Full length titanium backspacer - Still need a stop pin?

Lon Aguiar

Lon Aguiar

Joined
May 23, 2007
Messages
96
I'm working on a liner lock with a full length titanium backspacer.
Can I just use the titanium backspacer as the blade stop or do I still need to use a separate stop pin?
 
It can be done either way, just depends on the knife design. I've got a framelock with stop pin, and a slipjoint that uses the spacer.
 
Short answer...yes you will need a stop pin. Titanium will deform and displace leaving you a sloppy fit on a liner lock or frame lock.
 
I was worried about how the Ti would hold up as a stop.
Looks like I'll be adding a stop pin.
 
I would think that Ti would hold up fine as the stop. Ti holds up fine as a lock. . . There are several reasons I can think of not build it that way, durability isn't one of them. That doesn't mean it can't be done.
 
Atlas Knife Company said:
I would think that Ti would hold up fine as the stop. Ti holds up fine as a lock. . . There are several reasons I can think of not build it that way, durability isn't one of them. That doesn't mean it can't be done.
Click to expand...

True, but locks see a slightly different type of force than stop pins usually do. Especially if one is prone to flicking their blades open. The blade is basically trying to peen the stop pin every time it is opened with a moderate force. A lock will only see this (normally gradual vs sudden) pressure if pressure is applied to the spine. Given enough pressure this way too, a lock face, even titanium, will deform quite readily. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually, I would suspect a ti stop pin to develop play, as I would with any non-hardened material.
 
Titanium deforms far to easy for a stop pin. Tom Mayo pointed this out to me on another forum. His TNT model (earlier) used Ti stop pins and he had issues (rather quickly) with the Ti stop deforming and the knife developing lock rock and overall lockup.
 
Full length back spacer of titanium will give good results without something to worry about. A titanium stop pin is going to create a problem and in not much time at all.
Frank
 
The knife is more of a New England style folder which normally has full length back spacer without a stop pin.



I can see how a titanium stop pin would deform since there isn't a lot of contact area between the pin and the blade. The back spacer would have a lot more surface area on the blade.
 
It depends on the surface area in contact. A small titanium area interface will deform under the pressure from the blade at the stop, but if the contact area is large it will whitstand the pressure better.
Also the steel stop pin will bear on the titanium btw, just on adequate surface area.
 
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