Originally posted by Bud
It should be at spring temper for this application,and that would vary somewhat according to what alloy was chosen.
Let's say 420SS, with the intent of being used as a sandwich construction balisong handle, but using two tang pins, hoping to get the RC somewhere in the mid 40's or a little higher. I'm curious in your assessment as well.
Tony,we are mostly in agreement.I would like to point out that the stop pin and its` coining effect does not come into play when the knife is in the `locked closed' position,hence my concern with `creep'.
I concur. But you do know that not all balisong are made the BM way with only one tang pin? This statement would not be accurate in a double tang pin construction. Besides, creep would not again become a factor as the wear of the kick hitting the inner walls of the channel would be more of a concern. But in temporal terms, we are talking beyond a lifetime.
In regard to cycles and time, if it lasts longer than your lifetime , what do you care?
Nothing at all, if all goes according to design, and the design is flawless. However, not everything goes according to design, and not all designs are flawless. While I have never had a SS handle from a BM/PC custom bali fail on me, I broken the pivot pins, and several sets of handle inserts. And while SS channel handles are exceptional strong, and light years ahead of the brass u-channel method of old, they still suffer from tang fork expansion from usage. I care because they still haven't made a perfect bali, and that is my quest. A portion of the bali design may exceed my lifetime, but if it fails in part, then in my eyes, it failed as a whole, and it's back to the drawing board.
BTW, spring failure on small diameter wire springs can often be caused by other factors than overstressing, ie; flaws/micro pitting in the melt,cold bending, and improper loading-by that we mean coil binding or stack collapse. This geatly increases fatigue and /or work hardening.
Exactly the conditions that have yet to be tried and tested in field use on the new BM spring latchgate. Which is why until the data is in, I'll reserve judgement. We just don;t know yet how they will do, and unfortunately all we can do is based our conjectures on our past common experiences.
Reliable spring steel hasn`t been with us since the beginning of time, I believe it was developed in Scotland [again!] in the late 1700`s [I will delve into this] and was instrumental in launching the Industrial Revolution.
If I'm not mistaken, John Harrison's timekeeper had steel springs in it's design, and that's the mid 1700's. Which means steel springs would probably have some level of existence prior to that.
Soapbox time (ignore if you don't like rantings): Bud, this forum is not like that of BM. We are very dedicated to the art of the balisong. Some of us are fairly new to this, but there are several among us that, if you combined their mutually exclusive experiences, can cite PC/BM bali's history from the beginning, because we lived through those years as customers. You've entered into an extended circle of friends that share a common bond: the love of the balisong knife. The reasons how, why and what we love about it is irrelevant. All that we ask it that you maintain the harmony. I know it's hard to know where you fit right away, but that's a non-issue. We don't have any sort of ranking systems. There are some that many look up to, and others that share little, but when they do, it's still valuable contributions. We jest, we getting snippy, we argue like any one else, but we also forgive and enjoy what this forum provides. Your last few posts in this thread has been very informative, and I know, has bought up some points not often discussed. It's apparent that you have much to offer the group (I can sure use another techie to help out), so, leaving the grammer lessons aside, I look forward to what you are willing to contribute.
