Lock sticking badly on 0551. UPDATE: pg. 1

CrimsonTideShooter

CrimsonTideShooter

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Oct 23, 2010
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I just got 2 0551s for my bday, one is perfect and the other has issues with the lock bar.


About 8/10 openings the lock sticks so hard it takes two hands to move the bar over. Sharpie helps a little, but it wears away eventually and it starts again. PLEASE tell me this will go away. :(
 
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Color the tang with pencil lead. It will go away. Make sure there isn't excess lube on the tang / lockbar.

Oh, and stop using two hands. Just use a quarter for leverage. Much easier.
 
The sharpie trick is far superior to the pencil lead one. I would say if the sharpie doesn't help after a couple applications that you'll have to send it to KAI.
 
Send it in. Their C/S is excellent. I live near Seattle a few hours from Kershaw and when I sent mine back for lock bar issues it was back to me in 4 days. Others have been a couple of weeks but it's a done deal.
 
Never had a Kershaw lock stick?
Sounds like gauling with the titanium and steel, usually buffing the contact surfaces works. Of course with a new knife, contact the factory.
 
How long have you had it? I've had sticky framelocks before and they fixed themselves within a few days of constant cycling, although your's is worse than any of mine. But if you want to avoid the turnaround, I'd give it four or five days of use and see if it gets substantially easier. My green ti bump was like that (about half as severe though). Now it's perfect.
 
Remove all lube from the lock surface. Use a sharpie pen to lube the metal to metal surface of the lock. Work the knife for a day or two and it will be fine.
 
CrimsonTideShooter said:
I just got 2 0551s for my bday, one is perfect and the other has issues with the lock bar.


About 8/10 openings the lock sticks so hard it takes two hands to move the bar over. Sharpie helps a little, but it wears away eventually and it starts again. PLEASE tell me this will go away. :(
Click to expand...


Of course it will.

Why are so many folks so hip on sending the whole knife in when there's no need to ? Lock sticking is part of the breaking in process on a lot of knives , just use the hell out of it like your supposed to and the problem will fix itself.


Tostig
 
mystro said:
Remove all lube from the lock surface. Use a sharpie pen to lube the metal to metal surface of the lock. Work the knife for a day or two and it will be fine.
Click to expand...

That, only it will probably take longer than that. It could take weeks depending on how much you work it.

They should probably make this a sticky. It's inexplicable to me how there could be so many posts like this on this forum and yet people continue to ask the same thing. If you spend any time on this forum perusing these posts it should be pretty apparent by now that its just one of those things with this knife but it is temporary.

It took weeks with mine. It was the hardest, stickiest knife I've ever owned but I did the sharpie thing and kept working it until eventually it wore in and became what it is now. One of the smoothest knives I have.

Have patience, use the Sharpie and continue to work it. If you don't have the patience simply send it in and let the company do it for you. But I sure as hell wouldn't try to polish down the tang with anything abrasive.

Edited to add: when you first apply the Sharpie wait until it dries before you open/close the knife.
 
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I wonder why this one has a break in process when the ZT300 knives don't. Is it a different type of titanium? Or is it thicker or something and that is affecting it?
 
it seems to be related to the power of the spring. I switched liner locks out on a knife, no other changes, and the extra centimeter of flex in the original liner lock made it stick way out in the middle, the new liner lock with less power had no problem.
 
Thanks for the input everyone. I guess I'll just keep applying sharpie and wait until it breaks in. I just don't understand why one is perfect and the other sticks so badly.
 
CrimsonTideShooter said:
Thanks for the input everyone. I guess I'll just keep applying sharpie and wait until it breaks in. I just don't understand why one is perfect and the other sticks so badly.
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My Benchmade MPR lock use to stick for the first couple weeks , after that is works fine as wine.

They make these things en masse , a part here or there is bound to be off by a hundredth or so , breaking in takes care of those problems in my experience.

tostig
 
I vaguely remember reading the included literature with my Chris Reeve Fluorinated Grease and remembered it saying that you could put some between the lockbar and the tang, and I gotta wonder if that might just do the trick in helping to break in a sticky lock.
 
100% accurate from my experience. It always works itself out with proper care (Sharpie or pencil) and use but it often isn't overnight. :thumbup:

BP Green said:
That, only it will probably take longer than that. It could take weeks depending on how much you work it.
Click to expand...
 
Reeek said:
100% accurate from my experience. It always works itself out with proper care (Sharpie or pencil) and use but it often isn't overnight. :thumbup:
Click to expand...

I think I can live with that. I'll just keep applying sharpie and work it as much as I can.


I realize now that I didn't have this problem until I lubed the pivot. :mad:
 
Yup :) The goal is to stop the galling and develop a polish to the contact points which the dry lube resolves and with time, life is good ;)

CrimsonTideShooter said:
I think I can live with that. I'll just keep applying sharpie and work it as much as I can.


I realize now that I didn't have this problem until I lubed the pivot. :mad:
Click to expand...
 
ive lubed my 0300 and it didnt stick aftwerward. breakfree spray, all i use on my guns and knives.
 
The knife was showing no improvement whatsoever, and I was a little discouraged.


I decided to go ahead and tighten the knife up a little since most of my knives come a little loose anyway. I tightened all the frame screws and also the pivot just a hair, and what do you know? It actually seemed to fix the problem.


I can visually tell the the lockbar hits the tang in a different way. More of the lockbar is coming in contact with the tang, so possibly that's why it smoothed out?
 
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