- Joined
- Oct 19, 1998
- Messages
- 426
I've got two BF Natives, and overall they're absolutely wonderful knives; materials and finish are great, the beefy handle fits my hand well, and they're scary sharp. The whole thing screams solid, stout, nicely overbuilt, and well-made.
Which makes my one concern with them seem all the more out of place -- and that's the amount of vertical blade play. I can't detect any real side-to-side play, but the blade has some noticeable vertical play when locked open. If I open the knife, hold it edge down, set it on the edge of a table so the blade is hanging over, and anchor it with some fingers, I can wiggle the point up and down more than I think I ought to be able to.
It's more noticeable on one knife than on the other (the serrated vs. the plain, not that it should matter) and it's hard to measure in this setup, but there looks to be perhaps 1/16" movement of the tip, up and down (which, of course, corresponds to a much smaller amount of movement somewhere near the other end of the blade).
Given that the lock mechanism is pretty firmly anchored in place, it would seem like two different factors could contribute to this play: 1) a loose fit of the catch on the locking bar into the corresponding cutout in the blade, and/or, 2) a loose fit between the blade and the pivot pin, or between the pivot pin and the surrounding G10 of the handle scales.
Even with the pivot pin tightened down a bit more than I'd want for carry, if I repeat above wobble test with a fingertip laid across the "hex nut" side of the pivot pin, the I can feel a tiny amount of movement of the pivot pin versus the handle scale.
These knives have opened some mail and cut up some cardboard boxes, but they've not yet seen any really hard use.
Is this par for the course? Inherent in the design? Or have I got the only two bad ones? Or am I just worrying too much?
Other than that, like I said, these are terrific knives. For what it's worth, plain portion of the partially serrated blade is sharpened in the same manner as the serrations (one side only, with the other side just "touched" a little to take off the burr), and I figured it was/is supposed to be that way -- it's pretty darn sharp. And if I could change one thing, I'd smooth off the edges of the thumb notches a little, or minimize them a bit in some other way.
Curious to hear other's experiences (not my fault if you cut yourself testing, though),
-- Carl
Which makes my one concern with them seem all the more out of place -- and that's the amount of vertical blade play. I can't detect any real side-to-side play, but the blade has some noticeable vertical play when locked open. If I open the knife, hold it edge down, set it on the edge of a table so the blade is hanging over, and anchor it with some fingers, I can wiggle the point up and down more than I think I ought to be able to.
It's more noticeable on one knife than on the other (the serrated vs. the plain, not that it should matter) and it's hard to measure in this setup, but there looks to be perhaps 1/16" movement of the tip, up and down (which, of course, corresponds to a much smaller amount of movement somewhere near the other end of the blade).
Given that the lock mechanism is pretty firmly anchored in place, it would seem like two different factors could contribute to this play: 1) a loose fit of the catch on the locking bar into the corresponding cutout in the blade, and/or, 2) a loose fit between the blade and the pivot pin, or between the pivot pin and the surrounding G10 of the handle scales.
Even with the pivot pin tightened down a bit more than I'd want for carry, if I repeat above wobble test with a fingertip laid across the "hex nut" side of the pivot pin, the I can feel a tiny amount of movement of the pivot pin versus the handle scale.
These knives have opened some mail and cut up some cardboard boxes, but they've not yet seen any really hard use.
Is this par for the course? Inherent in the design? Or have I got the only two bad ones? Or am I just worrying too much?
Other than that, like I said, these are terrific knives. For what it's worth, plain portion of the partially serrated blade is sharpened in the same manner as the serrations (one side only, with the other side just "touched" a little to take off the burr), and I figured it was/is supposed to be that way -- it's pretty darn sharp. And if I could change one thing, I'd smooth off the edges of the thumb notches a little, or minimize them a bit in some other way.
Curious to hear other's experiences (not my fault if you cut yourself testing, though),
-- Carl
