Here is something I posted a while ago with the similar problem "God yes, the re-assmebly info is VERY important to stop the washers and bearing from coming adrift during assembly. Trust me! You have to fit the blade into the handle and sqweeze the handle tight, then fit the screw and female part. Otherwise the bearing will move ONTO one of the washers. The blade will then be very tight and the lockbar will go over too far.
This is the only way to avoid this problem. Read Annes advice and follow it to the letter! Cheers"
To explain in more detail.
You have the-
1.blade
2.bearing (the round thing that goes into the blade hole)
3. 2 Bronze washers of different sizes.
4. The male and female screws.
5. The Handles.
Ok, this is what you do. Get some white Teflon grease and put it inside the blade 'hole'. Now take the bearing and place it into this hole. Then place a little more grease on either side of the 'hole'. Now place the washers on the grease over the bearing.
At this point you aught to have the blade with the bearing inside the blade and a washer on one end of the bearing and another washer on the other side. It goes without saying that the smaller goes on the lockbar side otherwise the lock bar will not close properly!
If at this point you look at the bearing, which is partially held in place by the white Teflon grease, it aught to be sticking out either side of the 'hole' in the blade, enough to place the washers over it to make a very tight fit.
Now this is the very very important bit, if you do this any other way you will 99% of the time crimp one of the washers as they will move out of place.
Do this and only this! Make sure the female and male screws are NOT in the scales at all. Slowly place the blade into possition between the scales nad look to see that the washers have not moved at all. You do this by looking down the hole that the screw is about to go down. If you can see anything bronze its moved the washer.
At this stage I have one scale on the table and the other out of the way. I place the blade right onto the scale. If you slide the blade about on the scale to get it lined up the washer may move. Once the blade is on the scale I pick up the other scale and place it on top. This makes a scale/blade/scale sandwich! I then hold the knife tightly, squeezing the scales together. This will prevent the screw entry rubbing the washer and moving it or allowing the washer to move when you re-position the knife to put the screws in place. In short it keeps the blade in place!
If everything looks ok, very slowly push the screw female sleave into place and then the male screw. Tighten is LIGHTLY a couple of turns is enough. Then put the other screws etc into place and tighten them up to 1 turn off being fully tight. Now slowly tighten the pivot screw till is is also 1 turn from fully tight.
Now look and see that everything still looks ok and 100% tighten ALL the screws. DO not over tighten them though.
If everything has worked as it aught to, even though the screws are fully tight, the action aught to be just as smooth and easy to open with the screws tight or loose. Anything else means the washers have been crimped again.
It may take you three or four goes at this (I did!) but do it slow and try to do this at a table with a cloth on it so you don't loose bits.
If you follwow this step by step you won't have a problem with a little practice. I was shaking my head in annoyance as my Sebi was very tight unless the pivot screw was loose. This WILL fix your problem I promise you. Give it a try!
Best,
