Question on Liner Locks

[Megalobyte]

As has been discussed, when a liner lock is new, the liner should engage the blade ramp towards the left hand side, but with use, over time, often not that much time, the liner/ramp engagement wears and the liner will begin to stray towards the right side, and i know from personal taste, i like my liner to stay well on the left, and nothing annoys me more than a liner that has begun to move too far to the right, once its hitting past the middle, thats way too far for me. So, here is my question. I realize the blade ramp is sloped down as it moves to the right to keep the liner from moving too far to the right, but wouldnt it be easier and better to simply machine a stop into the blade ramp, to keep the liner from EVER moving past a certain point? Instead of simply sloping the blade ramp down as it goes to the right, which doesnt do such a great job, long term, of preventing the liner from moving towards the right, wouldnt a notch/stop machined into the blade ramp stop and secure the liner better and do a better job of keeping the liner towards the left side where it should be? What am i missing?

 

[JoHnYKwSt]

Meg,
If a stop or notch was used, there would probably be bladeplay, if not initially then eventually. The purpose of the ramp is to take up the slack as the liner wears in. So long as there is no bladeplay, there is nothing wrong with a liner that is past center and more to the right.

 

[Crayola]

I'll take a stab at this, just for kicks. I really don't know what the right answer is here! But here goes.

I think the idea of a machined stop sounds good, but it won't work. The reason the liner lock moves over to the right is because of wear. Now if the lock got to the point that it moved to the machined stop, then as time went on you'd still be wearing down the lock but now it wouldn't be engaging the tang, except ON THE SIDE OF THAT STOP. In other words, the knife really wouldn't be locked.

After a while, you really just need to send your knife to the maker and get it adjusted/fixed/liner replaced.

Good thinking though! Maybe I'm wrong... I'm curious to hear other responses.

 

[HotSwat]

I think that is a great a idea. Keep that liner where it belongs. Just add the slope for for nice tight lock-up.

 

[calyth]

There won't be a nice lockup....
Given the fact that liner wear still occurs even if you machine a stop on the ramp nad the liner hits that point, there would be less contact between the liner and the ramp, and your lock would be come loose.

 

[Megalobyte]

OK, i think i can visualize now, in my head, why a stop wont work. The liner, as it wears, needs to travel further to the right, down the slope to continue to fully engage the blade ramp, its precisely the traveling further to the right that maintains blade to liner engagement, because if the liner wears, but cant travel along the blade ramp's downward slope, the liner will eventually not reach the blade, the slope keeps them in contact as the liner wears, and in effect, gets shorter over time. Well, thanks to all who replied, its too bad, because theres nothing i HATE more than when a liner goes too far to the right.

 

[Mr. Bombastic]

Why do you hate liners moving over to the right? Surely their politics shouldn't effect their blade locking ability!

 

[rev_jch]

Ive seen a stop machined into the tang, at the end of the ramp. I cant remember where I saw it though. you have to understand though the only practical way this would work is if the blade had a backspring instead of a blade stop. that way there would be tension on the blade when the lock ends up hitting the stop (when its completely broke in) preventing (too much) wobble. I like benchmades modified liner locks, there not ramped the same as the others, they have a sharp upturn almost "creating" a stop at the top of the ramp.
if you have one go bad, most all manufacturers will replace it usually for nothing.

 

[Chuck Gedraitis Knives]

I have a friend who machines a stop into the tang of his blades. He mills it in at 1 deg and he says it's like closing a door. The lock will only go so far and then it stops. He's had no problems so far.