- Joined
- Sep 7, 2004
- Messages
- 64
I got this knife more than a year ago after an unexpected whiff of the karambit craze. I played with it for days until I discovered that there was a slight vertical bladeplay that just wouldn’t go away. No mater what I did, the annoying bladeplay stayed. I HATE bladeplay in a quality knife – I was so turned off that I threw the Journeyman into a drawer where it sat for about a year without me even looking at it.
A little while ago I decided to pick up the Journeyman again and make another repair attempt. This time I was more lucky – I discovered that the bladeplay was a result of a gap between where the pivot pin meets the FRN handle scales: a lengthwise portion of the pivot pin, and a corresponding portion of the hole in the FRN handle scale is made flat instead of circular. It is done in this way to prevent the pivot pin from rotating when the pivot screw is being fastened (Several manufacturers make their knives this way; Emerson comes to mind). Well, in some batches of the Blade Tech Tarani Journeyman, the gap between these flat portions was too big, apparently, causing the pivot pin to wobble back and forth together with the blade. After having realized this, the fix was quite easy: I just inserted a small piece of flat stainless steel into the gap. After the reassembly only a very slight bladeplay remained. The “smoothness” of the knife is not significantly affected by the fix. I don’t expect the steel piece to wear out anytime soon. This solution might work on other knives with the same problem as well.
A little while ago I decided to pick up the Journeyman again and make another repair attempt. This time I was more lucky – I discovered that the bladeplay was a result of a gap between where the pivot pin meets the FRN handle scales: a lengthwise portion of the pivot pin, and a corresponding portion of the hole in the FRN handle scale is made flat instead of circular. It is done in this way to prevent the pivot pin from rotating when the pivot screw is being fastened (Several manufacturers make their knives this way; Emerson comes to mind). Well, in some batches of the Blade Tech Tarani Journeyman, the gap between these flat portions was too big, apparently, causing the pivot pin to wobble back and forth together with the blade. After having realized this, the fix was quite easy: I just inserted a small piece of flat stainless steel into the gap. After the reassembly only a very slight bladeplay remained. The “smoothness” of the knife is not significantly affected by the fix. I don’t expect the steel piece to wear out anytime soon. This solution might work on other knives with the same problem as well.