Recommend me a good user slipjoint.

APS:

Yeah I learned the hard way like you did about Schrade's construction. They use a cold headed steel rivet under hollow nickel silver bolsters. I don't think that even the Schrade factory can repair one of their knives if the blades have lateral play.

I learned that about 25 years ago when I was a teenager, collecting antique pocket knives and teaching myself how to repair them. I learned how to repin pocket knives and I thought I would try it on my favorite "user" Schrade stockman which had developed lateral play.

I cut the blade pin and then uh-oh!!! No way to put this one back together.

I really think that their construction represents a design weakness. While the cold-headed steel blade pin is very strong, the assembly is held tight in the knife by the brass liners, which end up acting as "shims" to prevent lateral play of the blades. Well, brass is a fairly soft metal, and the steel can wear on the brass with use....then...lateral play..
 
Originally posted by APS
The main blade on my knife is stiffer than either the spey or sheepsfoot, with the spey being next and the sheepsfoot the least but it isn't terribly lazy or anything. The other one that I tried at the store was the same way.
Click to expand...

APS, I examined my Senior stockman and it was like yours.
I also looked at the nail nick's position on the sheepsfoot and spey blades and noticed that the pull on the spey is located near the center of the blade, while the one on the sheepsfoot is positioned more laterally. This might explain why the spey feels stiffer than the sheepsfoot .
 
littleknife, good point. The whole force*distance thing could definately explain why the sheepsfoot is easier to open.
 
APS, I just looked at my Schrade 34OT too and found out that there might be an additional reason for the difference in blade stiffness.
The spey blade of my Middleman 34OT is also stiffer than the sheepsfoot, even there is not so much difference between the positions of the nail nicks.
However the tang of the spey blade is more than 1 mm longer than the one of the sheepsfoot blade.
All this made me realize the multitude of factors to be considered when producing a slipjoint with good walk and talk.
 
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