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I have a 2005 Regular that I bought new that has about 10% lockup and will freeze if fully tightened. I should send it back, but I haven't... My point is that even CRK lets a few strays out the door.
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Got my second CRK. Mixed feelings... :(
- Thread starter RheaP
- Start date
I have a 2005 Regular that I bought new that has about 10% lockup and will freeze if fully tightened. I should send it back, but I haven't... My point is that even CRK lets a few strays out the door.
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(all set)
Last edited:
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That would cause the opposite of what he is experiencing, though. Thinner washers would cause loose blade action and horizontal play.
To tighten the knife up like his, a person would have to sand the pivot bushing thinner.
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- Nov 12, 2013
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This wasn't a review.......it was cause for concern.
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As stated, I don't believe that was the case. Washers/bushing/inside of scales all looked new as if it had hardly been opened much at all.
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^^^ THIS
Thanks for all the helpful replies here. I've taken it apart two more times, this time completely and reassembled. As stated above for what ever reason unknown things are as they should be now in my limited experience with CRK opinion. Not quite as awesome as my 25 just yet but it is getting better. The last assembly......things just fell into place for whatever reason and I noticed an instant change and the blade centered up. : shrugs :
Even my 25, after about 5 days of opening, it to needed a little TLC because it gained a very very minimal amount of side play with pressure off the lock. A slight tweak on the pivot and its been great ever since.
The 21 now has that hydraulic feel to it and will almost drop free from lock when the lock pressure is removed. That being said, the more I open it the better it gets. Now the one thing I do not know and have nothing to compare it to(no LKS that caries CRK) is just how tight the hinge bolt should be. Its finger tight with no loktite and has not came loose. It has been opened 100+ times since I last put it together so hopefully its tight enough?
Again, thanks to those with positive responses. Made me open my eyes a little and look beyond the immediate.
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Glad to hear you got it working. I would have hated to send it in and then have to wait 8 weeks to get it back especially if they couldn't find anything wrong. I thought in one of the CRK videos of their shop I saw where they actually torqued the pivot screw down as well as the rest of them but don't know how tight.
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Yes, they used a specific torque on the screws. I saw that also, Since they encourage us to maintain our knives you would think the torque value would be well distributed knowledge by now. Might give them a call and see if that's something they mind sharing.
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It happens.
It has probably happened to all of us who've taken a Sebenza apart more than a couple of times. Glad you got it worked out. :thumbup:
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My large Micarta 21 has never been able to be "tightened all the way down". I am OK with this, as I think it will possibly add life to the knife (another 100 years maybe) as the washers wear down to match the over-ground pivot bushing. I just put a drop of locktite on the pivot screw and adjust.....no problem. This is in contrast to my Large Insingo and Small 21 both can be tightened down fully and have perfect action when tight. Having said that, I believe with any Sebenza you have to practice some common sense and finesse. If you torque the living daylights out of any of the screws you can bind the knife.
On the subject of re-assembly fixing blade centering issues on some knives (with no pinched washer problem): I have noticed that the pivot bushing on my Small Sebenza 21 is not 100% square and true. What this means is that the dude who sanded it/adjusted it at the factory, put a very slight angle on the ground/adjusted side of the pivot bushing. If I tighten it down with the bushing in one orientation the blade is perfectly centered, and if the pivot bushing is rotated 180 degrees inside the blade before I tighten it down the centering is slightly off. Not enough for the blade to rub the scale but enough to notice it. I thought about this a while and ended up measuring the pivot bushing with a micrometer and discovered this slight flaw. No big deal, though I can't pretend that I didn't wish it was perfect for the cost. In the end, I am ok with this as I realize there is a human element to the assembly of a 21, so there's going to be good ones, and better ones, and perfect ones, and some total goof-ups. Maybe less so with a 25 or Umnum as they don't require the factory bushing tweeks. I would guess when Chris Reeve was doing the tweeking himself, every knife was perfect, but that's no longer practical with how many knives are going out the door.
On the subject of re-assembly fixing blade centering issues on some knives (with no pinched washer problem): I have noticed that the pivot bushing on my Small Sebenza 21 is not 100% square and true. What this means is that the dude who sanded it/adjusted it at the factory, put a very slight angle on the ground/adjusted side of the pivot bushing. If I tighten it down with the bushing in one orientation the blade is perfectly centered, and if the pivot bushing is rotated 180 degrees inside the blade before I tighten it down the centering is slightly off. Not enough for the blade to rub the scale but enough to notice it. I thought about this a while and ended up measuring the pivot bushing with a micrometer and discovered this slight flaw. No big deal, though I can't pretend that I didn't wish it was perfect for the cost. In the end, I am ok with this as I realize there is a human element to the assembly of a 21, so there's going to be good ones, and better ones, and perfect ones, and some total goof-ups. Maybe less so with a 25 or Umnum as they don't require the factory bushing tweeks. I would guess when Chris Reeve was doing the tweeking himself, every knife was perfect, but that's no longer practical with how many knives are going out the door.
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On one of my 21s, a large micarta lefty, the blade was slightly off- center, and it bugged me like crazy. I needed to fix it, and did not want to send it back. I had just gotten it, and it was a Sebenza! Not cheap.
I tried everything, even looked to swap the washers from one side to the other (like I had to do with some, including my Gold Class Benchmade 940-121 to get it to center perfectly) but one cannot do that with a 21. The washers are different diameters.
I ended up reversing the screws that hold the scales together, in different combinations, as all three are the same size, including the pivot. Spent over an hour trying different combinations until I got it to be perfect. My 21 Insingo is as stock, all oriented the same direction, the deeper side facing toward the presentation side. Same with my 25, which I never have had to touch. Thankfully!
But on my large 21 micarta, the pivot and the screw set right above it are deep on the presentation side, and shallow on the one near the lanyard. It really should make no difference, as they are supposed to be the same length when tightened, but honestly it did. I think I had two the opposite way as from the factory and it still was not right, so I turned that one around and it worked. I tried every combination possible, believe me. This screw set in that hole, deep side left, then right, all deep on left, all deep on right, etc.
One thing is I at times had all of them loose, then tightened them up slightly from one end to the other slightly, then repeated, more each time. Kind of like you do with automobile lug nuts, you criss-cross, but the knife was different because I BARELY put more tension on each one at a time until it was centered and they were all tight. I then carefully removed the pivot male screw, put purple locktite on it from my 25 box and carefully torqued it again until there was no blade play at all side-to-side and it was centered. And I left it alone for the rest of the day, as I was tired of working on it.
I have not had to touch it since then, and I've opened it 300-400 cycles by now. It has not moved since the day I did all that, sometime in October.
When I do take it apart to clean it in the future, I will be very careful to set the screw sets in the orientation they were removed in, and will use an inch-lb torque wrench to see what torque they are at right now when I remove them. I'll start at a very light setting and keep moving up until the screw moves, then write it down. But if that doesn't work in practice as in theory, no worries. I will be able to repeat it, as it is that way right now.
I used to roadrace motorcycles and this is pretty much standard stuff. You have to tweak things a lot (like suspension settings) and it's so much that you'd better write it down or you can never go back to what worked before you adjusted your way out of something that worked better than what you ended up with later by trying different adjustments.
Yes, you should not have to go through this with a knife that costs as much as many guns do. But they are production items, and you'll have that. I would exhaust everything you can at home before sending it in, because you might not see it back for six weeks.
But if you still do not like it, I'd send it back to CRK. They should be able to correct it, and if it comes back not to your liking you can sell it with no guilt, as you're not screwing you anybody. It came through CRK quality control a second time and someone else may not be as persnickety as you and I am. I am a perfectionist to the point I will look at, say, every hat on a shelf before I choose the best one, bill straightest, logo the most centered, etc. That's just how I am.
I tried everything, even looked to swap the washers from one side to the other (like I had to do with some, including my Gold Class Benchmade 940-121 to get it to center perfectly) but one cannot do that with a 21. The washers are different diameters.
I ended up reversing the screws that hold the scales together, in different combinations, as all three are the same size, including the pivot. Spent over an hour trying different combinations until I got it to be perfect. My 21 Insingo is as stock, all oriented the same direction, the deeper side facing toward the presentation side. Same with my 25, which I never have had to touch. Thankfully!
But on my large 21 micarta, the pivot and the screw set right above it are deep on the presentation side, and shallow on the one near the lanyard. It really should make no difference, as they are supposed to be the same length when tightened, but honestly it did. I think I had two the opposite way as from the factory and it still was not right, so I turned that one around and it worked. I tried every combination possible, believe me. This screw set in that hole, deep side left, then right, all deep on left, all deep on right, etc.
One thing is I at times had all of them loose, then tightened them up slightly from one end to the other slightly, then repeated, more each time. Kind of like you do with automobile lug nuts, you criss-cross, but the knife was different because I BARELY put more tension on each one at a time until it was centered and they were all tight. I then carefully removed the pivot male screw, put purple locktite on it from my 25 box and carefully torqued it again until there was no blade play at all side-to-side and it was centered. And I left it alone for the rest of the day, as I was tired of working on it.
I have not had to touch it since then, and I've opened it 300-400 cycles by now. It has not moved since the day I did all that, sometime in October.
When I do take it apart to clean it in the future, I will be very careful to set the screw sets in the orientation they were removed in, and will use an inch-lb torque wrench to see what torque they are at right now when I remove them. I'll start at a very light setting and keep moving up until the screw moves, then write it down. But if that doesn't work in practice as in theory, no worries. I will be able to repeat it, as it is that way right now.
I used to roadrace motorcycles and this is pretty much standard stuff. You have to tweak things a lot (like suspension settings) and it's so much that you'd better write it down or you can never go back to what worked before you adjusted your way out of something that worked better than what you ended up with later by trying different adjustments.
Yes, you should not have to go through this with a knife that costs as much as many guns do. But they are production items, and you'll have that. I would exhaust everything you can at home before sending it in, because you might not see it back for six weeks.
But if you still do not like it, I'd send it back to CRK. They should be able to correct it, and if it comes back not to your liking you can sell it with no guilt, as you're not screwing you anybody. It came through CRK quality control a second time and someone else may not be as persnickety as you and I am. I am a perfectionist to the point I will look at, say, every hat on a shelf before I choose the best one, bill straightest, logo the most centered, etc. That's just how I am.