Umnumzaan: the key to marriage preservation

halden.doerge

halden.doerge

I'll Sharpen Your Knife
Gold Member
Joined
Aug 17, 2014
Messages
4,914
I recently re-acquired an Umnumzaan, which I hadn't had in the collection for a good couple years. I was sitting in my living room across from the wife, who is, shall we say... noise sensitive at 'princess and the pea' levels. I pulled it out and her eyes landed on me with the same level of pregnant meaning to which I've grown accustomed from her whenever knife-flipping is about to commence and disturb the serene quite that she craves like some sort of silence vampire.

I grinned and said, "You wanna see something cool?" I then flicked the knife open, with the ninja-like silence that the O-rings on the Umnum thumbstuds affords. Her eyes widened in delight. Making that that first and perhaps only time that my knife addiction has actually pleased her. I have marked the date on the calendar and plan to petition the government to make it a federal holiday.
 
Holy smokes... I'll have to keep that in mind. If they could make a sharpmaker silent, I'd be in business. The sound on the rods drives her crazy. Nails on a chalkboard crazy.
 
RE-acquire? Blasphemy. After experiencing the 'Zaan, how could you have ever gone without? ;)
I have one that opens nearly silently and one that locks up a bit early (for a 'Zaan) with a subdued but noticable click. I love feeling the muted 'thug' when the stop pin-studs engage. Great knives.

I can't wait to start seeing yours in the picture threads!
 
I have noticed the same thing (i.e., that no one notices the Umnumzaan). It is the quietest folding knife I've ever handled.
 
I just got one from CRK. I too enjoy the silent opening. My girl appreciated it, until she thought about it more. I know have a concealed knife that deploys silently. Yep. She went right to that.
 
If your particular Umnumzaan is just a little too noisy when you flick it open, change the O-Rings to ones that are a bit thicker. This also reduces a late lock up. When you make this change you will be in full Stealth Mode.
 
ESCA said:
If your particular Umnumzaan is just a little too noisy when you flick it open, change the O-Rings to ones that are a bit thicker. This also reduces a late lock up. When you make this change you will be in full Stealth Mode.
Click to expand...

So far as I am aware, the 'Zaan uses -006 o-rings (which I've also seen packaged as #60 or #260 at home improvement stores) which are 1/8 id x 1/4 od x 1/16 cs. Of course there are minute variations of individual o-rings due to tolerances, etc.
I've experimented with 3/32 thickness just for giggles--no go.
If you've got a source for slightly thicker o-rings that consistently run on the high end of 1/16 cs, please let me know as I'd like to play with 'em.
 
  • Like
Reactions: HST
Haha great post man. My gal 'sssshhhh'd me from the bedroom to the living room opening and closing my sebenza the other night. In the morning she said "at least your not flicking those goddamn Benchmades anymore". Haha true story
 
No photos of the new knife?
My wife had the same reaction to the Umnumzaan, especially after listening to the loud THWACK of the lockbar on my plain Sebenza 25. I happen to love that sound but apparently it gets really annoying repetitiously in a vehicle.
 
photoman12001 said:
No photos of the new knife?
My wife had the same reaction to the Umnumzaan, especially after listening to the loud THWACK of the lockbar on my plain Sebenza 25. I happen to love that sound but apparently it gets really annoying repetitiously in a vehicle.
Click to expand...

Ask and ye shall receive... :D

qjDdEV0.jpg
 
photoman12001 said:
Great color scheme. I've thought about putting some non-black rings on mine but had some lockup issues with non-CRK rings.
Click to expand...

The ones I got from bodyartforms dot com work just fine, no issues. And plenty of colors to choose from. Gauge 8 are the ones on that site.
 
Umnumzaans and marriage preservation don't necessarily go hand in hand.
Every time I get a new one, another wrinkle appears on the wife's face..lol
Up to 9 of them and I don't have a number in mind to stop at quite yet.
 
"Noise Sensitive" and women are synonymous. But it is weird they aren't affected by their own yelling.

And I have found that buying all things BG42 is the key to a happy divorce, I mean marriage.
 
The key to marriage preservation is to have your new knives shipped to your work (or friend/brother/etc). Multiples of the same knife are easy to hide as long as they are not all on the table at the same time.

My wife won't know when I get the tanto-Zaan. Blade shapes are not on her radar. Ignorance is bliss
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top