Due to the shallow angle between the primary grind and the flats, even a tiny amount of mismatch in the location of the blade can create a visible movement of that intersection point.
And if the blade is off slightly in one direction, that mismatch adds on one side and subtracts on the other
So if the blade is off by .002”, it can create a problem.
We never used to have this problem.
Nothing that I make as flawless, every knife I ship has imperfections and having those intersection points line up perfectly is completely frivolous, I get them as close as I can and I call that good enough.
The best I can do is the best I can do. And I always try to ship my best work. I'm not able to ship something better than my best work, if you think about it.
We get that adjustment dialed in pretty tight during setup and our machines repeat very well. It doesn't generally drift.
.002" is a problem, and the Mori repeats to better than .0001". So, no problem.
Until recently. We have started having an issue with the mechanism that holds the tombstone after a pallet change. There's a tiny amount of random variation that cannot be compensated for.
This is a new kind of problem and it kind of caught us by surprise. We found it, and are actively addressing it, but the precision of this cosmetic attribute is not as perfect as we would like for it to be. Which is creating a lot of manual rework here.
It is completely cosmetic in nature, not very noticeable, and it is affecting one of the most affordable patterns we offer. I believe the knife is a fantastic value even if two intersection points on two opposite sides of the blade are off a little bit. As long as it's just a little bit. If people are using the knives the way I intended, meaning just using them, it is of no consequence at all, but there are collectors who acquire our work because of the perfection they often demonstrate and I could understand some people wanting it to be perfect.
Anyway, we're doing our best to make these blades as geometrically perfect as we can and we're taking actions to address these little cosmetic problems as they arise but if someone gets a knife that they're not satisfied with, they can always return it for a refund. Short of that, be aware we are sorting every blade for this issue now but a few probably slipped out before we caught it. The tolerance is plus or minus 1/16" per side so the difference between the intersection points could be as much as 1/8". This represents a blade blank that was mislocated in the fixture by .002”. 100% completely non-functional issue that most people would never notice unless they went looking for it, but if you have one that you don't like you can return it for a refund, no questions asked. And if you have one that is out of spec, you can return it for a replacement, no questions asked.
Edit: shifting the center line of the blade by .002" moves that intersection point by .067". Forward on one side, backward on the other.
A Mori is capable of repeating on a pallet changer an order of magnitude better than that.
This is my Mori. There are many like it, but this one is broken....
