DLC coated knives, take longer to wear in? Harder to flip? (Tanto Groove)

B

bluejayburly

Joined
Jan 25, 2010
Messages
463
I just got a second DLC Tanto Groove.

I have a rainbow and a recurve version and both flip buttery smooth rivaling KVT. Both my DLC coated Tanto versions take a lot more force and/or wrist action to get them open.

Do I just need to wear a concentric circle through the DLC where the ball detent is to smooth out the action?

The blades are well centered when closed, I am gonna try taking them apart and cleaning them and re oiling them tonight.

Does the DLC add some thickness to the surface of the frame and blade? So with the same thickness of washers as a non DLC it will be much tighter tolerances and thats what makes them harder to flip?

Any suggestions or comments welcome.
 
I have noticed the same things with my tanto groove...I have the black G10 recurve and an old gray G10 recurve and the both flip open faster than my 0560/61. I have taken all of them apart and oiled them and they are all centered...the black is just taking longer to wear in.
 
Post pics. I've never seen a DLC tanto groove.

My Blk/GRN tanto Zing took a little bit for the flipper to wear in and now it is nice and smooth like my skyline.

It bugs me that in one of the Kershaw booth reviews the girl said the Zing II got speedsafe because the original was too hard to flip (due to the light blade).

Who are all these people that can't operate flippers right?!
 
Yes, DLC will add to the overall thickness. It's a coating on top of a regular blade.
 
RE: DLC I think they give it an acid bath to rough up the surface then coat it, but I am wondering how much thicker it is, probably enough to notice but hard to measure.

RE the Zing. I have teflon washers in mine (maybe the latest revision?), I wondered why they used teflon and not the standard bronze phosphorus (the only Kershaw I know that uses teflon washers), it does take a little bit to wear in the Zing, but it flips super easy, or you can always use the thumb ramps. I might get a Zing SS or Volt SS but I would probably just remove the torsion bar is they have a ball detent. I've finally made the transition from assisted to manual flipper preference.

I might try taking the teflon washers out of the Zing and put them in the Groove Tanto DLC, and the bronze phosphorus in the Zing. I'll have to see if they are the same diameter. I have already swapped the Groove standoff pins into a Zing, makes it open frame, for easy cleaning.

I'll post some pics later tonight.
 
Side note, the recurve Groove has very sharp edges around the flipper tang, which limit the flip per day before fingers hurt, but it makes the thumb jumping is nice and grippy. The rainbow recurve is smoothed all over and was the best out of the box, except the colors are weird. The DLC is softened too but flips poorly, so far.
 
You need to post a picture of your knife. I have a Zing tanto, but it's the standard version.
 
a7021146.jpg


Heres my four of a kind. The Tanto actually has a hollow ground striated hawkbill with a flat ground n striated tip. I think it's the closest to a Rampage grind that Kershaw has produced so far. Now discontinued.

Let me know if you want some more specific angles.
 
Last edited:
6d3d9d1c.jpg


Here's a pic of my Tanto partially serrated Zing. You can see the Groove backspacer pins installed and you can see white between the blade and liner. It's Teflon. I checked when I put those ice blue kyrpto-glow in the dark scales on.

I think it's one of the later ones, it was purchased in bulk with no boxes.
 
Last edited:
af7e78ce.jpg


So here's what I ended up with.

I tried the bronze phosphorus washers in the Zing. They were a little wide but fit okay. But the flipping action was impaired.

I didn't even try the Teflon washers in the Groove Tanto cause they were about half the size as the BP washers, didn't think they were substantial enough to hold the blade properly.

So I ended up using the silver frame with the Tanto blade. That will be my new main user. The best of the black parts as a safe queen. The recurve with the DLC frame is like leftover spare parts for now. There was hella lock tight in there that stained the DLC frame and made it difficult to didassemble.

I noticed that both DLC blades around the pivot were scrubbed almost down to the metal and the BP washers were polished. The silver recurve was less cared for.

I have a question to all of you reading: which way do you install your washers? They are punched out of a sheet, I think, so there is a smooth side and a sharp edged side. Do you put the smoother side toward the blade or frame? (test question)

Anyways they are all a little better now, I'll keep flipping and let you know if the DLC blade gets smoother to flip.

I think the rainbow version is polished before the coloring process, it makes it work better. The clip is polished also.
 
Last edited:
I take the sharp edge side to 800 grit paper and polish it until it shines...then flip it and do the same to the other side...using caution not to remove too much material.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top