Is there anything else like the Sebenza pivot?

H

Hinagea

Joined
Nov 13, 2014
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20
Is there another type of pivot or maker who makes a folder that can be tightened down all the way and still open/close with ease?

-H
 
Spyderco uses a "stepped pivot" which achieves similar results (or atleast they used to). Basically a precision spacer for blade+washers stack. PM2, Manix (I believe), native 5 (I believe) and I think newer Militaries have it.
 
^
Bushing pivot. Yeah those Spydercos have a version of it. They all have different locks which makes it interesting.
 
Technically no, there is not anything else like the Sebenza pivot and there wont be anytime soon as Reeve has patented it. I personally like how it is designed, as well as the washers, to hold in grease evenly. Genius really
 
I'm actually not looking to compare it for the purposes of saving money. I have champagne taste on a generic soda budget. I buy a knife or two a year, so I'd like to get a mid-tech or custom. No defamation to Spyderco intended, just a but too utilitarian for my taste.The same can be said about CRK and is the reason for me asking this question. I love the pivot on CRK's but wanted to step it up a notch. A piece I've had my eyes on lately is the Grimsmo Norseman. I don't like the thought of using loctite to keep the pivot screw in place. This is a problem with my Benchmade 940-1.
 
There's customs that use the bushing and washer system. Three Sisters Forge uses a stepped pivot that allows you to crank them down without effecting tightness, at least on the Gorgon.
 
My rockstead higo has a bushing pivot. It can be tightened all the way and still function just like the sebenza. It's has great lock up but still able to swing back and forth like the pm2. I had to polish the washers on my sebenza to even get the blade to fall when the lock was disengaged.
 
I've seen/heard of customs using it before, can't remember any specifically though. And FWIW, bearing pivots are very easy to adjust, and they don't use a bushing or anything. Obviously the mechanics are very different though.
 
omgomgyouguys said:
My rockstead higo has a bushing pivot. It can be tightened all the way and still function just like the sebenza. It's has great lock up but still able to swing back and forth like the pm2. I had to polish the washers on my sebenza to even get the blade to fall when the lock was disengaged.
Click to expand...

I second this. Also, everything on that Rockstead Higo knife is just plain outstanding, including the pivot. Beautiful knife.
 
You can find something similar, and in some ways more advanced, in a Caswell EDX custom knife. He not only makes a knife that can have the pivot tightened down without affecting the action of the knife, but he went a step farther and made it so that there are 2 adjustment points on the pivot.
The first one adjusts the centering of the blade, without directly effecting the action of the knife itself, and the second one adjusts the action tension, without affecting the centering. Because they are separate adjustments, it offers the ability to have a tighter action on a knife that is perfectly centered for one person, and to have an easier action for someone else that still remains perfectly centered.

Other knives do have the bushing or stepped pivots in them, but other than Rockstead (and truly exceptional knives they are), I have never found a folding knife that has a system that directly compares to the Sebenza.
 
Some folks say for the price of one Rockstead, I can have this + that and.....

I am not gonna waste my time and get into debates with CRK fanboys. Facts based on my own disassembled Insingo - Among several weak areas, this is shown on rather soft CRK's S35 @ 58-59 RC, after couple of months cycling before I got into modding my Insingo:

DSCN2079_zpsa253137d.jpg


Rockstead is indeed out of the ordinary. Couple links on long term use:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...6HtPcYpndEiGrFBEMUyrFbQ&bvm=bv.90491159,d.cGU

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...DCpdoUZ179Rl_VyFC7Vc9fw&bvm=bv.90491159,d.cGU

Based on my own Insingo:

DSCN2250_zpsxmq815ej.jpg


On its best day, my well broken in and well Christo Lub'ed Insingo can not come close to my Rockstead's fresh out of the box in smoothness - that is based on my own experience.

DSCN2249_zpslwgpz5yz.jpg


As if it is even possible, smoothness improves each and every time cycling it.

If price of admission is not a problem. Rockstead is certainly worth to experience first hand - to be believed or appreciated.
 
victorf for the win!
I handled one and it was silky smooth on the shin model just cant afford it or care for it. Upgrade your membership slacker.
This is about pivots?

Edited. Thought it was a shin.
 
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victorf said:
Some folks say for the price of one Rockstead, I can have this + that and.....

I am not gonna waste my time and get into debates with CRK fanboys. Facts based on my own disassembled Insingo - Among several weak areas, this is shown on rather soft CRK's S35 @ 58-59 RC, after couple of months cycling before I got into modding my Insingo:

Rockstead is indeed out of the ordinary. Couple links on long term use:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...6HtPcYpndEiGrFBEMUyrFbQ&bvm=bv.90491159,d.cGU

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...DCpdoUZ179Rl_VyFC7Vc9fw&bvm=bv.90491159,d.cGU

Based on my own Insingo:

On its best day, my well broken in and well Christo Lub'ed Insingo can not come close to my Rockstead's fresh out of the box in smoothness - that is based on my own experience.

As if it is even possible, smoothness improves each and every time cycling it.

If price of admission is not a problem. Rockstead is certainly worth to experience first hand - to be believed or appreciated.
Click to expand...

I will say that you are not wrong in your assessment, and that the Rosksteads I have owned and handled have always been smoother than any new CRK I have handled, or even many of the models I have seen that have had the washers polished to make them smoother. If smoothness was what I wanted, I would take a Rockstead every day, hands down, if money was not an object.

But, the sad fact of the matter is that money is always an object when discussing the quality of a product, as you yourself have said when we were discussing CRK before in another thread, as you stated that your Yojimbo was a better knife partly because it was less costly, which I will not argue, as that simply means it is a better knife for you, and there is nothing wrong with that.
CRK is not for everyone, and I will not consider myself a fanboy, but I do like them. The people that don't like them all have a reason that they don't like them, and that is fine, because we are all allowed to have our own reasons to dislike something.

But, what I am mainly trying to get at is that Rockstead's folders are at least twice what an equivalent (meaning that they are at a similar level within their own product lines, ie: Higo vs Lg plain Sebenza, Hizen vs small plain sebenza, etc.) CRK is new, and that fact will not change. Though I would always choose to take a Rockstead over a Sebenza if money were no object, there is a reason that I have no Rockstead knives in my collection right now, while I still own, and always will own, a Sebenza. The simple version of that reason is that a Rockstead is more of a pain to take care of, and is worth drastically more money, which is not a good combination in my personal philosophy of use (as always, YMMV).

So yes, if the price of admission is not a problem, then Rockstead will always be worth experiencing, and will second that wholeheartedly, but:
1. Rockstead knives are certainly built with a different mentality than a Sebenza (though it is one of only a very few knives that you could make a good argument for having similar levels of precision to a Sebenza), and that should be acknowledged when looking at getting one or the other.
2. the price of admission is a determinate factor in all products, and should be taken into consideration when evaluating any product or comparing it to another product. The Sebenza is half the price of the Higo, so does this make it half the knife? That is going to be the real question, and likely many different people will have many different answers to that question really, and so they will make different choices as to which knife they would rather own.
 
Victorf, Rocksteads do seem to be amazing by all accounts, but in your first picture of the Insingo blade, what point are you making? You posted a picture but made no comment about the bushing system on the Sebenza. So what's your point?
 
Well, he sure doesn't want to waste his time debating with CRK fanboys, that's for sure😜
 
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