Small Sebenza lock stick

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f250

Joined
Aug 9, 2014
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295
Ok so I purchased a small Sebenza 21 about a month ago. Love the knife, but it was a little tight and I use it a lot at work where it gets dirty. So, I've taken it apart several times to clean it. Today I did that, also polished the washers slightly on my leather strop, then reassembled it to immediately find lock stick. It's smooth opening, but feels rough and gritty right when the detent ball comes in contact with the blade as I close it. And of course, disengaging the lock itself is gritty and requires more force than it did before. I've disassembled and reassembled multiple times, no pinched washers, I can't find anything wrong. I don't have crk grease, the dealer told me crk no longer supplied it in the boxes. I used some rem oil instead.

Any suggestions? Not sure what to do next.
 
On my TI locks (titanium liner/frame locks not CRK TI lock) that stick, i put some Sharpie on the blade tang where it meets the lock face. That should smooth it out. May have to reapply every so often. A pencil can be used as an alternative though ive had better results with the Sharpie.

Ive only had to do this on a few of my TI liner lock Emersons, never my small Sebenza. I want to say ive only had one frame lock that needed this (ZT 561) but that would have been a couple of years ago and i could be mistaken.
 
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benchwarmer380 said:
On my TI locks (titanium liner/frame locks not CRK TI lock) that stick, i put some Sharpie on the blade tang where it meets the lock face. That should smooth it out. May have to reapply every so often. A pencil can be used as an alternative though ive had better results with the Sharpie.

Ive only had to do this on a few of my TI liner lock Emersons, never my small Sebenza. I want to say ive only had one frame lock that needed this (ZT 561) but that would have been a couple of years ago and i could be mistaken.
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I tried the sharpie trick, and it helped a little but the stick is still there. I'm more concerned about why it showed up so suddenly and what I can do to permanently fix it. Obviously I either assembled it wrong (although I highly doubt it, I've followed the directions in threads and crk website to the letter, and I've done so in the past without any issue), or the stick was caused by something else.
 
I had the same problem with the same knife today as well as an off centered blade. I did the same. Took apart, reassembled several times following the directions and wasn't able to correct either so I just boxed it up and shipped it to CRK for adjustments and spa treatment.
 
Would my warranty be considered void because I polished the washers on my strop? I'm assuming not, it's pretty obvious I haven't done anything in the way of modifying or messing with the knife, apart from changing out the lanyard and polishing the rear standoff. CRK doesn't seem like the type of company that would care about something like that, but you never know.
 
f250 said:
Would my warranty be considered void because I polished the washers on my strop? I'm assuming not, it's pretty obvious I haven't done anything in the way of modifying or messing with the knife, apart from changing out the lanyard and polishing the rear standoff. CRK doesn't seem like the type of company that would care about something like that, but you never know.
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I cant imagine it would be because of the polished washers. I think they're very reasonable people and from what I've read, go above and beyond with servicing and cs. I'll report back about mine and let you know.
 
Definitely, let me know how it goes! Unless I get some amazing suggestion for something I've missed, I'm thinking I will just use it for another week or so and if it doesn't work it's way out, I guess I'll be sending it in!
 
My money says that your lockup may be traveling father than it was before the cleaning. Open it slowly and see if the stick is gone. If so, loosen the pivot and the stop pin and rotate the stop pin sleeve 90 degrees. That may help reduce the % ever so slightly. Be careful not to pinch a washer. Also, make sure that your lock face is clean and free of the Rem Oil (less slippery, less travel). I'd recommend getting a Teflon grease such as CRK grease or Finish Line Extreme Flouro.

ETA - It took a while, but I had a sticky one that fixed itself with time. Perhaps the lock face just needed to "fit" itself to the tang?
 
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Just a very remote possibility, but is there a chance you got some of the fine compound from your strop on the lock face? I can imagine some microscopic strop-grit embedded in the lock face jamming things up.
 
Ok so I tried rotating the stop pin, and that helped some more as well.

I'm pretty sure there was no grit left over from the strop on the lock face, I completely disassembled and cleaned every part with soapy water then air dried it once I found the sticking lock had developed.

I also did assemble it with the blade open...per crk's instructions, I assemble the two slabs, then slide the blade, bushing, and washers into place, holding the lockbar open.
 
At this point, the lock bar is still slightly sticky but nowhere near as bad as it was before, so I'm just going to carry and use it for the next week or so. I've read that especially for a new Sebenza, sometimes disassembling and reassembling it can actually set back its break in process. Maybe some of the surfaces just need time to mate back together after being reassembled, since they are not smooth and worn from time.
 
Open the knife, take the front scale of, close the knife and put the scale back on and tighten the screws... I'll bet it works ;)
 
snooka said:
Open the knife, take the front scale of, close the knife and put the scale back on and tighten the screws... I'll bet it works ;)
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Removing the front scale without removing the blade first might get you into trouble. First off, it will pop out the blade because of the tension. Secondly, I don't think that is the proper way of disassembling and re-assembling a CRK folding knife as outlined on the instructions...

But hey, if it works for ya.. Then it's all good...
 
Hi, from my experience, the lock face must be clear of oil and gunk. This what make it stick. I had some issues with my L21, and it became worse after I have cleaned nd oiled it. Then I noticed that the bearing oil that I have used is all over the lock. WD40 did the trick. Now when i do apply any oils at the washers, I ensure that it do not get onto the lock or lock face on the blade.
 
jumpstat said:
Hi, from my experience, the lock face must be clear of oil and gunk. This what make it stick. I had some issues with my L21, and it became worse after I have cleaned nd oiled it. Then I noticed that the bearing oil that I have used is all over the lock. WD40 did the trick. Now when i do apply any oils at the washers, I ensure that it do not get onto the lock or lock face on the blade.
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I think this was my problem.

Lock stick has completely disappeared now. And I only let it sit overnight then used it as normal. Didn't do anything to it.
I also remembered I've had some serious issues with lock stick on my spyderco farid k2 (that model has sticky lock issues anyways) but the issues got a lot worse right after cleaning and oiling.

Lesson: don't get oil on the lock face or lock bar.
 
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