How much play is "too much"??

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basko152

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Sep 19, 2004
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I recently acquired a strider - buck 880, which I really like. This thing is a tank. However, it has a very small amount of lateral movement. I wasn't too terribly concerned, because almost all of my folders have a little play. However, a co-worker says that a good folder shouldn't have ANY play and I should send this one into buck for service.

So....how accurate is he. Should it not have ANY play? Let me clarify that this movement is pretty minute. When I push the liner lock in to make the locker tighter there is absolutely NO movement. So, it may just need some adjustment OR this may just be break in. I don't know.
 
Then again, I've been very fortunate. None of my knives, from my LCC to my Endura to my cheap S&W SWAT exhibits play of any kind, knock on wood.
 
I think that people's definitions of blade play vary greatly. I guess that some people apply so much lateral stress on their folders while testing this that what they perceive as play is actually the blade bending slightly.
 
There should be no play at all on a high end knife. On mid-low end (Kershaw, CRKT and...........Gerber...ugh..) a slight bit of lateral play is acceptable.

Should you be concerned? No...a little bit of lateral blade play is undesireable, but I don't think it will affect the operations.

Interestingly, my Cabela's minigrip has developed the slightest lateral blade play. I'll fix this soon by tightening the torx screw though. While I've never had a CRKT develop play, I see Kershaws doing it occasionally....enough to actually concern me. Some loctite on their screw, however, essentially fixes them also.

Now, I don't know much about the Strider, but I have a Buck 560C (lockback) that has a tiny bit of lateral blade play too. Something you really need to be aware of in large folders is that the longer the blade, the more exagerated the actual play will appear. I mean, you have a lot more leverage on the end of a four inch blade than on a three inch. My 560C shipped with this little bit of lateral blade play, and without a torx screw, there's not a good way to adjust it. It bothers me that it's there, but it doesn't mess up anything.

I'd say that if you have the oppertunity to try out another one in a store and test it, do so. Find out if this is just Striders of your kind in general. If so, and you still like the knife (it sounds like you do), then, provided the play does not worsen (and my Buck never did worsen, unlike the Torx-screw counterparts) you should keep that knife and enjoy it. If the others don't exhibit the play, you might consider selling yours or returning it, if possible.

Ultimately though, while it, being a good knife, should not exhibit any play, it's really not a big deal.
 
basko152 said:
IShould it not have ANY play?
Click to expand...
Not if you don't want it. Personally I don't care about it, because I have not seen it correlate well to lock security. However it doesn't need to be there and it is likely it isn't the expected behavior, ask Buck to confirm.

-Cliff
 
Just out of curiousity is it a first or second generation 880? The 2nd gens. have the ability to have the clip moved from one side to the other. I would also think that there should not be any play and when you tighten the pivot you should get rid of the play, of course you might end up with a very stiff opening at the same time. I've had several of the 880 sp's and only had a couple that had blade play. The 2nd generation models seem to have taken care of the blade play issue since the three I had all exhibited great lockup with no blade play at all. I now have a couple of the real thing's, Strider AR's, and these have ABSOLUTELY no blade play with vault like lockup and perfectly centered blades.
 
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