I might be beating a dead horse here: My fix for the 0550 gen 1 detent.

[JayRobIBZ]

Hello, first post here: I have researched everything I could find on the internet about the 0550 before purchasing, and again after I found out I had received a gen 1. I couldn't send the knife back and find a gen 2 because I had purchased it with gift cards from Cabelas.

To make a long story endless, I set about trying to break in the knife and make it a manageable opener. After getting comefortabel with the knife, and having opened it a couple thousand times over the last few days, I am now sure that a good portion of the problem I had was technique. Left handed opening was always easier, and I knew I was putting pressure on the lock bar, but had to train my hand to hold the knife in a way that allowed me to press on the thumb stud in the right direction, while maintaining a secure grip. Basically, I place my 3rd, 4th, and 5th fingers on the clip, while my 1st finger sits in front of the lockbar. This is comfortable, secure, and easy to open without any wrist flick.

I also find that opening the knife "upside down" helps tremendously, as it allows gravity to help disengage the detent.


Now, the thing I really wanted to talk about here was the actual tweaking I did to the knife, which brought the action of the knife from manageable, to pleasurable.

I had watched the youtube videos that included disassembling the knife and filing down the detent ball, as well as the one that included using a hammer and a piece of steel to try and seat the ball further into its hole. I was able to affect the knife in both ways without disassembling. I am hoping that this has spared me from loosing my warranty (I may be wrong on that, please correct me if I am)

All of the work was done with my Leatherman Super Tool 200. The process was really quite simple. I used one of the short, stout tools of the Leatherman to pry down on the ball, setting the tip on the ball and using the liner as a fulcrum point. I felt it seat a little further, and the knife did open easier afterwards. I was happy with the results for a while, but after a couple hundred more openings, I decided to get a little more destructive.

I flipped (well, more like drug) the file of the Leatherman out, and with the knife opened, I used the fine side to take a few passes from the top of the detent ball. Once I saw a noticeable flat spot, I stopped.

I continued to break in the knife by putting a forceful amount of pressure on the lock bar while opening and closing the knife with my other hand. This seemed to speed up the process of wearing in the groove where the detent ball travels, and took care of polishing any burrs that might have been left behind by the filing process. Opening the knife while pressing on the bar in this manner would have been nearly impossible before I messed with the detent ball.

I am now 100% happy with this knife. I it is one of my first quality knives, and I plan on purchasing many more.

On a side note, I am a very experienced guitar player, who owns many guitars. I am used to buying something that is of an elevated quality, and still be required to put in some work to make it behave in a a way that suits me perfectly. I have never purchased a guitar that didn't need a little work and tweaking to be perfect. I kind of like the process, because afterwards I have something personal invested into the instrument, and it seems to be more "mine" than it ever would have been otherwise.

That is kind of how I feel about this knife, now.

 

[KnottyEagle]

I feel the same away about my Brown Skyline. The blade centering was off, so I when I tried the paper-trick, I thought I might as well take a look at the insides. After doing that, I feel "connected" to my knife. If I ever get around to doing it, I'm going to de-assist my Blur and I might even make a FrankenSkyline. I'm going to replace the non-locking side scale from my Brown Skyline, with a scale from my Orange Skyline.

 

[sticktodrum]

I always said it was technique, more than anything. Being a lefty, framelocks and deployment is a breeze. Good write-up, however having had a 0550 for a while, I can tell you that all you did was put almost a year of wear onto the knife all at once. The detent ball wears a flat spot on it's own, and the detent loses strength over time from both that, as well as the wearing in of the spring in the lock bar.

I'm glad you got it to where you wanted it though, it's a fantastic knife and it's worth using. On the issue of technique though, I actually just uploaded a video on thumb deployment technique:

[video=youtube;81MlIACmh_M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81MlIACmh_M[/video]

 

[JayRobIBZ]

I see you have a 560 in that video. Do those come with an 0550 strong detent, too?

 

[dcoffe01]

I did the same file technique as you based on the video on YouTube. After tweaking it in, this knife is as smooth as butter.

 

[JayRobIBZ]

As sticktodrum said, all filing really does is speed up the natural wear process. As far as the bearing not being fully seated, I wonder if ZT drills the hole deeper than needed, or if they aren't seating each hearing to the same intended depth?

 

[freewheeling]

Thanks for the video. I could actually stand for the detente on my 561 to be a bit stronger, because I can't really flick it open upward with either the thumb stud or the flipper. It only gets to about halfway. I can open in with either the flipper on the thumb stud with the knife point down, however. I think I just can't build up enough pressure behind the detente. I also have a small Zing blem with a tanto blade that has a much stronger detente, but still has a pretty smooth pivot, and I can easily open that with no wrist flick just using my finger or thumb. Also, I cannot disengage the lock bar on the 560 with my thumb. Just can't do it. Have tried the trick with the sharpie and it didn't seem to help, although I didn't take the knife apart to apply the sharpie so the black didn't go all the way to the edge of the tang. Anyway, I'm sure the lock bar will eventually wear in and I'm not too worried about it.