F ball bearings! OK, maybe not so much now, opinion changing

HappyDaddy said:
I don't much care whether it's washers or bearings, as long as the action is smooth. Then again, I just sit on my sofa, flip them, and admire them as the toy/jewelry they are.

Most importantly - Brandoak, the word is YOU'RE!
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Did I use the word "your" wrong? my bad, Im sorry.
 
PURPLEDC said:
And I stand by every criticism I have ever made in regards to you. The fact that I DIDNT say something in those threads should tell you that I don't ride you as hard as you think I do. Its actually more proof that I don't.
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(( not a charming addition to a family-friendly forum ))
 
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This second photo I had to angle the camera because the ceramic balls are so small they are hard to catch focus on. The ball bearing protrudes less than 0.3 milimiters. so this is your distance between the blade and scale. Talking about the force applied to this bearing, don't forget that there is no side to side play compared to washers. Everything is nice and tight.

This is 21st century and it's nice to have a folder that feels monolite, fully utilizing titanium for liners that don't flex like stainless steel. Then it's also free dropping. With this particular example you don't even feel the bearings when you open and close with your hand.
 
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Aldebaran said:
Full disclosure: I have not owned a ball bearing pivot knife and never will. I have extensive experience as a heavy industrial mechanic, and mechanical engineer position, and scientific instrument design engineer, automotive and motorcycle mechanic, and machinist. I have camped in the forest and the desert. Dirt is everywhere.

A foundry is probably one of the worst industrial environments you could ask unprotected ball bearings to survive. So you just need to blow some compressed air through the knife and squirt some special oil into to pivot. Do you have access to a compressor and oil in the middle of the desert? How about just after gutting a fish for the fire by the stream? Should you need to clean and lubricate all the time? My washer pivot knives never have had grit get into the bearing surface causing it to stick.

It is simple. A ball bearing system costs much more to implement than just a couple of washers. Washers need a drop of oil and off you go. I don't always have a compressor with me wherever I go. In high load low speed applications, plain bearings (washers) are highly preferred over ball bearings. It is an engineering principle.
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A Foundry is awful filthy place. Between the sweat and the slag if a pivots going to mess up that would be the place. I bet you cut a lot of crap off of bearings and shafts. My kind of job. I worked as a pipeliner. I used my knife every day for something. I would like to try a pivot ball bearing knife sometime . But not for that type of work environment.
 
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Co-worker knocked my Benchmade Proxy of a job box into the dirt today, brushed it off and still flips perfect, dirt and all.
 
My ZT 0392PURBLKWC had some burnt wood crud in the pivot after not last trip to the woods, but the time before that.
It even wil lhave had some cememnt dust from the cinderblock that I had been rubbing the excess charring off the stick with (had been making a walking stick); I know that because the concrete grit managed to scratch the DLC coating on the blade a bit.

Wiped the stuff I could reach with a napkin out when I got home, then blew as much out as I could with my breath (no computer duster at the time); worked fine. :)

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Washers aren't fool proof either, I work in a bio science company that make natural colorings for the food and beverage industry.

We make both powdered and liquid colorings and when i work with the powders it totally messes with the washers and gums up my knife pretty bad so I end up having to take the knife apart to clean it.

For the record I prefer bearings.
 
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sechip said:
Washers aren't fool proof either, I work in a bio science company that make natural food colorings for the food and beverage industry.

We make both powdered and liquid colorings and when i work with the powders it totally messes with the washers and gums up my knife pretty bad so I end up having to take the knife apart to clean it.

For the record I prefer bearings.
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Interesting data point. I want to believe in a functional advantage to a ball bearing folder pivot in real life. How do your ball bearing knives behave when fouled by the same powder that freezes your knives with washer pivots? It would be useful to also learn which specific knives were involved in this situation.
 
I know longevity is far from the minds in this discussion, but has anyone thought about plastic/nylon dry rot occurring with the bearing cage?
Ive had nylon laboratory beakers break down and dry rot simply by sitting in a window for a year. This also makes me wonder if there are certain chemical/cleaning methods one should refrain from when cleaning such a knife to prevent the break down of the plastic that hold the bearings?
 
Not all bearing cages are polymers. We also live in a plastic world. There are things all around me that I would be much more worried about if they just wore out after a years time but luckily that isn't the case almost ever. Sunlight is one of the worse things for plastic if it's not designed to be exposed to the sun and appropriate materials or UV protectors incorporated.

Also for the OP, I hope you are much more concerned about your lungs working in an environment so dirty and destructive that you won't even think about using a pocket knife that has bearings. This is coming from someone that didn't pay attention to what I was breathing and wear an appropriate respirator, know one was needed, and wasn't offered one and ended up getting 2 very rare blood diseases from it. Just saying, I hope you are more concerned about the important things you can't wash out or replace.

I also jumped off a boat this afternoon to go get the trailer and the firm looking sand was on top of soft mushy mud that I sank over a foot into with both feet and made me catch myself with my hands which one was holding a bearing pivot folder that got mashed into the same soupy, mushy mix of sand and mud. A quick rinse in clean water and a shake to get as much water out as possible while hurrying to load the boat as it was getting dark and it was flipping open like it never happened. I was actually a bit surprised myself but I'm impressed with the design and this particular knife is about as sealed as you can get without actually using sealed bearings or additional seals to protect the bearing. Wasn't a knife you can just look in and see the bearings but it has bearings and did great regardless.
 
It's funny how almost every manufacturer is now introducing a flipper with ball bearings just to make money on that fashion, even Emerson claiming they're making no bullshit hard use knives.
 
brandoak said:
I know longevity is far from the minds in this discussion, but has anyone thought about plastic/nylon dry rot occurring with the bearing cage?
Ive had nylon laboratory beakers break down and dry rot simply by sitting in a window for a year. This also makes me wonder if there are certain chemical/cleaning methods one should refrain from when cleaning such a knife to prevent the break down of the plastic that hold the bearings?
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Do you worry about the polymer in Glocks breaking down too? Plastic has been well proven in a VAST array of fields outside of knives.
 
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