Ball detent carving a groove in blade

[Slash]

Anyone else experience the ball detent on their framelock carving a groove in their blade at the point where it contacts the blade upon closing it?

Normal or abnormal wear for that to happen?

[SolidState]

That happens on a bunch of mine.

[mikerestivo]

Are you talking about the Sage 2? Mine has a bit of that going on.

[Slash]

Are you talking about the Sage 2? Mine has a bit of that going on.

No, it's happening on a much more expensive None Spyderco knife that I would rather not say.

[aidansdaddy17]

Same here, have had my Sage 1 for a couple weeks...smooth as butter. You can feel the ball detent rolling or gliding. Have a had my Sage 2 for a week and it feels as though it's not doing either. Scratching its way along the blade. Detent is great, but is grooving along. I added CLP and it helps a little in that area. Creates a black residue that leaves sort of a trail. I wedged some paper in between to remove some of the residue and then it scratches along the tang worse. hmm How do you get it to roll better? Or is that not the correct way a ball detent works? CLP does help though.

Patrick

[Slash]

the strange thing is the ball detent doesn't cut the whole arch. it's only cutting where it first makes contact with the blade.

I'm just trying to figure out if that's normal wear.

[jzmtl]

Happened to me once, I took it apart and polished both the track and ball, seems to have fixed it.

[razorsharp]

Will happen 90% of knives. Its normal steel on steel wear

[The Deacon]

It's perfectly normal for the ball to create a visible "track" on the blade tang. It's abnormal for that track to become so deep that the lockbar itself contacts the blade.

[Michael Janich]

The ball bearing in the ball detent does not roll. It is seated into a blind hole in the lock bar. When properly done, the height of the ball bearing above the liner surface and the thickness of the pivot washer are the same. That way, when the blade is opened and the ball bearing is driven out of the detent, the lock bar is completely flush with the inside of the handle scale. If the bearing is not seated deeply enough, if any burrs were created when it was seated, if the blade is significantly softer than the ball bearing, or if the finish on the ricasso is rough, the bearing will gouge a track on the ricasso.

Some wear or tracking pattern is normal. Excessive wear suggests there's a deeper problem. If the wear is uneven, as you note, the liners may not be parallel from top to bottom.

Try a drop of lube right on the ball bearing. That usually helps a lot. My BlackHawk Be-Wharned periodically suffers this problem, but the lube does the trick. Something viscous, like a lithium grease, actually lasts longer than oil.

I hope this helps.

Stay safe,

Mike

[dust]

Thanks for the info guys

[Liquid Cobra]

Helped on my yo 2 tonight. Hopefully it stays that way. Thanks mike.