Sebenza 31 Lock Rock?!

jalcon said:
So glad I found this thread. Was just about to pull the trigger on a small 31. Will it effect anything in the long run? No. But let's face it, that rat 2 knife will do 99% of the things the small sebenza will do. And it'll do it without lock rock and you'll save 450 dollars šŸ˜….

A $450 knife should be...perfect plain and simple and to try and say it's a design feature is hilarious lol. Now if hinderer would just make more small xm18 non flippers šŸ˜
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It's lockbar flex, not lock rock. And I experience it on my Hinderer XM-18.
 
Following back up here. I had previously purchased a micarta large 31 with Damascus(July 2021)sold soon after. After owning plenty of CRKā€™s I feel as if I can say that it was on the stiff side when opening. It displayed a clicking noice when check blade play and had a fair amount of wiggle in it in all directions. Even on the lock bar.

Call it what you may but I was totally against the 31 and could not see any reason for the changes that were made to the 21.

Fast forward to today. Just picked up a couple of the TBG 31 from out of Canada šŸ‡ØšŸ‡¦. Completely different story. Oddly enough it fills like a leaned up Inkosi. Sold lock up with zero wiggle. Now donā€™t get me wrong. You bring me any large 21 and I will take it. Lol. Itā€™s what I started collecting so it will always be my favorite. But the 31 has a place in the CRK story and seems to have had all the early design tweaks ironed out and well on its way to being the best made.



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I just received a Small Magnacut Tanto 31. Itā€™s really great. I had an Umnumzaan and Inkosi prior to this and a 21 long ago. All this talk of ā€œlock rockā€ with the ceramic interface is not ā€œlock rockā€. Lock rock occurs with improperly executed lock design. The lock contact point on a Sebenza is very small which will allow for the the lockup to remain solid while the parts can flex sightly to withstand forces of grip and cutting pressure. This is not a fixed blade, but over many years people have come to expect a certain level of lockup to be present in all designs of folding, locking knives.

The complaints I see here are not due to improper design, but are due to not meeting a standard expected by the end user. So you have 2 choices. Evolve with lock design or donā€™t. CRK invented the frame lock. People may or may not like frame locks. There are debates over the strength, longevity and a whole host of other ā€œperceived issuesā€ invented by ā€œgroup thinkā€. Is there validity to the concerns? Regardless of what folks think, these knives sell in droves and thatā€™s why they still pull a premium after all these years. Not everyone who buys a Sebenza is an enthusiast.

I personally tend to trust the folks spending their time on R&D over folks speculating. The good thing here is there still seems to be a host of early model Sebenza for sale on the secondary market, so those of you who donā€™t like a lock design that allows for flex, can still buy one that doesnā€™t.
 
The new version of the 31 flexes much less than the first few runs. It is possible that CRKā€™s R&D department got a whiff of this thread and possibly beefed up the lockbar at the relief millout? (Anyone have both to check with calipers)

Also, CRKā€™s R&D department arenā€™t the only people in the world with qualifications in R&D machining. Just saying.
 
brock stewart said:
I can honestly say that Iā€™ve never experienced lock rock and I own 15 31s 10 21s one umnumzan 4 inkosis and 2 mnandis. Iā€™ve never tried to make things flex Iā€™ve only used them as the tool they are
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So if you never tried to make them flex, then you wouldnā€™t know, just saying
 
Blues said:
I just got a large 31 tanto on Friday. Other than needing some breaking in, I haven't been able to get it to exhibit any flex using reasonable force.

Maybe I'm just too dense to be aware of it.
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There's a lot to be said for being insensitive. It saves me a ton of time where I don't need to register formal complaints.
 
Danke42 said:
There's a lot to be said for being insensitive. It saves me a ton of time where I don't need to register formal complaints.
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I didn't say I was insensitive. I want to maintain my good standing with the fairer sex. (I'm probably not allowed to say that...speaking of formal complaints.)
 
The blade is held in place by a tiny contact point with a small ceramic ball. Both of my Sebenzas can move but only a little over this contact point. It's not a problem.
 
I picked up a small double lug magnacut plain jane sebenza 31 recently. It was made in February of 2023. While it does have less "lock rock/lock flex" than my previous iterations of small 31's I have had, there is still some present. I have just come to accept it at this point if I want to have a small 31. While it is a little annoying, I do not feel that it will close on me any more than any other locking folder. All locking folders can be defeated but I don't plan on ever using it in a fashion that the likelihood would occur.
 
If any of you guys feel endangered by your 31s, as a retired public safety officer, (according to the U.S. gov't), I feel it my sworn duty to offer you my services for safely disposing of them...free of charge, of course.
 
Blues said:
If any of you guys feel endangered by your 31s, as a retired public safety officer, (according to the U.S. gov't), I feel it my sworn duty to offer you my services for safely disposing of them...free of charge, of course.
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What a great person to provide such an important service! šŸ˜†
 
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