Combat Elite for clean up

STR

STR

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Got this one in this morning. All the signs of a user here. First time I've handled one. Looks to be a good folder. Olive green color doesn't please the owner, and he wants it all bead blasted and cleaned up and a Wave mod done if I can't replace the thumb stud.

This is one easy opening folder so I think a Wave would work great but I may see what I have in the way of left over parts first. I think with a flipper the Wave would be kind of redundant. What do you guys think? Wave no??



STR
 
str....i've always thought about those combat elite folders.....what do u think bout the quality.....maybe if the owner is part of the forums he or she can speak up.....it looks like it's definately seen it's share of use.......ryan
 
Steve, could the flipper be taken off without hurting the heat treatment?
 
interesting........i dunno. personally i would want to keep the flipper as im not used to the wave. i look at it and picture the wave on it and i think, "ugggg, why?" the knife doesnt look to be designed with a wave feature in mind. it would ruin the look. i wouldnt do it. keep the flipper
 
It does look as if it has been used some. I like it more than I expected to. It sure is an easy opener. Seems to be well made. Again its one of those frame locks that the maker takes a pretty big chunk of metal out to make the bend in the lock though and in my opinion at the lock relief this thing looks frail. I'm sure its not really as frail as it appears. God I hope not anyway. Forgive me but these just don't look all that impressive to me when I see one like this because this one in particular is cut out like nearly half way down the length of the lock that is otherwise .125 stock. Other than this one feature I like it and it seems pretty well balanced and stout.

I guess I'll be forever puzzled why makers and manufacturers do this so radically at the lock cut when you can easily stop way before making it this thin and be just fine. I've done it and I know some like the Sebenzas and the CudaMax among many others are much thicker also. Anyway, this one is taken all the way down to a very even and precise .038 thickness which tells me its done this way on purpose. This picture may appear somewhat washed out but I lightened it to get a better view of the dark area so it was more visible.

I see this and can't help but think things to myself like if I made a tactical liner lock and called it hard use in a .040 thickness lock and liner I'd be laughed out of the business and made fun of. Yet I see stuff like this all the time and wonder what makers must be thinking to do this. Maybe I'm missing something. When you push on the spine of the blade toward the tip you can actually see this one flex some in the middle area of the lock relief. Maybe thats expected and what is wanted. I can't say. Nothing I have learned about engineering a folder tells me about this area all that well or specifically. One day I'll hear maybe why this is done so often this thin and most always on the ones we deem harder use folders.

STR
 
wow that is thin. alot thinner than, like you said STR, what would be a good thickness. i would prolly break it while closing it lol
 
Well I tend to look at the Sebenzas as the standard and those are stouter back there. I've seen a large Seb as thick as .060 on the relief cuts with a very small center cut in the cut that is slightly thinner and harder to measure but its not that much deeper. To make a guess I'd say the lock relief is at least .055 on most of the large Sebenzas. Slightly less on the small Seb but not by much. My own small with the black Micarta inlays for example measures close to that.

So generally I've done mine from .058 to .065 and stopped taking out metal at that point. I see these things and just don't know what to think. It may be to give some flex or shock absorbstion or maybe its not really thought about much. Perhaps it is to make blades have less tension on them so they open smoother or something I really can't say. The one thing that I do note on all the ones I have examined this way though is that you can push down on the lock and see it move quite a bit with great ease compared to what it would be like if the stock was left thicker.

STR
 
I figure since this comes up seemingly pretty regular I'll just do this and get it over with. I have had here for some time a lock from a large Sebenza that was the original blade forums pass around knife that was sent in to Chris for lock problems during the pass around. The old lock eventually landed here somehow. Right now I'm not even sure how but I've had it for a while what I did was I just took it a with one of my thin kerf cut off separating discs I separated it from the rest of the folder lock to take some inside measurements.

You can see here the main or primary relief still done this same way on even my brand new one. You have a curved or dome shaped cut out with no sharp edges. The Sebenza is a double relief. Both of these on this lock measure .058 exactly. The very center has a smaller recess shown here in this close up right dead center of the width of the lock itself. Taking the measurement on the inside of one of these it comes out as .53 thickness. So its just slightly less than my guess was.

Frankly with Chris being the original creator of this style of lock and with his Sebenza models still to this day being what most consider the standard by which to judge your own I'd say this is what makers should try to duplicate right here. I don't find much fault with the Sebenza at all. Few do though.

I've measured Emerson CQC12 relief cuts as thin as .032. I've measured Strider PT and SnG relief cuts as thin as .033 to .038 and now this Combat Elite at the same.038 measurment throughout. At least Strider had sense enough to license the Hinderer Lock Stabalizer on his. Its needed trust me. But the ironic thing is that I have recently had two of Rick Hinderers' knives here of my own and both of them even with the stabalizer installed were just about on par with the Sebenza for lock relief thickness. Go figure.

STR
 
ryan9977 said:
str....i've always thought about those combat elite folders.....what do u think bout the quality.....maybe if the owner is part of the forums he or she can speak up.....it looks like it's definately seen it's share of use.......ryan
Click to expand...

Ryan,
I am the owner of the knife. ttHe RRF did not come to me new, however I do like the knife a lot. Except fo the name, it does not scream "tactical". Nice flat grind. S30v blade and titanium handles. Fliffer. Good pocket size. Very smooth operation. It isn't a sebenza but it is a high quality titanium frame-lock, maybe in the same league as Alias and mini skirmish.
 
After working on this one to clean it up some this morning I have to say its probably one of the closest tolerance folders I've worked on in a long time. Everything, and I mean every last part fits so snugly and so precisely that it has to fit just right to go back together. If the parts were any larger they'd be too big to fit the holes. Its as tight once together as anything I've seen I think.

Pretty much precision to a high degree here.

Anyway, its cleaned up a good bit now. I don't know if you want me to try to strip the clip and the lock stop. Not a problem if so.
On the screw heads. None of them except the pivot and the stop stripped. Its like they are black clear through or something. I have never run across it before.

Oh and the insert is G10 in this folder not wood as you had said in your email. Just FYI.

Still have to sharpen it up then this one is done. I found a suitable replacement thumb stud that fit nicely. I feel the Wave would be unnecessary in this folder with the flipper.

STR
 
STR said:
After working on this one to clean it up some this morning I have to say its probably one of the closest tolerance folders I've worked on in a long time. Everything, and I mean every last part fits so snugly and so precisely that it has to fit just right to go back together. If the parts were any larger they'd be too big to fit the holes. Its as tight once together as anything I've seen I think.

Pretty much precision to a high degree here.

Anyway, its cleaned up a good bit now. I don't know if you want me to try to strip the clip and the lock stop. Not a problem if so.
On the screw heads. None of them except the pivot and the stop stripped. Its like they are black clear through or something. I have never run across it before.

Oh and the insert is G10 in this folder not wood as you had said in your email. Just FYI.

Still have to sharpen it up then this one is done. I found a suitable replacement thumb stud that fit nicely. I feel the Wave would be unnecessary in this folder with the flipper.

STR
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Steve,
It looks great. Excellent job as usual. I thought of keeping the clip and lock-stop black, but they show a lot of wear, so we might as well strip them. I don't think we need to strip the screws - sounds like to much pain in the rear end.

I can't believe that you liked the wooden insert so much that you made a G10 copy and stole my original -- Just kidding of course :)
 
No problem. I had an eye appointment this afternoon so I didn't get much else done. But I'll strip those tomorrow when I can see again. Right now my eyes are dialated and I can see but not well enough to do much more than find the keyboard and struggle to read fuzzy letters. Its gettin' better with time but needs more yet so I'll take the rest of today off.

STR
 
STR said:
No problem. I had an eye appointment this afternoon so I didn't get much else done. But I'll strip those tomorrow when I can see again. Right now my eyes are dialated and I can see but not well enough to do much more than find the keyboard and struggle to read fuzzy letters. Its gettin' better with time but needs more yet so I'll take the rest of today off.

STR
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Steve, feel better. This is a no rush at all. thank you again
 
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