Interesting Tang/halfstop

M

MarkPinTx

Joined
Aug 21, 2003
Messages
801
I recently acquired a Victorinox Cadet with which many of you are familiar. All of the blades/implements have round tangs except the large screwdriver/bottle opener. It has a square tang with "ears" that seem to require a little extra force to get it off dead center in the open and half stop positions. The same tool on an older Huntsman and more recent Trekker doesn't have this feature. I think its useful as it keeps it either ay open or half stop. Kind of wondering why they didn't put the open one on the can opener.


Anyone notice this before? Are there others like it?
 
I do like the half-stop feature. Wish all my slipjoints had it. This said, I can do without it, if the knife is nice. Hell, I can even accept a locking device, if the knife is very, very nice...
 
I just checked my 80s era Champ & 2 yo Ranger & the slotted driver/bottle opener & phillips driver on the Champ both have half stops.The Ranger only has the slotted SD/bottle opener & it too has half stops.
It's probably to help keep them from easily closing if you use the blades in the half open position like an offset SD.
Pretty cool IMO,thanks for pointing it out,I never noticed or gave any thought to the half stops before & I've used the heck out of both blades on the Champ.
 
Its not just a half stop, it has ears on the square corners:

0bT0GTJ.jpg



Hopefully you can see them in this photo. Lower half, a larger one on the right, smaller on the left.

Also, as has been noted repeatedly, this little gem came shaaaarp. Not only were the grinds even and acute, to the unaided eye, they were pretty polished as well. Kudos to Victorinox. I still stropped it though!
 
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Figured this would draw a little more interest than it has.

The design is effective, it increases the "pull" so to speak at the half stop and open positions so that more oomph is required to get the blade moving. Never seen anything like it.
 
I think that the ears are probably just to keep the blade from rocking back and forth at half stop. Just a guess though.
 
Well they do that indeed and also make it harder to move the blade from open to half stop and half stop to either open or closed. Its a good feature for that blade. I would think it would be good on the can opener too but I guess it can't be implemented without a half stop/square tang, which is not really appropriate. I recall the can opener partially closing during use, but that may be the dull and weak springed scout rather than the sak version.
 
genewiseman said:
I think that the ears are probably just to keep the blade from rocking back and forth at half stop. Just a guess though.
Click to expand...

I also put a slight concave on the center of my tangs at half stop, stops any rocking at half stop.

Stan
 
I always thought the half-stop was on there so that you can apply more force to the screw driver, like an angled allen key (hence only on the strong screwdriver tools).

genewiseman said:
I think that the ears are probably just to keep the blade from rocking back and forth at half stop. Just a guess though.
Click to expand...

The nubbin thingy actually sits in a notch in the backspring when in the open position. This has the effect that the spring has to be lifted up more than normal when closing, greatly increasing the force needed to do it. Quite effective actually...
 
Yes indeed, I had not noticed but there is a recess in the spring that the ear/nubbin goes into. Makes sense.
 
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