Knife sometimes has vertical play?

A

Avenged Sorrow

Joined
Oct 9, 2013
Messages
95
I bought a Spear point Recon 1 a couple years ago , I love the knife to death and it's perfect in my opinion. Thing is lately I've noticed that sometimes when I open it it has slight vertical play , and I mean slight. On the other hand sometimes it will lock up rock solid. I do notice it happens more often when flicking open. I don't know why it does this , I have taken it apart to do maintenance but I don't recall it ever doing this. Sending it back is out of the question, this specific knife is sentimental to me for reasons I don't wish to go into. Any ideas?
 
What type of lock does it have?

Perhaps you got oil onto the lock/blade interface so sometimes it slips.
 
Some back lock designs will have a small amount of up and down play. It is not normal but it does happen. It is nothing to worry about, as far as I am concerned. Your CS has a stop pin which should prevent it from worsening.
What may be happening is that there is some crud under the lock face that keeps the lock from seating when you flick it as there is a rebound. I am not sure on this point as I cannot see your knife. I would contact CS and ask them. Tell them you do not want a replacement due to sentimentality and ask them about a fix. Call them and talk to them in person.
 
I have 3 cold steel folders. A large g10 Espada, a Raja II, and an American Lawman. They all started doing that same thing after a period of time, when the locks wore in a bit it seems. I just chalked it up to "the nature of the beast". The play is so minute, that I don't worry about it, as I don't believe it causes a problem.
 
I have a Cold Steel Counter Point folder with the Tri-ad lock and it sometimes has forward/back blade-play.

My theory is, sometimes the lock drops deeper into the blade tang than other times. The deeper it drops, the tighter it is (no play). Even a fraction of a millimeter can make the difference.

I've noticed with my knife that I am more likely to get play if I flick the knife open or thumb it open really fast/forcefully. My theory there is that when the blade is opened really fast and forcefully that it bounces back ever so slightly against the stop pin preventing the lock from dropping completely into the blade, and this prevents the lock from dropping as deeply into the blade as it would during slower openings.

That's what I think anyways.

Forcefully flicking a knife open can be hard on the stop pin, and possibly the lock, so I don't recommend it. And while the slight blade-play might offend our desire for our knives to be "perfect", I don't think a little play in a Tri-ad lock will cause any problems.
 
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