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Showing 1 of 72 conversations about:
Bestech BG05 "Scimitar" G-10 Series
magic_devile
10
Jun 5, 2019
Hey all, I bough this about a year ago now and am starting to have issues opening and closing. I get a ton of resistance like something is keeping it from opening or closing, so much so that the flipper tab can't open it all the way. I have opened it and cleaned every nook and cranny of the of the opening mechanism, soaked the bearings in isopropyl alcohol and it seemed to work, but after about 20 openeings it went back to the bad opening. These are ceramic ball bearings and I've read you font typically lube these.
Anyone have any ideas for how to fix this? Thanks.
reswright
3850
Jul 19, 2019
magic_devileThe simple quick answer: if lubing it solves the issue, lube it. It's a $40 knife. These aren't full on bearing works with dedicated race washers and the whole get up. They're a simple ceramic cage ring with a single orbital, they run against the knife steel and the liner steel.
The longer and more involved answer: the liner steel on this knife is soft enough that if you've run it with a tight pivot for a long time it is conceivable that you've worn those races so deep that you have bottomed out, or are starting to. Bearing steel is MUCH harder than either the knife steel or the liner steel, and just from some light flipping my Scimitar already has well worn bearing races in the liners. And barely visible ones in the knife steel -- just from the light use. If there's a grating sensation when you try to flip the knife, this might be your culprit.
If you've got that issue, then disassemble your knife, get the liners, get a piece of wet or dry 600 grit sandpaper, wet it with water or some cleanser, and lightly but evenly sand that part of the metal. You're less filing it away and more smoothing it down. You won't sand it down to the point where the ring from the bearings is gone - nor should you - but you do want to sand it down to a point that the bearings are fully back in contact with the bottom of the raceway and there's an airgap between the frame and blade again. You don't particularly want to breathe fine steel particles, which is why you wet sanded even though it's messier at first -- make sure you wipe everything up carefully.
If you put your knife back together it should be fine. Just don't tighten the pivot down as hard as you have been.
For the record: most folks I know aren't afraid to put a little lube on bearings, even ceramic. Some are very sparing with it because they take their knife into very dirty environments, and having a bunch of extra lube in your works just means that you have extra cleaning to do (and increased wear and tear on the fastenings and connectors as you disassemble and reassemble, over time). Lube is one of those thing where people often think more is better, and it isn't. But you aren't going to damage your knife by lubing it unless, like, you live at the edge of the desert or someplace where a lot of dust blows in the wind. It sounds silly to say it, but dust is a much bigger problem for knives than dirt is. Think of sand getting into your swimsuit - that's dust and knives. The same principle extends to anything with small mechanical joints -- ask the US military how many billion dollars of equipment they have lost to dust fouling. If you live with a lot of dust, washer knives will wear a lot better than bearings will.
(Edited)
magic_devile
10
Jan 7, 2020
reswrightJust wanted to say I finally got around to fixing this and it did the trick.
Ill be sure to look out for this on my other no washer bearing knives. Do you think the blade steel is susceptible to this as well? I dont know how hard D2 is compared to the liner steel let alone the bearings.
Thanks a bunch!
reswright
3850
Jan 7, 2020
magic_devileNo, it won't be an issue IMO. D2 is going to be harder than any steel you're going to find on a budget knife liner. Dollar for dollar it's the cheapest way for a lot of people to get a knife with a Rockwell hardness of 60+-- it comes with tradeoffs like being somewhat prone to corrosion, needing a fairly thick edge angle to be stable, and of course being a bear to sharpen, but hardness, it's got.
On the contrary, the D2 is possibly the reason that the bearings are wearing a much deeper race in the liner. Both steel bearings and ceramic ones will be still harder than D2 and will wear in a light track over time, but no more than that, especially if the liner steel is soft. That is to say, as you overtighten a pivot on a high hardness blade, because a) the bearings are too hard to give and b) the D2 is harder than the liner, the liner steel is what ends up giving way.
IMO the Scimitar should have come with D2 or other high hardness race washers given the apparent softness of their liner steel, but they didn't.
A bladesmith can take the liners and countersink just enough space for a hardened steel washer or one with a race, so if you really like your knife that's an option you may want to take. A bladesmith's time is never gonna be free but with the right gear, that's about ten minutes worth of work, it'd keep this issue from recurring, and if you ask me, upcycled knives are the bee's knees.
If you don't wanna do that, what you just did should be good for quite a while, so long as you avoid dogging the pivot down as aggressively as you might have been doing before.
magic_devile
10
Jan 8, 2020
reswrightSpeaking of the races, it was only present on one side of the pivot. It seems it was only contacting the washers half the time, do you think this was due to the pivot tightening and contributing to the resistance when opening?
But this was my first knife, I've got some new ones since I bought this. Axis locks are definetly my favorite mechanism, but after fixing this guy its a whole world different.
reswright
3850
Jan 8, 2020
magic_devileWas it the side opposite where the stop pin is? If so, that's probably from overtightening at work.
Alternately you could have a tilting pivot. Does (or did) the blade tilt toward one liner when closed? If it does, that's likely your deal.
Good luck if so :)
There's a few Googlable methods on trying to fix that but I've mastered none of them; about two thirds of the time, an off centered blade stays off centered despite my best efforts and modifications.
bigsean247
1
Jan 21, 2020
magic_devileall my bearing knives have washer for the bearing to ride on. for the lube try dry lube. works great but no dust as it dry to the touch but still slick for the bearings to be lubed
14themoney
1395
Oct 5, 2020
reswrightVery nice!
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