Is Loctite Necessary for the Inkosi??

A

abey67

Gold Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2007
Messages
334
As some of you may know, I've researching and learning about the CRK line up and am about to purchase my first CRK. My question is, must you use Loctite on the Inkosi and if so, where? Thanks in advance!
 
They ship it in the box with the knife, so I am going to say yes. Used on the pivot screw. Since the inkosi doesn't use a bushing on its pivot, like the 21, the blade swings solely around the pivot. This gives the knife the ability to have an adjustable pivot and therefore you can play around with pressure and "stiffness" of how you want your blade to open. All this comes at the cost of needing loctite on the pivot screws' threads, since if you keep tightening there is no bushing to prevent the slab from continuing towards each other. Make since? I have heard in more than one case of people who never use loctite on the particular type of pivot. After putting my 25 together a few times and locating my preferred "sweetspot", I used a minuscule amount of loctite now, because I rarely have to take it apart and CRK sent more than enough to last my lifetime.
 
I haven't used Loctite on both my Small Inkosi and Umnumzaan and they haven't loosened on me, YMMV.
 
Doesn't the Inkosi come from the factory with loctite? I use a lot of loctite at my job. My experience with the low-strength 'purple' variety, that CRK uses, is that it essentially creates a semi-hardened plastic-like layer on the threads, unlike the almost crystal-like loctite red (high strength) residue, or very hard residue of loctite blue (medium strength). When you take your Umnum, Inkosi, or L25 down, unless you remove all of that residue from the threads, there is still going to be some locking effect from the friction of the residual product. It may not be as effective as the initial application, but will still act somewhat like a nylon locknut and prevent the assembly from rattling loose. If both threads were completely clean, I am pretty sure the repeated force of opening the knife would loosen up the assembly eventually.

So I would argue the Inkosi "needs" loctite, but you don't necessarily have to apply fresh Loctite every time you take it down.
 
As pointed out in another thread, many CRK owners possibly suffer from OCD. ;) For a brief honeymoon period of time I didn't use Loctite (thinking back it was probably still in the threads as mentioned above), but the thought of CRK putting it in the box and the outside possibility of the pivot coming loose during daily work or to the point where I lose a part of the pivot in the field caused me to find my exact "sweetspot", count the turns as I backed the screw out, put a tiny drop of provided purple on the threads, and count the number turns back together, alleviated all OCD nerves. Total time spent applying Loctite + or - 23 seconds.
 
Last edited:
So if I use that tiny bit of Loctite, for how long is the rest good to use?
I don't disassemble the knife that often.
 
On my Umnumzaan, I use it as needed, depending on how the pivot screw feels during re-assembly. It's pretty simple. If I'm not sure, I use a tiny bit on the threads.

It's no big deal, really. I use the CRK grease every time I re-assemble my Zaan; I usually use purple threadlock at the same time. It works for me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top