I think I hurt my Sebenza

D

dkblade

Joined
Nov 7, 2014
Messages
880
I got up and didn't realize my sebenza was on my leg and it fell from knee high onto my hard wood floor. It didn't open. When I went to open it after, I noticed the detent seemed harder, also notice what I can only accurately describe as what feels like a light a secondary detent just before the tip of the knife closes past the handle scale. I can feel it in the lock bar when this "secondary detent" makes contact. Maybe I'm just paranoid but I feel like it didn't do this before the drop. Maybe others can confirm?

FYI I disassembled the knife, cleaned it and lubricated it, reassembled it, and it still feels the same.
 
Even a heavy drop shouldn't do anything to the mechanics of the knife. You can mark, dent or scrape the Ti or bend the clip but there is nothing else you can really can do. You would have to see a very heavy drop or crush damage to see any changes to the action/function of the knife.*

My trusty Umnumzaan took a pretty good tumble down some rocks onto some rocks. :D The blade got dented up at the jumping and the Ti was a bit scraped but the mechanics of it were sound. :)

*The Umnumzaan has an Achilles heel with the front corner that accepts the thumb stud. If that gets deformed the lock up is thrown off.... I have had this happen twice when dropping the Umnumzaan.
 
Haze said:
Even a heavy drop shouldn't do anything to the mechanics of the knife. You can mark, dent or scrape the Ti or bend the clip but there is nothing else you can really can do. You would have to see a very heavy drop or crush damage to see any changes to the action/function of the knife.*

My trusty Umnumzaan took a pretty good tumble down some rocks onto some rocks. :D The blade got dented up at the jumping and the Ti was a bit scraped but the mechanics of it were sound. :)

*The Umnumzaan has an Achilles heel with the front corner that accepts the thumb stud. If that gets deformed the lock up is thrown off.... I have had this happen twice when dropping the Umnumzaan.
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Then I will ignore it! It definitely didn't scratch it or anything. Maybe it will work itself out.
 
I think the problem is right here on the detent line, it's a tiny burr, barely visible but only in the right light. Not gonna try to file it off. Seems strange to me that such a small drop could somehow result in this tiny burr. Anybody else encountered this?
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Edit: it's a couple millimeters before the detent, still hard to see in this picture.
 
I see it; is that a Sebenza 21?

If it were a 25, I'd think the ceramic ball would wear through it and it would return to normal. But the 21 has an inset steel ball bearing, correct? It still must be harder than the blade steel, otherwise it would not wear a channel into the blade where it slides across it.

If it were mine, I would hold the knife in both hands, one on the blade and one on the handle, and pivot the blade past the ball right at that spot-just a hair past it on both sides-in both directions numerous times to mimic an opening and closing cycle of the knife in an accelerated time period to see if it returns to normal. It sure won't hurt anything to try.

If that didn't work after five minutes, which would be like hundreds of opening and closing cycles, I'd send it in and get it back to normal.

But I'm fortunate, I have six other CRKs to take its place while that was happening if it came to that...
 
jmclfrsh said:
I see it; is that a Sebenza 21?

If it were a 25, I'd think the ceramic ball would wear through it and it would return to normal. But the 21 has an inset steel ball bearing, correct? It still must be harder than the blade steel, otherwise it would not wear a channel into the blade where it slides across it.

If it were mine, I would hold the knife in both hands, one on the blade and one on the handle, and pivot the blade past the ball right at that spot-just a hair past it on both sides-in both directions numerous times to mimic an opening and closing cycle of the knife in an accelerated time period to see if it returns to normal. It sure won't hurt anything to try.

If that didn't work after five minutes, which would be like hundreds of opening and closing cycles, I'd send it in and get it back to normal.

But I'm fortunate, I have six other CRKs to take its place while that was happening if it came to that...
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Thanks for the advice. I wish I had a couple more sebenzas but this is my only one. I did what you said for about a minute and it feels a little better. I'm guessing over time it will work itself out.
 
21's have a ceramic detent ball too, they just don't "lock up" on it. I would think the blade would have had to me slightly opened before impact for the drop to have caused this.
 
Officer's Match said:
21's have a ceramic detent ball too, they just don't "lock up" on it. I would think the blade would have had to me slightly opened before impact for the drop to have caused this.
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It's possible, but I'm pretty sure it was closed. Only thing I can think is that the blade was opened slightly and it landed right on the lock bar. The perfect storm!
 
Well, the pocketclip protrudes from the side and is in contact with the lockbar, so it is what likely hit the ground and transferred some energy to the lockbar.
 
Personally, I would send the knife back to CRKnives and let them look it over and make adjustments if need be.
 
If you stay away from the center area where the washers contact the blade, I don't think you'd hurt pivot action by smoothing the "burr" area you mentioned. But I agree with a trip to Idaho being the best remedy.
 
Officer's Match said:
If you stay away from the center area where the washers contact the blade, I don't think you'd hurt pivot action by smoothing the "burr" area you mentioned. But I agree with a trip to Idaho being the best remedy.
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Most definitely. Gonna give it some time. Just got it back a few weeks ago from an 8 week trip to Idaho one week after I got it (came uncentered) I'm guessing it'll even itself out..if not in a month or so I'll send it back.
 
I'm guessing that was aready there you noticed it because of the drop. There is no way, IMO, dropping the knife onto wood from a couple of ft. could do that.....try making a mark like that with a punch and a hammer and see what it takes. :)

Also, don't touch it, unless you're going to file the whole travel area for the detent you're going to just make things feel worse. I would sent the pic to CRK and see what they say about it.....
 
I dropped my Sebenza from 3 meters (almost 10 foot) onto bricks while working on a roof. No damage except cosmetic. Knee height to floor wont cause issues.
 
...you heard most of the guys advise you to send it in...I'd agree with that. It is the CERTAIN fix.
 
Hmm.. I think the larger concern here is... Your sebenza was mechanically affected by dropping 3 feet to a wood surface.. That is unacceptable for a knife like that.
I'm really hoping you did something much more drastic to it, but forgot because it was normal use.. Then you dropped it and your senses went into fine tune mode to find a problem with it from that, but found the use texturing on the blade in a paranoid search. I really really hope your seb wasnt hurt by falling onto a wood surface. That's just embarrasing for a 400 dollar knife. Just my .02 based on my Kershaw taking flight a few times with nothing to show but scratches.
 
AndreLinoge said:
Hmm.. I think the larger concern here is... Your sebenza was mechanically affected by dropping 3 feet to a wood surface.. That is unacceptable for a knife like that.
I'm really hoping you did something much more drastic to it, but forgot because it was normal use.. Then you dropped it and your senses went into fine tune mode to find a problem with it from that, but found the use texturing on the blade in a paranoid search. I really really hope your seb wasnt hurt by falling onto a wood surface. That's just embarrasing for a 400 dollar knife. Just my .02 based on my Kershaw taking flight a few times with nothing to show but scratches.
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If it was hurt from this fall, this would definitely be a "perfect storm" circumstance. People drop their knives all the time and this forum isn't flooded with topics about how they broke their knife from a 3 foot drop.
 
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