Lightning

[jki]

I was given a small lightning as a gift. Several questions: Why is the spacer that separates the two scales made up of two pieces of metal, rather than one, and why is there a liner on only one side?
My only conjecture as to why Buck uses a two piece spacer is that the sheet metal is less expensive in the smaller gauge. On my knife, the two pieces do not follow the contour of the scales on the end (and so stick out just a bit), and for that matter are not ground together, which makes the knife seem to be in a much less expensive class than it is. Workmanship is expected in a $40+ knife!
The "missing" liner causes the blade to rub on that side, particularly for left-handed opening, which pushes the blade against the inside of the handle scale. In right-handed opening, the blade is pushed away from the linerless side, and opens smoothly without scraping.
One last comment; the blade was not very sharp out of the box, and dulled very quickly from there.
Ergonomically, a good knife, but the details and workmanship issues are important to us knife enthusiasts.

 

[Jeff Hubbard]

JKI,
Thank you for your feedback..
Item # 1 - The two pieces instead of one on the backbone. When we designed this series, we were limited by how small the hole has to be. During fineblanking, the thickest piece we could blank and still pierce the small hole in without breaking pierce punches was approx .100". We need .126" or so for that piece. We decided to make a two piece to overcome fineblanking limitations . The are stacked before assembly and ground 20-30 at at time. During assembly, the tolerancing stacks allow for some mismatch. We are looking at a one-piece as soon as the ROI justifies it.
Item 2 We are trouble shooting the blade rubbing now. At 1st glance it seems that some of the blades are bent. I'll know more in a few days.. The liner pushes the blade over alittle, but it seems like an easy thing to improve. Look ast your blade for me along the backbone and see if it appears bent.
Item 3 - We've found that double liners are necessary on plastic sided knives, the general feeling is that the Alum side are rigid enough to discourge unlocking due to flexing. There are small washers on each side of the blade to allow for smooth action, but this also allows the blade to move lateraly as pressure is applied to the thumbstud. There is no doubt that it could improve the action, but the washers will allow some play there also.

Item 4 - I'm disappointed that the unit was not sharp out of the box. Our EdGE 2000 program is in full swing and I would have expected yours to have it. Our knives coming out of the factory are alot sharper than last year, and getting better all the time.

If you want, send it to me, and I'll clean it up and make it right for all your concerns. I'll make sure it comes back drop dead sharp. It'll scare the hairs off of your arm.
We are finishing up the Field testing cycle this month, and the we will have a comprehensive design review where all these items will be discussed.
Thank you for the feedback. I hope this helps.
Jeff

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Jeff "Without data it's just another opinion" Hubbard
Quality Supervisor

JeffH@buckknives.com
www.buckknives.com
Watch for Pete's Custom Knife Shoppe on www.buckknives.com