Sebenza 21 Lock Failure?

A

Ayu

Joined
May 11, 2020
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3
Hi all,

I have a Sebenza 21 that I've been carrying for almost 6 months now. Lockup has been pretty solid. Horizontally it felt great. No movement whatsoever. Vertically I always noticed what felt like a very small amount of play, but it never bothered me. Tonight I was messing around with my knife, feeling for the vertical play by holding the handle, grabbing the blade, and applying a fair bit of vertical pressure on and off. To my surprise, the lock failed, and the blade cut me! Stupid, I know, but I really didn't expect it to fail, so it caught me off guard. After putting on a Band-Aid, I tried the experiment a bit more, this time protecting my hand by holding the handle with a towel. I was able to get the lock to fail a couple more times doing the same thing. I then wrapped the whole knife in the towel and applied pressure to the knife at the pivot, trying to close the knife as if I was breaking a stick. I was able to get the lock to fail fairly easily this way, without using too much muscle. So my question to you all is: is this normal? Are these manipulations just totally abusive, such that no Sebenza lock should be expected to withstand them? Or should the lock have held? Any input would be much-appreciated.

Thanks!
 
If it helps, I should add that I had recently lubricated the pivot with some mineral oil, so I suppose that the oil could have helped the lock to slip.
 
I can put as much pressure as I can on my 21, and the lock won’t fail. It’s not smart, and not something I do, but I’ll admit I tried it after the “31 lock rock” thread and that sucker ain’t budging. I’d sent it in right away if I were you :thumbsup:
 
Ayu said:
Hi all,

So my question to you all is: is this normal? Are these manipulations just totally abusive, such that no Sebenza lock should be expected to withstand them? Or should the lock have held? Any input would be much-appreciated.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
You should not be able to defeat the lock on a Sebenza by hand pressure. I had one years ago that did the same thing as yours. I could apply about 5lbs of hand pressure and the lock would “pop” open. I called CRK and they said it definitely need repair so I sent it in. When I got it back the lock was solid and held firm no matter how much hand pressure I applied.
 
Had a similar event, no cut, and found a piece of crud in the works. It had kept the knife , lockbar, from fully engaging.
 
I have owned 3 umnumzaans. Had the lock slip on 2 of them. Have owned 300+ Sebenzas and have never had lock failure of any kind. This includes regulars, classics, 21’s.

Odds are you got oil in the lockbar and blade tang interface which aided in this. Trying to make it fail repeatedly after could possibly damage the knife. Anything will fail if enough pressure is put on something. At this point, you did more harm than good.

But to be sure, I would recommend it be sent to CRK for evaluation.
 
nyefmaker said:
I have owned 3 umnumzaans. Had the lock slip on 2 of them. Have owned 300+ Sebenzas and have never had lock failure of any kind. This includes regulars, classics, 21’s.

Odds are you got oil in the lockbar and blade tang interface which aided in this. Trying to make it fail repeatedly after could possibly damage the knife. Anything will fail if enough pressure is put on something. At this point, you did more harm than good.

But to be sure, I would recommend it be sent to CRK for evaluation.
Click to expand...
Wow! Lock slip on an Umnumzaan.
 
Have you ever disassembled it? It can fail if you do not put it back together correctly and the lock up is off. Just a thought.
 
I think that there may have been an issue from the factory, as I could detect a very small amount of vertical play initially. I think nyefmaker is right that there was some oil in the lock interface that helped it slip.
 
This has happened with one of my 21s also because of that lockflex thread, but I suspect it’s because I swapped the droppoint blade out for an insingo. I guess it’s proof that blades are matched to the tang.
 
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Caffiend said:
This has happened with one of my 21s also because of that lockflex thread, but I suspect it’s because I swapped the droppoint blade out for an insingo. I guess it’s proof that blades are matched to the tang.
Click to expand...
Yes...they are!!
 
Ayu said:
I think that there may have been an issue from the factory, as I could detect a very small amount of vertical play initially. I think nyefmaker is right that there was some oil in the lock interface that helped it slip.
Click to expand...

When Chris' instructions for Sebenza maintenance were still available, he said not to use oil, but use the CRK grease and to put a little on the blade's tang/lock interface.
 
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