- Joined
- Jul 26, 2005
- Messages
- 2,027
This is to all members who have noticed the side-to-side movement of the stop pins found in Emerson knives. If you haven't knife noticed yet, try partially opening your knife and shake it. You should hear an audible clicking sound of the stop pin moving around between the liners.
The reason why I bring this up is because my new custom Emerson does the same thing. Now I found this very strange. I imagine that any quality control issues found production Emerson can not possible be found in the customs as well. Mr. Emerson knives are 100% handmade by him and only him. Could a defect such as this possibly be overlooked on a custom knife by Mr. Emerson himself. I didn't believe that to be true, so I made the assumption that for some strange reason somehow, the rattly stop pin was done on purpose.
I spoke with some die hard custom Emerson collectors about the stop pin, and many, if not all of their custom Emersons do have rattly stop pins. And I am happy to say, it is intentional, and for good reason.
For any of those who have owned a knife with a worn stop pin will notice vertical blade play. Usually, this is corrected by installing a slightly larger stop pin.
Back to the Emerson stop pin. Mr. Emerson designed the stop pin to move from side to side and rotate to minimize wear on a single location on the stop pin, lengthening the life of the knife. Pretty smart if you ask me.
Whether one agrees that a floating stop pin is a desirable feature or not should be saved for another time on another thread. The point of this thread is to inform everyone that the floating stop pin is not a QC issue, rather part of Mr. Emerson's design.
The reason why I bring this up is because my new custom Emerson does the same thing. Now I found this very strange. I imagine that any quality control issues found production Emerson can not possible be found in the customs as well. Mr. Emerson knives are 100% handmade by him and only him. Could a defect such as this possibly be overlooked on a custom knife by Mr. Emerson himself. I didn't believe that to be true, so I made the assumption that for some strange reason somehow, the rattly stop pin was done on purpose.
I spoke with some die hard custom Emerson collectors about the stop pin, and many, if not all of their custom Emersons do have rattly stop pins. And I am happy to say, it is intentional, and for good reason.
For any of those who have owned a knife with a worn stop pin will notice vertical blade play. Usually, this is corrected by installing a slightly larger stop pin.
Back to the Emerson stop pin. Mr. Emerson designed the stop pin to move from side to side and rotate to minimize wear on a single location on the stop pin, lengthening the life of the knife. Pretty smart if you ask me.
Whether one agrees that a floating stop pin is a desirable feature or not should be saved for another time on another thread. The point of this thread is to inform everyone that the floating stop pin is not a QC issue, rather part of Mr. Emerson's design.
