knife company's ball bearing

In short? Lots. The major ones are KAI (Kershaw, ZT) and Spyderco as far as production knives go. A lot of midtechs such as Shirogorov use them in some of their variants as well. A quick search will yield results aplenty.
 
Emerson is using caged bearings in his Iron Dragon. I believe that Reate and Kizer use some in their models.
 
chrispy513 said:
In short? Lots. The major ones are KAI (Kershaw, ZT) and Spyderco as far as production knives go. A lot of midtechs such as Shirogorov use them in some of their variants as well. A quick search will yield results aplenty.
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Just a FYI, Shirogorov, unless it's from the custom shop, I don't think you can call them anything but standard production knives.
 
Look for caged/captive bearings for easier maintenance. Also, where possible, ceramic over metal for longer/smoother life.
 
Scurvy092 said:
Just a FYI, Shirogorov, unless it's from the custom shop, I don't think you can call them anything but standard production knives.
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Depends on when they were made. The first and second generations of the knives (first being the ones we saw issues in, second being the ones that gained extreme fame and high pricing) were all hand-ground blades.
The latest ones are definitely production, though a quite high-level production, in the same categorization of Hinderer, Strider, and CRK (priced higher for several reasons).

And bearings are becoming more and more popular. Becnhmade has started using them apparently, or are going to be soon, and comapnies are quickly finding that it is much easier to make a knife open and close "smoothly" on bearings than it is on washers, even though I do think washers are overall a better choice for most knives. Washers are easier to keep clean, maintainable by a someone who knows what they're doing with almost no tools needed, and will generally last longer. There are ways to make bearings much better and resolve most of these roblems, but most manufactures really don't make an effort to take those extra steps, and the average consumer won't know there is an issue until they start really using the knife over long periods of time.
You'll see them increasingly more as time passes I'm sure, and eventually I doubt there will be many manufacturers who don't have them in at least a few models (though I HIGHLY doubt CRK or Hinderer will ever use them). Some manufacturers really do it right (Shirogorov, and some custom makers mainly), and take the extra steps to make the bearings run as well as they can for as long as they can, but most don't unfortunately.

Oh, and Kizer still uses washers last time I had one in my hands. That might have changed, but I know they were originally on washers for sure.
 
Guardian Tactical uses caged ball bearings in their flippers and the autos they make for Rat Worx. I believe it is Rat Worx that actually makes the bearings for both.
 
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