Lock bar tension..

Is there oil anywhere on the locking surfaces? (Blade tang or ceramic ball. This, counterintuitively, often leads to lockstick.

Worst case scenario send it to CRK and they'll fix it right up.

 

Something must be wrong. The CRKs with the ceramic bb lockface should be among the smoothest knives to unlock. I would send that sucker in.

 

Definitely sounds like something is not right. My small Inkosi is the smoothest easiest to manipulate CRK I own. Never even cleaned it or taken it apart.

 

On the subject of sticky...

If I'm not mistaken the whole blade on the inkosi and 21 are stonewashed. The main difference is the tang is fit to the lock on the 21. In this process the stonewash is smoothed away as they grind/file the tang to fit the lock. On the Inkosi this "hand fitting" is not necessary.

If you take a look at yours, this stonewash is still apparent on the tang end of the inkosi essentially creating a rough surface that the ceramic ball travels on. After a few more cycles of opening and closing I'm positive it will smooth out for you. Just as the others have said make sure the ceramic ball is clean and free of oil and gunk. Once that ball creates it's oqn smooth path it won't matter as much.

 

I would say alcohol isn't going to clean off all the lube or other possible contamination. It does well for the most part. Try Zippo Lighter fluid or acetone.

In any case I don't know if that's the problem. It could just be too much tension.

 

I've owned a few Inkosi (all small). The one I had with the ball groove had the worst stick when releasing the lock. I had just assumed it was because I was pushing in the wrong direction to disengage the lock, and was working against the direction of the groove. My latest, a CF Inkosigo that I just received, seems to have more tension on the lockbar than any of my others, but less stick than any of them, which surprised me.
I had originally thought tension was the issue with yours due to the smaller contact area of the ball end lock vs. a flat lock face. Hopefully yours will smooth out with time!