Recommendation? Detent play or “feature”?

D

Dadex

Joined
May 1, 2021
Messages
143
Hi everybody
A few days I realized that one of my knives has an issue that allows you to move the blade without unlocking it when closed.
Here is the video example.
streamable.com

Streamable Video

Watch this video on Streamable.
streamable.com streamable.com
I started reading some posts about it and it doesn’t seem to be normal but this is answer I received from the maker.

“I hope you are well. If the knife runs smoothly, you have nothing to worry about. Slight play when opening the knife before the detent is released is normal due to the flexibility of the liner lock. This is the operating characteristics of the sub-liner lock. It has no effect whatsoever on the operation of the knife, and every Herman has it. Of course, if anything goes wrong with the knife, we can fix it without a problem. Have a wonderful day ! “
 
Hmm, I wouldn't be too worried. I think if it was loose and just flopped about a couple of mm then I would say that was a design issue. Think of it like a 2 stage trigger .
 
i doesn’t affect functionality right now but in most cases blade play, uncentered blade or lock rock do not either but it is not cool to see them on a 700 usd knife.
Just wanted to know if it belongs to those that I consider flaws or if it is just what it has to be.
 
Dadex said:
Im not comparing it with any other knife as i dont have any other liner lock
Click to expand...
Gotcha, I’ve got a couple of Viper/MKM liner locks that do the same thing. I’ve never considered it an issue until I read this thread. They work just fine and I’ve had them for a while.
Maybe you could tighten up a tad on the pivot and see if that helps.
 
Oh I forgot to mention, oftentimes a new knife just needs a little time to break in. I always fidget with a new knife until the pivot backs out enough to warrant setting it to my preference and threadlocking it. It's very common that a little play of any type will disappear during that process or shortly after. Same with lockstick, in a new knife the problem often wears away and settles into a quirk of the knife.
 
NG VI said:
Oh I forgot to mention, oftentimes a new knife just needs a little time to break in. I always fidget with a new knife until the pivot backs out enough to warrant setting it to my preference and threadlocking it. It's very common that a little play of any type will disappear during that process or shortly after. Same with lockstick, in a new knife the problem often wears away and settles into a quirk of the knife.
Click to expand...
Im this case this knife has like 6 months and has been flipped quite a lot
 
I cannot reproduce this a amount of blade movement with my Sting.
A light push gives my blade a tiny movement, maybe half a millimeter measured at the tip of the blade. If I push any harder, the blade opens and deploys. That's what I would expect due to Herman's message.
Your knife seems to move a lot more.
 
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I've seen this on $500+ knives. While it seems normal and many people are okay with it, it certainly isn't a necessary feature. I don't like it either. I want all my detents to be nice and crisp.

This is something that sometimes bugs me about shopping for more premium knives. Crisp detents just don't seem as standard as I want them to be. Another thing is seeing blades that get really close to the edge of the scale when a knife is closed. It bothers me quite a bit because those issues rarely come up in the spectrum of the budget market where I tend to shop, whether we're talking Sencut, Civivi, or WE levels. At the very least, there is a general expectation that those knives will have a crisp detent and good action, and that they will be returned if they don't.

It's sort of like having flush-fitting screws under a deep-carry loop-over. When that sort of thing has become a fairly standard practice at the $50 level, it sucks not seeing it on a premium knife.
 
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