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Rockstead Knowledge Thread
- Thread starter bladeninja
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AusLoX
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Yep, I believe I mentioned something similar in this thread.
When my Higo-X was new, it was stiffer than any knife I have; it had more tension than a strong slipjoint. I did the same as you, crack open, clean, and relube. Afterwards, the action was still extremely stiff but now I had blade play too
I was confused about this, so I inspected the knife really closely. What I found, was that since the Higo/Hizen has only two points of contact (pivot and spacer) it is crucial that each contact point be perfectly in sync with eachother with equal amounts of torque on the screws. The two handles should be perfectly parallel, and if one point of contact is out-of-whack, the handles tend to push away from eachother and become non-parallel. Essentially, this caused blade play, stiffness, or both.
What I found as a solution, is to torque the screws almost as hard as you can. My Higo-X requires a ton of torque to make the action feel right. To be honest, the amount of torque it takes feels like you are going to break the knife...but you won't. Those screws need to be very tight.
Even when properly tightened, mine still felt a little stiff for a few months, but now it has broken in very nicely and feels great. My Higo-X is the only knife I've ever owned that had such a drastic break-in period.
Wow good to know. Thanks man. I must have got lucky with mine. It's fairly smooth
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See the drag marks? partially responsible for a un-smooth deployment IMO. but that's just the nature of this particular design....
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See the drag marks? partially responsible for a un-smooth deployment IMO. but that's just the nature of this particular design....
I think it may have been a case of needing to break in much more. Button locks usually take some breaking in, at least the Hogue EX-01 did. I'm sure the hardness of the ZDP exacerbates that, I just took my Higo apart after three months of very regular carry and the washers still haven't polished the area they make contact very much.
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yeah with a rw of 67.1 the button would have to be the one getting worn in......and then what if the button turned a little bit lol! you'd be at square one.
plus the polish back there wasn't perfect giving it a turbulent feel as it rode the button...:grumpy:
plus the polish back there wasn't perfect giving it a turbulent feel as it rode the button...:grumpy:
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I was in the same predicament after my Higo. I was hesitant to buy the Chi, but once it was in my hand, I immediately fell in love.
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See the drag marks? partially responsible for a un-smooth deployment IMO. but that's just the nature of this particular design....
Honestly I don't see the marks you are talking about. a button lock only makes contact with the sides of the blade. When open the lock sits in the notch in the blade tang but when you depress the lock that portion of the lock moves out of the way and all you have is the thinner post that connects the two large areas of the lock itself but the blade should never make contact with it. If there is any contact during operation it would be on the sides of the blade. I have never seen a button lock that ever made contact with the part of the blade being shown in the pics.
I'm not saying you didn't have a reason to be dissatisfied. I just believe you should do it for the right reasons. And I think people should know what it really was rather than thinking Rockstead is smelting scrap ZDP to try and cast blades. To your defense I wouldn't be happy with it either no matter what the extra material is.
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I clearly remembered bit by the Rockstead bug last year early March/15 - soon, got my SHIN 4/6/15 direct from Japan after cancelled the Higo with its plain ZDP...it is almost to a year.
Among a few that I "worked on", the first day the SHIN arrived:
Here it is with of my mod'ed "controversial" CRK Insingo that, a few, one transgressor here in particular - I am sure he remembers. By the way, I thought, this guy was older - the way he spoke how he made, through hardship, a life for himself, but in actuality, glimpses within his videos - he is but a young fellow.
:
Since, I was off the grid from Rockstead buying and missed the SHUN limited production run. Developed an itch for a SHUN this past March, contacted Ishida-san, while Ishida-san was helping me to locate a SHUN, I picked up a TEI direct from Japan - 3/15/16:
Here with his one year old brother from the same mother:
According to USPS Express, SHUN is going to be at my door 4/6/16 @3:00PM.
Maybe then, I will take a family shot with the Hap'a(like so many locals here:- name for mixed race, between Asian & Caucasian) brother in the mix.
Aloha!
Among a few that I "worked on", the first day the SHIN arrived:
Here it is with of my mod'ed "controversial" CRK Insingo that, a few, one transgressor here in particular - I am sure he remembers. By the way, I thought, this guy was older - the way he spoke how he made, through hardship, a life for himself, but in actuality, glimpses within his videos - he is but a young fellow.
:
Since, I was off the grid from Rockstead buying and missed the SHUN limited production run. Developed an itch for a SHUN this past March, contacted Ishida-san, while Ishida-san was helping me to locate a SHUN, I picked up a TEI direct from Japan - 3/15/16:
Here with his one year old brother from the same mother:
According to USPS Express, SHUN is going to be at my door 4/6/16 @3:00PM.
Maybe then, I will take a family shot with the Hap'a(like so many locals here:- name for mixed race, between Asian & Caucasian) brother in the mix.
Aloha!
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..........
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- Joined
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Slightly off topic, but I am soon acquiring a fixed blade from Kiku Matsuda. It's his Shinobi model, which translates to "ninja".
Why am I talking about this in a Rockstead thread? Well, I was intrigued to find out that Matsuda-San uses a similar grinding technique to Rocky's Honzukuri grind, except he calls his grind Hamaguri-ba. I am intrigued to try out another grind (which I believe) will be similar to a Rockstead fixed blade. Another thing that is unique about Matsuda-San's knives is the use of OU-31 steel, which is hardened to about 64hrc
Has anyone else experienced his work? Am I correct that Hamaguri-ba is similar to Honzukuri?
Why am I talking about this in a Rockstead thread? Well, I was intrigued to find out that Matsuda-San uses a similar grinding technique to Rocky's Honzukuri grind, except he calls his grind Hamaguri-ba. I am intrigued to try out another grind (which I believe) will be similar to a Rockstead fixed blade. Another thing that is unique about Matsuda-San's knives is the use of OU-31 steel, which is hardened to about 64hrc
Has anyone else experienced his work? Am I correct that Hamaguri-ba is similar to Honzukuri?
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Slightly off topic, but I am soon acquiring a fixed blade from Kiku Matsuda. It's his Shinobi model, which translates to "ninja".
Why am I talking about this in a Rockstead thread? Well, I was intrigued to find out that Matsuda-San uses a similar grinding technique to Rocky's Honzukuri grind, except he calls his grind Hamaguri-ba. I am intrigued to try out another grind (which I believe) will be similar to a Rockstead fixed blade. Another thing that is unique about Matsuda-San's knives is the use of OU-31 steel, which is hardened to about 64hrc
Has anyone else experienced his work? Am I correct that Hamaguri-ba is similar to Honzukuri?
A website that sells his knife seems to indicate as such. OU-31 looks like a very nice steel, it will be interesting to see how much of Rockstead's cutting performance comes from the refinement of the bevel. It's been a while since I owned one of the little Blacjack neckers that was also a zero convex so I can't compare.
Does the kou come in honzo and Shinzo grind? I saw a picture off of a website and it looks like there is a bevel like the tanto chi. Pics from Instagram look like the same grind as the shin. Saw blues comment about them coming in different grinds sometimes. Help meeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please!!!!!!!!!!
Sunny
Sunny
So let's not stir up this good thread:thumbup:
Anyone wanna talk about Rocky's? As of lately, my Chi is still a personal favorite. There is so much to love about that beautiful Shinogizukuri Tanto grind
Any pros/cons to hanzo vs Shinzo grinds? From your video it looks like the one with the bevel is easier to sharpen.
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The Kou, like its big brother the Shin, appears to be Honzukuri to me. Couldn't find a picture on Google of it with a Shinogizukuri grind.
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I would imagine cutting performance is slightly better with the Honzukuri grind because it doesn't have an abrupt transition like the secondary bevel of the Shinogizukuri. Contrary to the norm, I've always found sharpening full convex knives to be much more simple and forgiving than those with traditional bevels. Way less precision is needed with matching angles.