But i’m testing an oval thumbturn with shallow knurling and a low-torque core, and I’m torn on whether micro detents help or just wake people up. In cold-room trials at -10°C, gloved users hit 15° steps cleanly at about 18 N·cm; the same prototype has a torque-limiting clutch that slips at 65 N to defeat wrenching. Would you rather feel those clicks or prefer a completely smooth sweep if security stays equal?
@OP I’d keep ‘soft detents’: nylon ball + light wave spring packed with Nyogel 767A so gloved users feel the 15° steps without the click. Keep detent peak under about 20% of your 65 N slip so it never mimics a stall; totally smooth made our testers overshoot in the cold.
In ski-lodge installs, the quietest feel came from a tiny magnet-to-steel detent — gloves still found the 15° without the click, think camera dial not ratchet. If you stay spring-based, @OP, bias the cam so it’s slightly higher leaving locked and lower entering, which kept us away from the 65 N slip point in practice. Silicone damping grease held feel more consistently than 767A at -10°C for us.