Shirogorov F3 need advice

rexromic

rexromic

Gold Member
Joined
May 28, 2011
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5,226
Hi,
My Shirogorov F3 is very gritty when opens and detent is very weak.I can shake it and blade falls out.
Had many Shiros but this never happened.
I did disassemble and put everything properly back and still the same.
Is it lube or?
Bought knife brand new from dealer and this happened after first cleanup.
Got few advices elsewhere but hope I can hear more possible solutions.
Used Nano oil and first time was mineral oil when cleaned up.Love the knife and hope to fix the issue.
Thanks!
 
Posted this here, hopefully someone will reach out.

The Bears' Den--Shirogorov Showcase

I'd been ogling Shirogorov knives for some time and had been PMing about them with a few members here, soliciting opinions and guidance before taking the plunge early this past summer. One who was particularly cordial and helpful offered me the knife pictured below and it became my first Shiro...
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Gurwery said:
Posted this here, hopefully someone will reach out.

The Bears' Den--Shirogorov Showcase

I'd been ogling Shirogorov knives for some time and had been PMing about them with a few members here, soliciting opinions and guidance before taking the plunge early this past summer. One who was particularly cordial and helpful offered me the knife pictured below and it became my first Shiro...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
Click to expand...
Thank you!
 
Send it back if bought new. I find it exceptionally hard to believe its just falling open if you didnt damage it when dissasembling, but, anything man made can have defects. Did it do this before you tinkered with it?

Again, send it back.
 
Was the detent weak when it was brand new or is this something that has changed since you've owned the knife? It's possible that something has lodged in the detent hole in the blade that is preventing it from seating fully. The detent ball is still in the lockbar, right?

As far as grittiness, did you clean the bearing races/balls well with alcohol or something similar when it was disassembled? Or just add new oil on top of what was already there? Is your pivot too tight? I can usually tighten my Shiro pivots as tight as they need to be with my thumb nail.
 
Ilikesharpstuff said:
Was the detent weak when it was brand new or is this something that has changed since you've owned the knife? It's possible that something has lodged in the detent hole in the blade that is preventing it from seating fully. The detent ball is still in the lockbar, right?

As far as grittiness, did you clean the bearing races/balls well with alcohol or something similar when it was disassembled? Or just add new oil on top of what was already there? Is your pivot too tight? I can usually tighten my Shiro pivots as tight as they need to be with my thumb nail.
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Detent was lighter when bought new but is even lighter now.Detent ball is in the lockbar.
I did clean bearings but not thorough.
Will have to open up again and clean better.
Also which oil I should use?
Mineral,Nano or CRK grease perhaps?
 
rexromic said:
Detent was lighter when bought new but is even lighter now.Detent ball is in the lockbar.
I did clean bearings but not thorough.
Will have to open up again and clean better.
Also which oil I should use?
Mineral,Nano or CRK grease perhaps?
Click to expand...

Grittiness pretty much only comes from the pivot being over-tightened, or contamination in the bearings, so I think addressing the cleaning and tuning there will remedy the action. I use KPL Ultralight on my Shiros which is probably most similar to your nano oil. Only a tiny amount is needed...I put a drop or two on a cotton rag and roll each bearing ball over it before dropping them back into place. Does your F3 have washers between the bearings and scales? If so, it may be helpful to flip them so that the side without any wear that was previously facing the scales is now facing the bearings. This will allow them to wear a new path into those washers. If your pivot was ever over-tightened it's possible that there are grooves worn into those washers that could cause some problems with the action as well and flipping them should remove this from the equation.

Assuming the grittiness is being caused by contamination in your pivot area, I think it is a fairly safe assumption that some of that may have also ended up in the detent hole on your blade. Clean and flush it thoroughly and add the tiniest possible dab of your CRK grease and see if things improve.
 
I bought a Shirogorov Stellar quite a few months back and the detent was pretty light. I ended up bringing it to Blade show with me and with Recon1's help, Sergey Shirogorov himself took it to his room overnight and fixed it. From what I understood, the lockbar it self was slightly skewed(either up or down) which did not allow the detent ball to full seat in the blade. I believe he removed the lockbar and reinstalled it so the detent ball aligned directly with the hole in the blade. Maybe that is something you can try, and may help.
 
Doesn’t look like I have extra washers with bearings but there are grooves for sure.
 

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JRRsix7 said:
I bought a Shirogorov Stellar quite a few months back and the detent was pretty light. I ended up bringing it to Blade show with me and with Recon1's help, Sergey Shirogorov himself took it to his room overnight and fixed it. From what I understood, the lockbar it self was slightly skewed(either up or down) which did not allow the detent ball to full seat in the blade. I believe he removed the lockbar and reinstalled it so the detent ball aligned directly with the hole in the blade. Maybe that is something you can try, and may help.
Click to expand...
Will try it while I’am at cleaning it.
Thank you!
 
rexromic rexromic , it strikes me that there's something in the bearing area preventing the liners from having their proper spacing at the pivot end, so while the pivot screw seems to be cinched up by tension the knife's still "open" and while the detent ball is resting in the hole when closed, there's not enough tension there due to the improper spacing to keep the blade from shaking out. It's easy to have a ball slip out of place in those open cages when reassembling and be pinched somewhere in that area, which would account for the grittiness. I've had that happen when putting a Shiro back together.

It can be a PIA to get that second side back on and keep all those parts in their proper places. I think that's why the workshop uses all that grease--it just goops everything in place and eases assembly. I use W10 Nano Oil in almost all my knives, including Shiros, which works well enough if mating the sides is achieved not with one of them upside down but with the two side-by-side and just enough oil to have all those little buggers stay where they should be. I also get the front end back together first--pivot and any stop pin--and worry about the other end after the pivot's at least loosely back together.

I'd get it all apart again, getting everything cleaned up and wiped down with alcohol, then put it all back together carefully as above with just enough light oil to keep the parts in place. Hopefully doing so will solve your problem. Good luck!
 
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Did everything again and used CRK grease on bearings.That was holding all balls in the washers very tightly.I'am sure that there is no loose balls.Also there is less grit when flipping but detent is still light.I can shake the knife light and blade does not flies out but little stronger shake blade flies out.Will try to carry and use for few days and see what happens.Thank you all for the reply with advice!
 
My usual solution for a light detent is to bend the lock bar in slightly so it's applying more pressure against the tang. I take the knife apart and note how far the lock bar is bent initially. Then bend it just far enough so that it's rest position is about 1 mm farther in. Reassemble and test. If it helped, but not enough, repeat and add maybe an additional 0.5 mm. If adding a total of 2 mm doesn't solve the problem, it's probably something else, like a detent ball that's seated too deeply in the lock bar, or misalignment.
 
Grittiness won’t scare me but light detent is a no go for me. Especially for a Hiro whose selling point is their action. I would return it.
 
Bing Gao said:
Grittiness won’t scare me but light detent is a no go for me. Especially for a Hiro whose selling point is their action. I would return it.
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Which should have been the first step after a cleaning didnt fix it. Itnhas a warranty im assuming. Use it.
 
crk1984 said:
Which should have been the first step after a cleaning didnt fix it. Itnhas a warranty im assuming. Use it.
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This.

Just randomly bending the lock bar is not great advice, especially as a first step and people should stop recommending that. There's more to it than that and sometimes one change affects two or three other things.

In before someone comes along with "I've done it a bunch and it works great".

Sooner or later it will bite you in the ass.
 
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