New ZT 0200 owner, have noob questions

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Watarski

Joined
Sep 20, 2010
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I purchased my first quality knife, a ZT 0200. Unfortunately I dropped it square on the blade on the concrete while opening it (don't ask) and sent it in for warranty work. It came back within 6 weeks, and now I have a couple of questions. First, the recurve portion of this blade, may be a new blade, isn't as sharp as the original. I've never used a sharpening system...is this something I should try, and if so - is there a decent sharpener that a knife noob can't mess his blade up? Second, the knife came back with something, almost looks like a little bit of rust, in between the handles. Are these knives a pain to put back together, specific torque settings, etc? And lastly, what do you knife gurus use to clean up your blades to get things like tape residue off?

Any help is appreciated! :D
 
For sharpening: SPyderco Sharpmaker
For Cleaning: WD40, Tuf Cloth, RemOil, Mineral Oil, take your pic.
For disassembly: Not hard, just pay attention to what goes where, disassemble over a towel and NOT a countertop unless you want to move your furniture looking for screws. I would not worry about any Rust looking stuff. 154CM is a stainless steel.
 
You will need a set of torx bits, specifically the t8 for the frame screws. It requires a wrench for the pivot nut and I cannot remember what size off the top of my head, but it is a standard size so no problem with having to buy a special wrench. As RD said the Sharpmaker is a sharpening kit that can be a lifelong buddy and one of the best involving preset crock stick type sharpeners. I usually use rubbing alcohol pads to wipe gummy substances from my knife blades.

Is the rust between the liners and the G-10 handles? or on the liners themselves? Usually I would use polish to gt rid of it, but I'm not sure what you see is rust as the liners and blade are stainless steel.
 
I will look at picking up the spyderco sharpener. Thanks for the recommendation. What sharpening angle is typical for these knives?

It's actually on the inside of the knife, on the liners next to one of the connecting bars. I've cleaned what I could, but I can't get a brush to the remaining material, so I was contemplating taking it apart to clean it off. It's just something anal, but it wasn't there when I shipped it off and I can't get to all of it now.
 
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The pivot wrench is 3/8".
 
Watarski said:
I will look at picking up the spyderco sharpener. Thanks for the recommendation. What sharpening angle is typical for these knives?

It's actually on the inside of the knife, on the liners next to one of the connecting bars. I've cleaned what I could, but I can't get a brush to the remaining material, so I was contemplating taking it apart to clean it off. It's just something anal, but it wasn't there when I shipped it off and I can't get to all of it now.
Click to expand...

Q-tips?
 
No, q-tips aren't going to cut it. It needs to be brushed/scrubbed. Any idea on the sharpening angle?
 
Watarski said:
No, q-tips aren't going to cut it. It needs to be brushed/scrubbed. Any idea on the sharpening angle?
Click to expand...

Usually its either 30 or 40 degrees which the Sharpmaker can be set to (most likely 30). Honestly with factory edges its not really ground evenly so you have to freehand a little bit. Sharpie the edges to see where you are sharpening on the edge and adjust accordingly. The Sharpmaker is by far the easiest way to sharpen for me and I highly recommend it for novice sharpeners like myself.
 
1] Sharpmaker as others have suggested - watch the DVD and practice on a cheap kitchen knife before trying the ZT.

2] If the "rust" is on the pivot side, it's probably not rust. What you're seeing is the bronze pivot washer [something found on higher quality folders]. My brand new ZT 0300 looked like it had a "rusty" washer but it's just the bronze washer.
 
The Sharpmaker will do the back bevel at 30 degress and the final edge at 40 degrees. I think this translates into 15 degrees either side on the back bevel, and 20 degrees each side for the final edge. This is what I use on my ZT0200 and it has NO problem in bring back the edge, if/when I do lose it. Course what I do is hit the edge about 10 licks on each side evry day as I come in when I carried this knife and used it. Helps to keep the edge sharp, instead of getting it too dull and having to spend a lot of time on the resharpening.:thumbup::)
 
My best advice is to take it to a professional. Buy a cheapo knife to practice sharpening with.
 
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