Blade wiggle, should you worry?

My Strider folders don't have any play.

I had a Sog Trident that had lots of play,and the zytel handle was weak as well. I truly felt like that knife would fail if I had to put it up to anything difficult.

My benchmade Rukus has no movement.

I don't like blade play.
 
archieblue said:
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And a note on "play" in sebenzas... complete hogwash. I've owned just shy of a dozen and was a dealer for a few years. I probably handled 30+ sebs at that time. I have NEVER seen a Seb with ANY movement of the blade when in the locked open position.
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Bladeplay disappearing upon lock-up is common. The blade is under various forces to keep it immobile.

Check for play just before lock-up and after lock-up.

And clean them hogs.
 
SLIGHT side to side blade play is one of the most overblown issues in this forum.
The other being ‘Lock strength’

I fell into this mindset trap a couple years ago. I had become convinced that any blade play whatsoever was unacceptable. I returned a perfectly good Lone Wolf Paul Presto folder because my misconception.
I figured out later that most of my knives had very slight side to side play, even the really expensive ones.

I re-bought the Paul Presto….

Pick up a cheap Chinese made folder and find out what blade play really is.
 
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Depends on the knife really, in general I don't like any blade play at all. I usually retire ones that develop play to the drawer. :)

For your high end knives they shouldn't have any at all. ;)
 
This post piqued my interest so I checked most of my folders for play:

Large Sebenza - none
Strider PT/CC - none
BM mini Rukus - extremely little
BM 940 - none
BM mini grip - lots
SOG Spec Elite - little
Ti-Tyrade - none
ZT301 - none

None of the knives had any up/down play. All of the frame-locks had none.
 
barsoomian said:
Hey guys,

I just got my BM 940 Osborne today, sweet knife that is going to be my EDC.
I notice that there is wiggle side to side, i tightened up the pivot screw but there is still an amount of play. I notice that there is play in my other knifes as well, my BM Presido 523, my Spydie Delica, my Spydie Stretch, in fact in almost all my folders there is some measure of play even if its really small.

I thinks its just the nature and fundamental design of a folding knife that you will never get a completly solid lock up.

Do you agree with this? and secondly do you think wiggle is somthing to worry about from a safety perspective.

I would think it depends on what you use a folder for and if you want no wiggle get a fixed blade :) I dont use my knifes allot and have them primarily for the odd cutting tasks when they arise and for SD should the need ever arise god forbid.
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I completely disagree that is the nature of a folding knife to have blade play!!! I have MANY custom folders and NONE have blade play.
 
My EDC Emerson CQC15 has a bit of side to side "play" when I allow the pivot to be loose enough for me to flick it out with minimal effort, but with a twist of my thumbnail I can tighten up the play to near fixed blade standards. No torx wrenches or tools, just my thumbnail.
Why are you considering anything but an Emerson?
 
Lateral movement also depends on the type of washers and the pivot used in the knife. It also depends on how strong are your hands.

I have found that nylon or nylatron washers will have more of a slight movement than brass washers. Sebenzas nearly eliminate lateral movement due to the washers and the pivot.

I can find movement in every folding knife. It depends on how strong your hands are in some cases, but it is there-even on high dollar well-designed customs. How much movement is relative. There is a pivot in folders and there will be movement. In many cases, it can almost be eliminated, but you also might make the knife very difficult to open.

If the slight movement does not force the lock to disengage, then I don't consider it an issue in most cases. However, I don't like what I consider to be excessive movement where the blade is unpredictably moving back and forth.
 
D'ohboy said:
Is there up and down play inherent in lockbacks?
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With "classic" design lockbacks, i.e. without some form of blade stop pin as seen on the recent Triad lock, there is a great chance of some easily discernable "up and down play".

The locking piece in these knives must perform two functions - lock the blade and stop the blade. Throw in the aesthetic desire to make the lockback smoothly blend with the blade and wear. All these things contribute to a bit of "up and down play".
 
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THE PUNISHER said:
I got 7 sebbs and a umnum they have 0 blade play,they are like a fixed blade.....does blade play bother me yep i hate it.
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I had a feeling you would never put up with blade play.:)

I have many Benchmades and 2 or 3 have blade play but it's not that bad. The others are rock solid.

Spyderco Delicas have play and they (CS) told me that the pivot barrel and blade are just off a bit and will have some play. It bugs the hell out of me but with time, if I can't fix it and it's small I live with it. Or send it in. Something I have done with both Benchmade & Spyderco. Problem solved....mostly.;)

C1/ Doc Pringles
 
I think people have different tolerances for the blade play. Before I had a sebenza and a strider, I thought that all my Benchmades and spydercos didn't have any play. Well after I viciously moved the blade on my strider, I applied the same amount of power to other my knives. I discovered that some of those high-end folders had play even though I didn't notice it before (I just didn't force it that much before). Tightening the pivot, I was able to get rid of that small play that was there. Sometimes it is not easy to find the sweet spot when blade moves smooth and fairly fast with no play. On all my higher priced folders I was able to find that sweet spot and used blue locktite to keep them there. I think on most high-end knives blade play issue can be takes care of. On the low end knives however, that is not always possible. I have CRKT M16 for example, and I can't get rid of the blade play (I didn't notice it until I got into higher end knives). Well on the CRKT, I either have to tighten the pivot to the point when I barely can open the blade or leave the blade play and have somewhat-Ok opening. I had the same issue with couple of other cheap knives.
I also have spyderco native that I have used for more than a year straight. It had no play in the beginning, then I used it a lot and abused it a little. Knife developed some blade play. There is no pivot screw to tighten, so I had to use hammer to get that pin adjusted.
I also had a microtech socom with a blade play. This thing has a pivot bushing like on the sebenza and the only way to get rid of the play was to sand that bushing a bit to get a better fit.
 
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I have several framelocks by custom makers that have some flex. I have learned to accept it as the nature of the beast. Rock solid besides the minute play.
 
smitty0331 said:
I would be upset about it if it was a new knife.
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I very much agree with this. Naturally after use or wear but when new...it doesn't bode well for the future:eek:

I have a couple of Spyderco, a BM Mini Grip and a couple more 'modern' knives. None of these have blade wiggle or still worse 'wobble'. I don't accept or expect it in a contemporary hi-tech knife. But, maybe I've been lucky I don't own many modern folders because the ones I have do the job well and they don't do much for me aesthetically. My main interest is in Old School Traditional slipjoints,locking knives and fixed. Surprisingly enough, the majority of my slipjoints and lockbacks DON'T have blade wobble, just tip flexing under pressure.Some of these knives are old and much used and even so many of them are wobble free. There are exceptions both new & old of course. Nor is price or country of origin any guarantee either, the 4 Rough Rider Old Yellow slipjoints I have have no wobble or gaps at all whereas 3 Schatt&Morgans shake like hell....

So, if slipjoints and older style lockbacks are more often than not OK then modern hi-tech knives should also be in the same league I feel.

Regards, W
 
Charlie Mike said:
I have several framelocks by custom makers that have some flex. I have learned to accept it as the nature of the beast. Rock solid besides the minute play.
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Oh I dunno.....

I have the following, they are higher end heavy duty blades:

3 Strider SmF's
ZT 0301
Cold Steel Hatamoto
Cold Steel Black Talon

NONE of the above have any play at all, zero, nada, zip........ :D

Some of the others I own have as you say a minute of play.
 
cp2u said:
My EDC Emerson CQC15 has a bit of side to side "play" when I allow the pivot to be loose enough for me to flick it out with minimal effort, but with a twist of my thumbnail I can tighten up the play to near fixed blade standards. No torx wrenches or tools, just my thumbnail.
Why are you considering anything but an Emerson?
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I'm a southpaw and Emerson dont make left hand knifes (that i've seen) or let you switch the clip to the otherside.
 
I think if you're finding blade-play in that many folders, you're either putting too much force flexing on the blade, or you keep all of your pivots too loose.

I like to grab the blade with my middle, index and thumb, and wigggle back and forth with the handle with the other hand, and I just evaluate it based on how much play there is in the pivot based on how much force I'm exerting on my fingers with the knife, because at a certain point it's possible with every knife I've used to just grab on and wiggle the crap out of it until I feel play--but that's not really a practical test. Obviously I don't really like to crank on the blade since I would be at risk of cutting my fingers anyway, and so to me unless the blade produces play without really requiring that much force from my fingers to keep it in place, then it's not that significant. If you can just pinch it, and wiggle the blade around without moving your fingers while they're relaxed, that to me is a problem. Otherwise I don't think you'd run into anything in use that the blade-play would be a problem with. As others have pointed out, it's good to test at different points of the blade too; I test at the tang, the mid-way point and at the tip when checking to see if a blade has any play. However, if I'm adjusting a pivot to eliminate play, usually if I don't find any play in the tip, I don't find any at the mid-way or tang either, so when adjusting the pivot it's sometimes just easier to check there.

That's really what I do for blade-play, and if I find I can't fix it very well I just deal with it if the play isn't too exaggerated. I think you'll have luck with it on your AXIS knife at least, because with my Kulgera I test for play at the tip and can put a lot of force on it before I feel any play, so once I find my sweet-spot for "smooth opening", I generally just test at the tip to see how much play there is.

Also, I'd recommend LocTite on the benchmade if you tend to flick it open and closed frequently, because that loosens the pivot on my Kulgera enough to produce blade play.
 
I can "find" bladeplay on my Sebenza and Umnumzaan, but only when I grip the knife in one hand as hard as I can, and use my triceps/biceps to exert force on the blade.

On my BM 943 and Sage 2 I can "find" bladeplay with just the muscles attached to my wrists and mild upper arm movement.

Most people would probably say that none of these folders have bladeplay--I just think it depends on how much force you are exerting.
 
My griptilian has an annoying amount of blade play. I tighten it up and it loosens very quickly. I just put some teflon tape on the pivot, seems to be fine so far... If not then LocTite it is... I really dont worry about the blade play much, its more of an annoyance than anything.
 
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