The non lock side ball actually does hit the hole but unlike the lock it is not a spring per say so you are not going to see that action of movement for this reason. Its more steady than the lock side and also so small by comparison that when it does move its just slight.
Now, some of these are not sprung too far out at all while others are pushed out further. How far out determines how well it holds the blade closed defeating gravity or flicking open the blade. So, it may be that yours is one of those with very little tension and that this is why you don't see it moving because it simply wouldn't and would probably be in the same position with the blade on it or not.
Most of the Emerson knives with the exception of the frame locks with G10 sides only have blades that are actually held in the closed position by the non lock ball that I have worked on including my own CQC14.
Speaking of the detent on this particular folder though, it is worth mentioning that the detent is placed on this knife model so close to the rim of the blade where it contacts that many of these knives kind of make a sound from the blade action. I have tried to move the detent farther back to contact the blade better on one rebuild and did succeed but it looked odd on the outside. Still the noise was not evident on the new one I moved the ball back off the rim on.
If that ball was placed even a micron further back it would slide on and off the blade during the rotation its that close. As is it works but you have to wonder how Ernie left that one out designed this way and also how come he left the tang of the blade stick out when closed the way it does. Both these things lead me to believe it was a bit rushed when it was pushed into production but it has not hurt sales. I fixed all the things I saw that stood out to me on the last 14 I converted to a frame lock when I redesigned the entire handle length correcting these things that bugged me personally. I might add that this also made the blade length measure out to be 2.5" instead of longer which effectively made it legal in most big cities like Chicago that have their own laws outside those of the state.
Anyway, I thought I'd throw that out there. You can follow it from start to finish if you are interested.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=549001&highlight=Friz
I'm really not showing this off to try to get more requests to do these. Quite frankly I about cringe each time I get sent an Emerson because I hate doing them and I've converted like 15 of the 14s which is way way more than any of the others. I'm about burned out on that model.
Thanks for asking.
STR
