How to push a detent ball a tiny bit toward blade

uilleann

uilleann

Joined
Nov 20, 2016
Messages
144
Anybody have an easy technique for adjusting the depth of the detent ball. I think that if I can push out my detent ball a tiny bit it may help an action problem that I have. In the past I have just pushed the ball out completely and then pushed it back in by squeezing back in with a spacer stop sized for the amount of ball exposure that I wanted. But it was a very awkward operation.
 
You want to have less of a detent ball surface? If so, I usually just use a ceramic sharpener and rub the ball.
 
what is the problem its having? are you saying the detent ball isnt far out enough to go back into the detent hole?

is the detent hole on the blade the issue?
 
I think I want the detent ball to be further in the knife blade tang hole. I want it to be more difficult to flip and therefore build up more preload for a more dynamic forceful flip.
 
I de-assisted my zt 0350 and it had a weak detent. I used a Dremel to widen the detent hole.
 
One does not want to widen the recess hole but make it deeper.... if this is to be done, it is best to leave to a professional , knife maker. Special tools will be needed, and remember one is working with hardened steel. It's not like grabbing a drill and drilling a hole in a piece of wood. There is some risk for the do it yourselfer here, be careful.
 
No metal work will be done on the shiro.... but I may play around with some of my cheap knives. I have successfully replaced a steel detent ball with a ceramic on another knife.
 
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uilleann said:
No metal work will be done on the shiro.... but I may play around with some of my cheap knives. I have successfully replaced a steel detent ball with a ceramic on another knife.
Click to expand...
ceramic detents are so much nicer. such a small thing too. which one did you do that too? and did you notice it improved on closing action?
 
Look and see if the clearance between the detent ball and blade is the same on some of your other knives when it's almost closed. I've looked at my ZT's and Shirogorov and they appear to be the distance. I'm just eyeballing it, not measuring. That leads me to believe it may not be how much the detent ball is protruding out, but rather the detent hole on the blade may be too small to house the detent ball.
Thought I read that ZT started making their detent hole bigger and resulted in a better flipping action.

The other thing I've thought about is ( haven't attempted it yet ) to adjust the lock bar tension to see if that would make the detent stronger.
 
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Ajack60 said:
Look and see if the clearance between the detent ball and blade is the same on some of your other knives when it's almost closed. I've looked at my ZT's and Shirogorov and they appear to be the distance. I'm just eyeballing it, not measuring. That leads me to believe it may not be how much the detent ball is protruding out, but rather the detent hole on the blade may be too small to house the detent ball.
Thought I read that ZT started making their detent hole bigger and resulted in a better flipping action.

The other thing I've thought about is ( haven't attempted it yet ) to adjust the lock bar tension to see if that would make the detent stronger.
Click to expand...
he has a video on lock bar tension, im guessing he has already tried that.
 
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