Polishing washers in a L21, one man's positive experience.

[TRfromMT]

I know opinions run pretty strong on this - if you should ever polish the washers in a 21 or not. I know the design is with a pivot bushing, and the knife should be such that you can tighten down the pivot screw and get that legendary CR hydraulic opening. The 21 isn't like other knives where the pivot is adjustable. I understand how washers can get pinched on the 21. I understand the warranty implications.

So this is just my experience with 1 specific knife, a Large 21 insingo blade, early 2019 birth date.

I have had a few 21's over the years. When this one came my way about 8 months ago as a very gently used knife, it became my primary daily knife. I carry it 4 or 5 days a week. Also, I am a mechanical engineer, and happen to work in a manufacturing company where tolerances to the tenth of a thousandth of an inch are the norm. I only say that because I do understand the very close tolerances and the mechanical design of the Sebenza. I am comfortable with precision assemblies and mechanical design. I get it, and am confident I knew my knife was not right.

This knife would just not break in and if I had any torque on the pivot screw - at all - it would become so tight that I could not open it with one hand. It was virtually locked up. I had the knife apart for cleaning twice in the time I had it and each time I was very careful not to pinch a washer. I am certain this was not the issue.

I am not the sort of guy to send a knife in for sharpening or spa service or whatever. I will always elect to fix an issue on a user knife myself. Yesterday I sat down to fix this knife once and for all. Since this is my knife for life keeper, I was not at all concerned about warranty, or reselling it.

I started on a strop and polished the washers. This was not enough. After several attempts there was no improvement. I ended up wet sanding them against some 1000 grit paper, then polishing on a strop. I polished both sides of both washers and did it in 3 steps (reassembling the knife and testing it). Each time resulted in a slight but distinct improvement.

NOW this knife finally has that perfect smooth opening, short of flicking it open, and just less than falling shut with the lock bar tension taken off. There is a reasonable amount of torque on the pivot screw against the bushing. Pivot perfection!

It did not occur to me to take photos along the way.

I thought I'd make a thread and if you want to post your personal experience, or how to tips, feel free.

 

[Peter Hartwig]

Sounds like you had a washer problem and the knowledge and skill to fix it. It is recommended that people don't do this, because they may lack one or all the above elements. They just read about it on the web and think it is the thing to do. This may result in creating a problem, when there was none to start with.

 

[TRfromMT]

P Peter Hartwig , while I respect your point of view, I think folks should, for sure, consider doing this if they think it is needed. Maybe it's all the pandemic stuff, but my brain is grappling with an entitlement mentality recently (I am not putting words in your mouth, and agree that, yep, some guys would screw this up). My point is that here on the front page of this subforum we have posts about the necessity to return a knife for sharpening because it was 'butter knife dull' (really?). Another post is bout returning a knife and never doing business with the vendor again because it was missing a birth card. Holy crap are we ever a bunch of wusses, or what?!

Please hear me - I returned a Spyderco Smock, in full righteous indignation, because the box was torn. I am not innocent of feeling entitled.

But would a 20 year old Chris Reeve send back a knife that didn't have a perfectly sharp edge? Would my granddad send in a knife that had a little bit of a stiff action? Then why would we? It's because we have evolved to a point of expecting perfection and feeling entitled to it.

My point is this - far too much of the discussion revolves around what we as buyers are entitled to and I would like to encourage a little common sense. If you are on this forum to start with, and have as much interest as it takes to even read a thread about "polishing washers", you probably have enough wrinkles in your grey matter to comprehend how to do this. Your decision should not be based on fear of messing it up, or what you are entitled to, but should be based on some innate sense of being able to figure your stuff out.

Use your stuff, break it and fix it. If you have creative ways to help others do this, then please post them.

OK - full on rant is over.

 

[Peter Hartwig]

I think you misread my post.

 

[TRfromMT]

I think you misread my post.

Probably.

 

[TTTis]

I fully agree with you, IF you have the know how and respect the tolerances you're dealing with. You are the exception in this case, most do not work with these tolerances or grasp them. Most people take too much off the washers, create side to side play and have to send it in.

In the final fitting process they are taking a little bit off the washers with some high grit paper. So doing it yourself isn't a big deal, but in most cases totally unnecessary. However after about 20 sebs through my hands I've had one that was like yours in OP. Fixed it myself and can crank down the pivot. Rare but do exist for sure.

And yes, you mistook Peters statement.... which is pretty much just repeated in my statement.

 

[TRfromMT]

I didn't misread his post, I misbehaved with a rant that was misplaced due to my missing manners.

But I stand by my encouragement to share positive tips and tricks, because let's face it - any time someone suggests polishing washers the usual (over)reaction would scare off most folks when really, it isn't THAAAAT difficult.

 

[brownshoe]

In the overwelming majority of cases the knife leaves the factory with the washers perfectly adjusted. Any subsequent preformance problems were probably inflicted by a previous owner of your knife. You got lucky most people inflict damage sanding sebenza washers. Chris himself said that. The knife is factory adjusted, you do not need to sand or polish the washers. If you do need to, the knife must have been messed with.