How much blade play is normal?

S

stanton2

Joined
Jan 21, 2008
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29
Hello, everybody. I was wondering how much side-to-side blade play is normal in a well-made folding knife (I'm thinking of my Kershaw Blur) when the blade is open and the lock is being deliberately held back?

When I tighten the pivot screw of my Blur enough to remove the side-to-side wiggle, the blade is a little too tight. When the pivot screw seems to be tightened just right, there's a very small amount of play in the blade (with the lock held back). When the lock is engaged everything feels tight.

In general, for folding knives of the same kind of quality as the Blur, is a little blade play normal when the lock is being held back? What about for folders costing 2 or 3 or even 4 times as much (i.e., $120 and up)?
 
I check the side play when the lock is engaged.

My Benchamde 941 and 943 need to have the pivot pin screw tightened a little now and then to take up the side play (when the lock is engaged).

Rich
 
One thing you guys might do is get some of that BLUE Loc-Tite. It's worked well on my BM 710 and others where the pivot came loose on it's own. Once the stuff is applied to the pivot threads there's more than enough time to do fine adjustments...
 
My Benchmade Grip, and buck Alphs dorado, are both nice and tight. No play at all, but I have seen knives that do have alot of play, and it is very disapointing.
 
So it looks like no blade play at all is what I should be expecting.

When I tighten the pivot screw on my Blur just enough so that gravity can't swing the blade open or closed (when the liner lock is held out of the way), there's no perceptible play. I don't suppose that's too tight.

On the other hand, there's no side-to-side play in my BM Griptilian blade, even though the pivot is loose enough for the blade to freely swing back and forth under the influence of gravity (when the axis lock is held back).

I wonder if this could have something to do with the diameter of the bushings that the blade is sandwiched between? It seems that wider diameter bushings would allow less side-to-side movement than smaller diameter bushings given the same degree of tightening of the pivot screw, especially if the price/quality of the knife is such that super small tolerances between components could not be expected.

Since the pivot screw setting on my Blur seems so fickle, I think I'll give it the blue Loctite treatment.
 
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