Strength of a ZT 350 opening system

R

rmeron

Joined
Sep 28, 2011
Messages
399
How strong is the opening system on a ZT350,what will break first if anything?
I've come to the conclusion I can not afford a 560 or 561 and since I already have a 200 which is a bear of a knife, I'll go for the 350 with the assisted opening.
 
The torsion bar that propels the blade open only last 10,000 or so flips, I think.

BUT new torsion bars can be had for free from Kershaw/ZT. Or you can send it back and have them replace it.

In addition, the 0350 has a ball detent, so I have heard others that just keep using it as a flipper when the torsion bar finally breaks. Or even taking the torsion bar out, there is another recent thread about doing this.

The 0200 is a little more beefy than the 0350, but all ZT's are hard use knives, as far as I know.
 
I didn't know the torsion bars wear out, but its good to know Kershaw/ZT will replace them for free.
 
The torsion bars don't fatigue so much they break very easily (it does happen) but will gradually lose stiffness and the knife won't open as quickly or easily. Like others have said Kershaw's warranty is excellent and they'll send you a new one or you can send the knife in. The knives are pretty easy to work on and there are video disassembly guides on YouTube to help for the first few times or if you have a knife with different size/number of washers and lose track of what goes where.
 
The torsion bar gets the job done pretty good considering the mass of the blade it is deploying, but it is no where as quick as the smaller assisted kershaws (chive, scallion, leek, blur...etc). If you want to deploy it faster I just give the old flick of the wrist while hitting the flipper, like you would on the 0200/0560! No big deal!
 
The thing that will break first is your finger after you cut the junk off of it playing with your new knife. Little suckers are sharp.

The 350 is no more of a "light duty" knife than your 200. The tourtion bar may lighten up, but only after years of use and carry. The 350 is just as well built as the 200 with the bonus of an assisted. And I love the KAI assisted knives.
 
I have had 3 torsion bars break to varying degrees in my lifetime, but I do flip my knives a lot.

The last torsion bar lasted less than a month, a fracture developed around the center of the main bend. On a Shallot. This was a fluke I think and I promptly got 4 new bars to last me a lifetime.

The last two, one on the same Shallot and one on a Mini Mojito. But of these flipped less and less powerful until they were dragging, eventually the bars actually broke into two pieces inside because I continued to flip it.

It does happen, it all depends how often you constantly flip your knives open.


RE: 0350 it has a ball detent so even if the torsion bar breaks, it will function perfectly like a flipper instead. My Shallot has no ball detent so the torsion bar is what holds the blade closed, when it breaks it kinda flops around willy nilly. (Moral of the story: Look for assisted openers with a ball detent)
 
I had my 350 for a year and a half and flippped it open pretty constantly and used it pretty hard and actually had no problems with the torsion bar. I have no doubt it can and will break eventually, but by the time I traded it away because of my 561 it was still working fine. Don't know if that helps.
 
ive flipped mine well over 10,000 times without incident, i just recently removed the torsion bar and like the knife 10 times better without it, i wish i took it out when i first got it actually, its a far better knife im my opinion de-assisted.
 
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