High speed, low drag?

T

thegeek574

Joined
Sep 3, 2010
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Everyone,
I have a few knives that i carry on a regular basis, and i find that i would rather loosen them up a bit and have them fly open on contact of the flipper/thumbstud instead of tightening them down to eliminate blade play. what do you guys prefer? speed or solid lock-up?

(the blade play is a minor bit of side to side, nothing major.)
 
Solid lock-up, no question

On the other hand, why not have both? There's usually a "sweet spot" where you eliminate blade play, yet still have smooth, quick opening.

Just my .02 cents..
 
Find the sweet spot that gives you both and use a little Loc-tite on the pivot ( the blue kind ).

That should do the trick.
 
If I have to choose between the two, I'd take a solid knife over a 'fast' knife. Normally, with decent knives, I don't have to choose one or the other, though.
 
Shouldn't have to choose, but if I did, it would be solid lockup no question. What good is a knife if the blade is loose.
 
Solid lockup everytime. My edc's all have a tighter pivot than they came with. I can still open with no problem cause I been doing this for 20+ years.:D

But as said, on decent folders, you can get both. One thing to consider is with a fast opening you usually get a lot of BANG when it hits the blade stop. You are asking for a flattened blade stop if your not careful. Then not only will you have side to side play, you'll have up and down play.
 
What i mean by blade play is not that the blade wiggles around if i try to cut cardboard. what i mean is that if i grab the handle with one hand and the blade with the other, and then push back and forth, then there is definitely some movement.
 
thegeek574 said:
What i mean by blade play is not that the blade wiggles around if i try to cut cardboard. what i mean is that if i grab the handle with one hand and the blade with the other, and then push back and forth, then there is definitely some movement.
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Out of curiosity, what kind of knife are you referring to? As someone said earlier, you could tighten the pivot screw a degree or two and if it's a decent knife, will eliminate the blade play while still opening smoothly.
 
It your fingers do with them what you want but FYI a loose blade = a compromised lock-up.
 
Dorito Monk said:
If I have to choose between the two, I'd take a solid knife over a 'fast' knife. Normally, with decent knives, I don't have to choose one or the other, though.
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Agree with this and the similar posts above. In addition, drop a knife set up the way the OP seems to be mentioning and watch the excitement start. :( :thumbdn:
 
thegeek574 said:
Everyone,
I have a few knives that i carry on a regular basis, and i find that i would rather loosen them up a bit and have them fly open on contact of the flipper/thumbstud instead of tightening them down to eliminate blade play. what do you guys prefer? speed or solid lock-up?

(the blade play is a minor bit of side to side, nothing major.)
Click to expand...

How much faster can your deployments get with a loose(loose enough for play) pivot in a decent knife? And what do you need that split second faster speed for?
 
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Both my Benchmade 710 and 940 have the slightest side to side if I plant the tip against something kinda solid like an old armchair and then wiggle the end of the handle. (flexing them while secured tip of blade to butt of handle).

If I tighten them just enough, being very careful, to the point of zero blade play, the blades stay perfectly upright and stiff when pulling back on the axis lock and will stick part way out on deployment.

I've come to find this in most blue class BM's. These two are the only ones I still have. They're not loose enough to be scary and they're very fast - like autos. :)
 
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