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Case ''dings'' edge of blade

T

TROMANO

Joined
Jul 31, 2008
Messages
54
I have a medium stockman with carbon steel blades from the mid 80's. The main clip blade gets a "ding" right in the middle of the blade's edge upon closing the knife. The blades don't touch when closing them so that's not the culprit. The blade "kick" is plenty high to stop the blade from bottoming out against the backspring. If I push firmly down on the blade against the backspring's tension when it is closed there is a little downward movement before it bottoms out against the inside of the backspring. So I know there is room between the edge and backspring. How is this ''ding'' happening because it does not seem to come even close to the inside of the backspring upon closing? How can I stop it? It's real irritating to constantly fix the ''ding'' in my knife's edge every other day. Thanks.
 
Have you checked to see if there's a high spot on the underside of the spring?
 
It could be happening when the knife closes or if pressure is applied to the spine.
Fixing it would involve the spring or the kick or a combination of both, but I have no idea how.
 
You're letting the blade snap in on it's own spring momentum, arn't you?

I'd bet that the blades speed and momentum is carrying it past the rest point where the kick is supposed to stop it, and hitting the high spot of the spring before rebounding to it's resting position. This is not uncommon with slipjoints. That's why some old timers never just let go of the blade on closing, but ease it down. Thre's a lot of speed and inertia on a knife snapping closed.

Just keep a grip on closing it and after a few years of use and shaprening, it will be fine. No big deal.
 
I agree with the guys, I have a Mooremaker sodbuster and a Cold Steel stockman that have the same issue. The dings were much more pronounced when the knives were new. They are pretty minimal now, and the issue seems to be going away with time. I'd attribute it to the sharpening process, as the blade wears away there is less to material to inadvertently hit the backspring. I suggest just using the knife and sharpening it as it gets dull and the dings will disappear eventually.

- Christian
 
Jackknife, You hit the nail on the head. Thanks for the tip about letting the blade down easy. I just sharpened it at lunch and tried your trick. IT WORKED!! Thanks for the great stories. I'm just about finished reading all of them from the "stickey". I can't waite to finish them.
 
Yep... the more you sharpen it, the smaller the dings will become. Just close the blade slowly, instead of snapping it shut.
 
Jackknife beat me to it.

I had a blade snap on me once from closing it like that too :mad:

I always ease the blades closed now.
 
Professional slippy-slappers make the knives so that they don't ding when they are SNAPPED! shut...just sayin. ;) That said, letting the blades snap shut sounds cool, but could have additional consequences down the road. It's best to let them close gently like Uncle JackKnife says. :D
 
KnifeHead said:
Professional slippy-slappers make the knives so that they don't ding when they are SNAPPED! shut...just sayin. ;) That said, letting the blades snap shut sounds cool, but could have additional consequences down the road. It's best to let them close gently like Uncle JackKnife says. :D
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I'd like to believe this is true most of the time. However, I have at least three or four $300+ knives from highly respected custom makers, that have had this same problem. Once it's noticed the first time, it's easy to spot it on other knives. Always leaves a ding on the edge, and a tell-tale divot on the inside of the backspring/spacer. I think it's my #1 pet peeve about new knives I've bought, and I've seen it all across the price/quality spectrum.
 
I've seen it and brought it to the attention of makers whose knives cost well over $1,000 and even closer to $2,000 at the Blade Show. (Not naming any names and I don't own any knives by the particular maker.)

I've even noticed it on a couple of my own high end knives. (I have sharpened them out on mine as it bugs the heck out of me.)

I totally agree with Kerry, it's something that a maker should take into account during the process of building the knife in the first place.
 
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TROMANO said:
Jackknife, You hit the nail on the head. Thanks for the tip about letting the blade down easy. I just sharpened it at lunch and tried your trick. IT WORKED!! Thanks for the great stories. I'm just about finished reading all of them from the "stickey". I can't waite to finish them.
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You're welcome, bud.:thumbup:

I only know this because I had a laguiole that did this, and I ended up sticking a piece of wooded match stick down in the handle for the blade to come to rest on. It made me leary of just letting a blade go from then on.

Like the old timers say; take it easy.
 
Blues said:
I've seen it and brought it to the attention of makers whose knives cost well over $1,000 and even closer to $2,000 at the Blade Show. (Not naming any names and I don't own any knives by the particular maker.)

I've even noticed it on a couple of my own high end knives.

I totally agree with Kerry, it's something that a maker should take into account during the process of building the knife in the first place.
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Of the makers that you've told about this problem, how was your input received by them? I haven't brought it up with any maker yet, as I worry it might be a sensitive subject with them. I like the overall style & quality of the knives in general, so I'm a bit leery of broaching the topic, unless it's something that they'd genuinely like to hear about & fix.

Thanks.
 
Obsessed with Edges said:
Of the makers that you've told about this problem, how was your input received by them? I haven't brought it up with any maker yet, as I worry it might be a sensitive subject with them. I like the overall style & quality of the knives in general, so I'm a bit leery of broaching the topic, unless it's something that they'd genuinely like to hear about & fix.

Thanks.
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I have never met a maker worth his salt that was unwilling to listen to constructive criticism.

Even the best of the best make mistakes and readily admit it. Tony Bose will tell you that there is no such thing as a perfect knife.

The knife maker who is unwilling to listen to or correct issues with his knife is, happily (in my experience), in the vast minority.

That said, I have never sent my knives back for that issue alone. I've always dealt with it on my own unless there were other mitigating factors.

Never be afraid to share your constructive thoughts and criticism with a maker. It makes things better both for them (in the long run) and their customers.
 
Blues said:
I have never met a maker worth his salt that was unwilling to listen to constructive criticism.

Even the best of the best make mistakes and readily admit it. Tony Bose will tell you that there is no such thing as a perfect knife.

The knife maker who is unwilling to listen to or correct issues with his knife is, happily (in my experience), in the vast minority.

That said, I have never sent my knives back for that issue alone. I've always dealt with it on my own unless there were other mitigating factors.

Never be afraid to share your constructive thoughts and criticism with a maker. It makes things better both for them (in the long run) and their customers.
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:thumbup:
Thanks again.

Dave
 
My Case Trapper has the same issue. I couldn't figure out why it was doing it for the longest time. As soon as I started easing it closed, problem solved.
 
Of course, there is something that can be done to fix this -- just (very carefully) make a notch in the center of the spring hump going *lengthwise* of the spring. You're just making a notch for the blade edge to fall into. So long as you make sure to only work parallel to the length of the spring, you don't even have to worry about scratches or how sharp the notch is made - you won't weaken the spring significantly this way (scratches going *across* the spring are another matter, but fortunately, it's pretty darn difficult to cause those in an assembled knife). Just only do as much as necessary and no more. I've seen quite a bit of shaping/filing of the center hump in old knives to allow the blades to seat more deeply without dinging -- on double ended pen knives, sometimes you'll even see both sides of the center hump filed away so both blades have extra clearance.
 
TROMANO said:
How can I stop it? It's real irritating to constantly fix the ''ding'' in my knife's edge every other day. Thanks.
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I'm sure you have heard the old saying "Slap happens." No? Me either, but it sounded good. Blade slap happens on knives in every price range if the blade shape and the inside shape of the spring is just right or if the blade is long and slaps hard. sometimes it takes alot of closings to loosen everything up before it starts. Its just a fact of life, so there are two ways to stop it. Let the blade in slowly by hand, but whats the fun in that? Or the old school way of fixing it is to slice a thin short strip of leather just a hair wider than the liners and slide it down to lay on the top of the spring where it raps the blade and letter fly :thumbup:
 
The thin leather sounds like a good fix too. I really like your suggestion but for now I think I'll just treat it with a little TLC and let her down slow from now on. Thanks to everyone for the responses. Now I don't feel so alone with my little ding problem. Man, for some reason that just didn't sound right, Hahaha:).
 
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