Any idea what could cause this ?

[Hickory n steel]

I just noticed an issue with my recently acquired Wostenholm IXL Barlow, not a problematic issue that bothers me but something I'm just curious about.

The blade is straight and it's perfectly centered ( don't care, just surprised considering ) in the closed position , but the blade is significantly cocked out to the right when open.
The blade has no play open or closed, but you do get a significant gap on the left side when the blade is open.

I just can't wrap my head around how this could be.
I'm thinking maybe the pivot hole in the bolsters doesn't quite match up ?
The heads of the pivot pin are hard to see, but don't look off enough to cause this much of an issue.
Since I'm not a knife maker I don't know how much of a discrepancy it takes to cause a noticeable difference.

I couldn't get my camera to focus but will try better to get pictures tomorrow if necessary.

 

[screened porch]

Beats me.

 

[black mamba]

My best guess is the hinge pin is mis-drilled, not straight through at a 90° angle. As in the drawing below, if the pin is drilled at an angle when the blade is closed,
it will open in the direction of the red arrow and be off line at full open. Maybe Eric will come along and tell me how dumb I am!

 

[Acutereference]

Something is not symmetrical.

 

[Hickory n steel]

My best guess is the hinge pin is mis-drilled, not straight through at a 90° angle. As in the drawing below, if the pin is drilled at an angle when the blade is closed,
it will open in the direction of the red arrow and be off line at full open. Maybe Eric will come along and tell me how dumb I am!

That is what I was thinking.
One hole / pin head seems larger than the other which may have been throwing my eye off a bit, but it definitely looks to be going through crooked as depicted in your post.

 

[SteveC]

Crinked blade perhaps ?

 

[Hickory n steel]

Crinked blade perhaps ?

That was the 1st thought, but it's straight.

 

[Will Power]

Less than attentive workmanship....

 

[screened porch]

And QC. Maybe open it and look at it before you sell it?
Not as bad as the two-blade Wright lambsfoot of mine, where the pen blade completely covered the lambsfoot nail nick. And I couldn't open the pen without a screwdriver.

 

[Chui]

………..that’s a mystery - but sounds just like my missus at times - calm and serene when closed……….but a bit shifty and crooked when opened up

 

[abcdef]

Could be a collector's item.

 

[Hickory n steel]

And QC. Maybe open it and look at it before you sell it?
Not as bad as the two-blade Wright lambsfoot of mine, where the pen blade completely covered the lambsfoot nail nick. And I couldn't open the pen without a screwdriver.

Nah the issue doesn't actually bother me and it's a keeper.

 

[Hickory n steel]

Could be a collector's item.

For me it's a user.

 

[Hickory n steel]

Less than attentive workmanship....

It doesn't bother me on this knife for some reason, maybe it should but for some reason it doesn't.

 

[waynorth]

My best guess is the hinge pin is mis-drilled, not straight through at a 90° angle. As in the drawing below, if the pin is drilled at an angle when the blade is closed,
it will open in the direction of the red arrow and be off line at full open. Maybe Eric will come along and tell me how dumb I am!

Likely answer!!! If the pin is not "square" to the knife, the blade would have to be crinked to fall smoothly into the handle, but would open off the centerline of the knife!!

 

[Hickory n steel]

Likely answer!!! If the pin is not "square" to the knife, the blade would have to be crinked to fall smoothly into the handle, but would open off the centerline of the knife!!

That's what baffles me, because it doesn't appear to have been crinked to me.
If it is it can't be much, because with the full taper and the drawn swedges that aren't identical on each side it's hard to really identify what minor amount of crinking there could be.

 

[Chui]

......the pivot's drilled in slightly crooked, so the blade is very slightly kinked from the tang to compensate.........so when closed the rest of the blade lies straight...........but open, it shows itself to be off-centre....?

 

[Hickory n steel]

......the pivot's drilled in slightly crooked, so the blade is very slightly kinked from the tang to compensate.........so when closed the rest of the blade lies straight...........but open, it shows itself to be off-centre....?

It doesn't appear so to me, but maybe it's just hard to tell.

 

[Hickory n steel]

I just could not get a good focused picture of everything I wanted to show, but in the pics I could get the blade doesn't seem obviously crinked to me.


I really do like this knife all things considered, it's not a perfect knife but still a good one from a bygone era.
It's clearly a product of old world manufacturing by a skilled craftsman, but that Craftsman was probably rushed.

 

[Chui]

- not easy to make presumptions from afar, this is not looking wonderful…