Ceramic Detents?

[zhyla]

I imagine if the ball is wearing less that just means the blade is wearing more. Maybe that works out to the same useful life, I dunno, but you can replace a worn detente but replacing a blade isn’t practical.

[Evil D]

Can anyone answer my question about how a steel ball is changed out for a ceramic one?

I've never done it but I assume they're just pressed in and out. The hole that the ball seats into goes all the way through the blade, there is a smaller hole on the back side that you can use to press the ball out if you use some kind of very small punch. I have no idea what size ball to get though. If you're on Instagram talk to rs-travis, I know he's done it a bunch and can probably tell you all you need to know.

Oh hmm, I guess I can see that now in ur first few pics, I never really knew how that looked without one. That interesting though, thanks

The hole you'd use is on the other side of the detent ball, on the back side of the lock bar. I suppose if you have a decent set of calipers you could just pop it out and measure it and order a ceramic equivalent.

[curlyhairedboy]

I'm a fan of them, but on a case-by-case basis. They can definitely help when trying to prevent flattening on the especially wear-resistant steels, but at the same time it's a lot easier to replace a flattened steel ball than it is a worn detent hole.

My policy right now is keeping the steel until I need to replace it. Then, depending on use patterns, the knife may get a ceramic upgrade or just a normal steel replacement.

Very interesting. Did you happen to notice if there was any kind of indentation in that spot when it was new, or is that entirely from wear?

new detents are perfectly round in my experience. Also, due to the shape (sphere) it's very difficult to actually deform the detent ball via force, even with a press. Thus any change in the shape is most likely due to abrasion.

I imagine if the ball is wearing less that just means the blade is wearing more. Maybe that works out to the same useful life, I dunno, but you can replace a worn detente but replacing a blade isn’t practical.

that's where I'm at now.

[JonLeBlanc]

The hole you'd use is on the other side of the detent ball, on the back side of the lock bar. I suppose if you have a decent set of calipers you could just pop it out and measure it and order a ceramic equivalent.

new detents are perfectly round in my experience. Also, due to the shape (sphere) it's very difficult to actually deform the detent ball via force, even with a press. Thus any change in the shape is most likely due to abrasion.

That's interesting thank y'all, I was wondering about the shape of the detent ball when I looked again at your pictures EvilD, and it seemed (wrongly, obviously) to me that, given the width of the bladestock, the ball might actually be a cylinder with hemispherical ends. In other words, the tang seemed too thick for such a small spherical ball to protrude from the hole enough to seat itself in the detent when the lock is engaged. But then that seemed odd to me, mainly because I've never heard anyone refer to the detent ball being that shape. And thanks to Curlyhairboy for reiterating that it IS in fact spherical; I guess mine own eyes deceived me lol.