Nylon bushings

Iole · #1

How well will nylon bushings hold up compared to metal? Does "plastic" fall apart over time?

JNewell · #2

Do you mean true nylon (usually white) or "nylatron" (usually gray)? They are close to being at opposite ends of the performance specturm.

Iole · #3

JNewell wrote:Do you mean true nylon (usually white) or "nylatron" (usually gray)? They are close to being at opposite ends of the performance specturm.

The white colored ones.

Slick · #4

Iole wrote:The white colored ones.

Solid nylon is amazingly tough stuff and very slippery. The very solid hard white stuff.

Iole · #5

Is it then a long wearing material for folders? Almost as good as an metal bushing?

JNewell · #6

Iole wrote:Is it then a long wearing material for folders? Almost as good as an metal bushing?

No. Nylon and teflon bushings will wear much faster. The gray/black nylatron washers are considered by many people, including some knifemakers who know what they're talking about, to last as long as PB. I've never seen a comparative test.

Jimd · #7

The gray ones that Emerson uses last a very long time.

JNewell · #8

Jimd wrote:The gray ones that Emerson uses last a very long time.

Correct - those are nylatron, not white nylon, though.

Jimd · #9

JNewell wrote:Correct - those are nylatron, not white nylon, though.

I believe you're correct. They last for years and years.

bdbender · #10

Howdy -

As I posted over in the Walker CF thread, I am curious about what the bushings in that knife are. They are slightly off-white, and I have seen both nylon and teflon of that color, but I don't want to guess or speculate. Does anybody actually know? Thanks.

spoonrobot · #11

The terms bushing and washer aren't interchangeable. This thread appears to be about washers, not bushings.

This is a bushing:
http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll30 ... MG1569.jpg

These are washers:
http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll30 ... MG1572.jpg

From this thread (which has the washers mislabeled as well):
http://spyderco.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42441

nathan310 · #12

I was thinking the same thing.

gull wing · #13

Glad you straightened the Bushing/Washer thing out.

The Deacon · #14

Even the Manix 2 type pivot is not a bushing in the strict sense of the term. A bushing is a bearing, it is not a shaft, it surrounds a shaft or, to look at it another way, lines a hole in an object that a shaft then passes through. A 1911 has a bushing around the barrel. Crankshaft bearings on most automobile engines are two piece bushings, or at least were back in the days when I worked on engines.