Lateral Blade Play

RescueRiley

RescueRiley

Joined
Mar 22, 2006
Messages
5,944
I recently started collecting slipjoints and I noticed that even among quality brands the main blade normally has a some blade play, mostly it's just a tiny amnt... is lateral blade play really an issue on a user knife. or is it just something to be expected??? any home fixes for the tinker impaired??
 
I doubt a slip joint could be manufactured so it would not have lateral play.

This should probably go in the tinkering forum.

I've heard vise squeezing or hammer peening the pins could help.
 
Given the construction of a slip joint, it shouldn't be a surprise that a blade has lateral play. However, it's not desirable and I wouldn't expect it in a new knife. I have a bunch of old slippies and some of them are very tight even though they've been well used. For the ones that I want to use and carry, and don't care about collector's value, I will peen the rivet lightly with a flat punch to tighten them up, if necessary. I would NOT do that to a seriously good collectable knife.
 
Let’s see if we can find the right forum …
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If you know what you're doing you can tighten the rivet by tapping gently with a hammer. If you don't know what you're doing you can really mess up a knife that way.

If you try clamping it in a vise you'll mess it up every time.
 
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