buck 110

I have only had one Opinel, and honestly I do not remember. All four of my SAKs have minor play.

The folders I have owned that I tested and had no play: Buck Mayo TNT, CRK Large Sebenza, Strider SMF, John W. Smith framelock w/ carbon fiber onlay, Benchmade Skirmish.

Every other has had at least some very minor play in at least one direction, or was never tested. I never really tried with my Opinel, or if I did I do not remember.

It is harder to talk about knives I have handled but do not own as I have not tested for play in nearly all of them. I have handled several real Mayo TNTs, and I never tried to move the blade to see if there was play, but I have done so with many other knives I have handled, so I cannot be fair when talking about knives I have not owned. But when it comes to 110s, I have handled 5 or 6 of them, and I have personally tested for play in each of them (my personal 110 included). They all had some.

Blade play doesn't mean the blade moves wildly about. It can be extremely minor. And yes, extremely minor blade play is hardly an issue to be concerned with. But it is there.

It is a pet pev of mine when people say, for example, 110s have no blade play, or that their Benchmade 710 has perfect fit and finish. 110s and 710 are great knives, but give credit where it is due. Having such inaccurate standards puts down knifemakers that actually achieve less play, and better fit and finish. If a 110 has no play and a 710 has perfect fit and finish, than my JWS framelock must have had -100 blade play and mega-perfect fit and finish. It must be a 25 out of 10 if a Canal Street Cutlery slippie is a 10 out of 10.

Sorry to rant. Again, pet pev.
 
I agree with you there Hair. I don't care for the (obviously false) posts about "perfect" fit and finish. I've never come across any knife from any sort of price range that did not have some sort of detactable flaw. My 110 developed slight horizontal play the first week I owned it. Like you say though, it's not an issue, but trying to claim it isn't there is just being misrepresentive of the knife. Every Spyderco and byrd I've owned had some vertical play and I'll admit this, but it's never kept me from using those knives.

I mentioned Opinels because they are one of the folders I've never detected any blade play in at all. Also, I just ran through my SAKs and none of them have detactable horizontal play either, from the new ones to ten year old models. Vertical play is a little trickier to judge on them, being slipjoints.
 
I haven't come across a knife that is "perfect" either. Some come very close, but in general I think people throw the word "perfect" around without really taking a good look at their knife.

To be positive for once: One thing I think we can all agree on is that the 110 is a fantastic knife for the money.
 
I suppose it depends upon your definition of "blade play".
I don't consider a .0001% of wiggle, barely detectable to the human hand, as "blade play".
Any folder must allow the blade to freely pivot, and absolute 0 "blade play" would mean that the blade would have greater friction rubbing the liners as you open and close the blade.

I once had a Schrade LB7 that had absolutely no detectable "blade play", but everytime you opened the blade it took quite abit of effort and the brass liners scraped against the tang....not a good thing in a folder!
 
Hair and Vivi.....I guess we are all different on our views here on bladeplay....I have held the blade in my left hand and the handle in my right and moved the knife in all directions and found no blade play that I can feel...in a Buck 110 that I paid $23.44 in a tin with a key chain and belt sheth and made in the USA I consider that no blade play.....
 
While my 110 has play, it's still one of my favorite knives and clearly one of the best values in the market.
 
allenC- When I say "blade play" I mean noticable blade play that I can really feel, not .0000001% of a wiggle.

Of course every folder has some "play" as it is a blade and a handle, not one piece. But we are talking about what we can feel. But different people have different standards and can feel different things. I believe that you can wiggle a blade and say "no blade play here", and then hand the knife to me and I will notice blade play. Maybe I am an arrogant jerk, but I think I have higher standards, or a more exacting eye and feel that many people on here seem to. But I have never handled your knives, so maybe you got lucky and they really don't have play even though 99% of them do.

The knives I listed that had zero play, and in my opinion, totally solid lock up, are also very smooth to open (sans the Skirmish). My Buck TNT, Sebenza, and JWS are three of the smoothest knives I have owned, and they also had no play. My 110 is much less smooth, and does have play.

Play is not the downside of smooth or easy opening.
 
I've have a long time favorite knife by Case called the BlackHorn 3.5 with the Hunter orange handles and another in black. These are their click and clean knives where the one scale can be snapped off the pivot by a sharp downward motion so you can clean it of blood or whatever after use. Due to the design of the pivot these have had blade play (lateral) since the day I bought them but its never once interfered with the useability of this orange handled knife, nor has it stopped me from tweaking on it pretty heavy to cut through bones and other such things while field dressing game. Rarely do I notice the movement that much even when under heavy use. So a little blade play is not going to be anything to worry about. It only becomes an issuse if you have a stop pin on the knife with play. Some of the ones that don't screw down have been known to fall out in that case so then its critical to keep the pivot properly tensioned.

STR
 
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