only done half way, and wore out very quickly, almost as if it was scraping off. When I got it back from repair most if the lockbar was carbidized, and has yet to show any signs of wear on the carbidizing. Their repair and production departments are likely separate, so using our imagination while production may only get for example 2 minutes to carbidize/assemble the knife the repair department may spend 5 minutes or more. I am thinking that's why the carbidizing wasn't done properly on my ZT561. Production has quotas, Repair centers often have more leniency.
4. Detents, and flippers are a rather difficult subject to get into. Again, the point is it appears that production knives tend to use the lockbar tension to affect the detent strength as a cost saving measure instead of mating each detent ball to a perfectly drilled detent hole. Best left for a knifemaker to discuss. What I have heard twice from two different high end knifemakers is that there's a sweet spot, one said in tolerance of around .3mm~ for a "nice feeling" flipper action.
5. I am unsure if I can call the scratches a polish. Under the microscope compared to the Sebenza's ceramic ball, the ZT 561 looks more like scratching, and carving than polishing. The sebenza's seem more of a near mirror finish.
1) Lubricant on a ball bearing system does not increase wear. That's just false. It's indeed the same as cutting oil. Cutting oils aren't "coolants". Coolants are liquids that transport heat from one source and bring it to a cooler. Cutting oils lubricate the cutting tool (bit, mill, whatever) in order to reduce the heat caused by friction. It lubricates, and prevents whatever heat creation it can. It doesn't cool like an actual coolant does. My questions was "How exactly". You didn't answer it, you made a very false analogy.
2) Neither does carbidizing. The layer will wear off, and the lock bar will wear in more. It's going to happen. The carbidizing on the lock bar of my 2 0560s has worn off, and I have no stick or any issues. It's settled in, worn in, whatever you call it.
3) Again, I doubt that's the case, and I'd like to hear from ZT about it rather than take your speculation as truth, and I urge others to do the same.
4) Mating the ball perfectly? There's a relatively small amount of the circular edge of the hole that the ball actually touches. Unless it's exactly fit, then I don't see how some mating process will really dial in any sort of detent strength. The position of the hole will, as that will determine how deeply the ball sits when the knife is closed, and the tension of the bar will determine what upward force has to be applied to the ball to get it to release.
5) Under a microscope, a lot of polishes look like scratches. Under a more powerful microscope, the knife itself is mostly empty space. Just looking at it however, shows that the ball makes its path on the tang into a shiny little line. I call that polish, you can call it toast. Doesn't change that there's no "carving" going on.
Cheers.
