Inkosi

uofaengr said:
Are you guys putting loctite on the pivot? Or just letting it ride and seeing if it loosens on its own?

When you have it tightened to the point of no play, are you finding it as smooth/free as your 21s (if you own one)?
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I didnt use loctite when I 1st reassembled it. Im glad I didnt, it allowed me to play with the tension and figure out what worked best. Basically, I left it as loose as I could without any wiggle anywhere. Its not like it backed out easy. Once I figured out how it worked best I used loctite.

I think there might be something to too much grease being a problem. But as I said, Im a newbie. I can just tell you my experience. It was always, "smooth" it was just sort of hung at the initial opening. That is now fixed for me. Hope this is come help.
 
With the tolerances these knives have, too much grease can affect the action, but I see it mostly on 21s.

I don't use loctite on any of my other folders, and they'll back out some and doesn't bother me too much, I'll just retighten them every so often. I remember even my XM-18s would do this. But I can't tolerate blade play in a CRK so I'll use the loctite when I feel it's necessary. Right now I'm trying to get a feel for how easy it'll back out on its own plus break it in some more.
 
Its funny. With my 25, after flicking her open a few times with no locktite, it backs out a tiny bit. With my inkosi so far, no problems. It might be worth mentioning, maybe not, but I usually clean all the loc tite off my knives and screws with some acetone. I just prefer them that way for disassembly as I tend to clean mine more than I need. But, for the Inkosi I ran out of acetone, so used some 91% isopropyl alcohol, and it worked great. No residue that I can see, but maybe just enough to hold the pivot? I don't know, but so far the pivot has not backed out even a hair, and that is with probably a few hundred openings and closings already.
Just my $.02
 
I think Loctite recommends 24 hours, but it's been ages since I put any on a knife so maybe someone else can chime in.

My question though is does Loctite ever really expire? I've got a 10 mL bottle of purple that's at least 2 or 3 years old and would rather use it instead of busting open the CRK supplied tube.
 
I don't think it goes bad. It needs air to stay effective. When Loctite works when the air is gone it turns solid. I would suggest using blue. Blue is made for screws to be removed. Red is permanent and designed not to be able to remove the screw. (so you could damage threads or bolt head trying to loosen it). Purple is in the middle of blue and red. So with small screws that are finely threaded it could be too tight.
 
I thought purple was the weakest?

Purple < blue < red < green I thought.

I've taken apart some knives with factory loctite on the pivot, I can recall a certain XM-18 and two different Striders which I'm sure both used blue, and it required WAY more force than I ever want to use disassembling a knife so I was glad CRK supplied purple (222). The XM I thought I was never gonna get apart. Unless all these knives just had gobs of it on the threads or something.
 
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To elaborate, I've never really had a CRK that needed breaking in and maybe I just need to give it more time, but I had to tighten it up a bit last night to where there was definitely no play I could detect, and the action is much tighter than I'd prefer. I was going to try maybe running the pivot under water or something like someone else described, but want to have my tools nearby to disassemble and dry everything if it doesn't work. I don't think the washers have any high spots, but maybe they just need more time to naturally polish. I'm so impatient lol.
 
uofaengr said:
To elaborate, I've never really had a CRK that needed breaking in and maybe I just need to give it more time, but I had to tighten it up a bit last night to where there was definitely no play I could detect, and the action is much tighter than I'd prefer. I was going to try maybe running the pivot under water or something like someone else described, but want to have my tools nearby to disassemble and dry everything if it doesn't work. I don't think the washers have any high spots, but maybe they just need more time to naturally polish. I'm so impatient lol.
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The Inkosi is designed to use loctite (Which my auto spell keeps correcting to lactate, sorry if I put that). Personally, I'd recommend figuring out the tension you like then putting in loctite. (Not milk)
 
joesuburb said:
The Inkosi is designed to use loctite (Which my auto spell keeps correcting to lactate, sorry if I put that). Personally, I'd recommend figuring out the tension you like then putting in loctite. (Not milk)
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Correct, but it's the fact that tightening to the point of definitively no play at this point is giving a much tighter action than I'd prefer. I'm just wondering at the same pivot tightness will the action free up over time after some more break in.

Maybe some early adopter Inkosi owners or 25 owners could chime in. My other 3 are all 21s.
 
uofaengr said:
Correct, but it's the fact that tightening to the point of definitively no play at this point is giving a much tighter action than I'd prefer. I'm just wondering at the same pivot tightness will the action free up over time after some more break in.
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The loctite flicks right off. I wouldn't sweat it.
 
We might be misunderstanding each other. I'm not worried about the loctite. Sorry about that.

What I'm asking is if I loctite this pivot down at the point of definitively no detectable blade play, which for me right now yields a tighter than normal action (opening and closing the knife), over time of several (100?) openings and closings will the action get more free? (meaning less tight and smoother when opening and closing, like a 21, NOT will the loctite break free)

I could word it the same way saying if I take out the washers and polish them some on a strop and reassemble to the same pivot tightness I'm at right now, will the action be less tight and smoother with still no play? This might be a dumb question...
 
Gave it a very thorough cleaning and was wondering if I used too much lube last time so I put a very tiny dab and just spread it with my pinky. The action is much better right now. With more breaking in I expect it to get better.
 
uofaengr said:
Gave it a very thorough cleaning and was wondering if I used too much lube last time so I put a very tiny dab and just spread it with my pinky. The action is much better right now. With more breaking in I expect it to get better.
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Good to know, it sounds like maybe there is something to my, too much lube theory.
 
Has anyone polished their lugs silver yet? Don't think I've seen a pic of any but starting to get a wild hair to bust out the Flitz on mine. Would love to see how yours looks.
 
uofaengr said:
Has anyone polished their lugs silver yet? Don't think I've seen a pic of any but starting to get a wild hair to bust out the Flitz on mine. Would love to see how yours looks.
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Mine has factory silver lugs. It had to go back to HQ and while it was there, I asked them to install them.

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That looks sweet. May I ask why you had to send yours back?

I don't mind the blue, but I've got it on two other CRKs. A little variety is always good.
 
I had a sticky lock that they felt needed a blade swap. I couldn't be happier with both how fast and well they took care of it. Very happy with this knife!
 
icybluesmile said:
Mine has factory silver lugs. It had to go back to HQ and while it was there, I asked them to install them.
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Those silver lugs look great on her! That's the version I want too, just waiting for TNK to get them in, hopefully soon?
 
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