Short Revolution - internal workings problem

[Carl64]

The Short Revolution appears to be meant to hold in the open position by the opposition of the button lock against a stop pin mechanism inside. A pin goes through the blade and there is a u-shaped cutout in the inside of both handle slabs to let the pin rotate through the open/close arc.

When closed, it's all just the button lock holding it in place, and you can tell there is no opposing pin because the blade wiggles up and down a little. When opened, mine appears to have very good alignment between the tang/clip and the handle.

I assumed the internal stop pin was set up to make the tang stop rotating at that point, but it is not. I removed the flipper part of the clip when considering modifying the knife (removal of clip portion and grinding in a bottle opener), and I notice the blade rotates open just a little further, messing up the handle/tang alignment. It seems useless to have the internal pin if the clip flipper is going to be the stopping mechanism, and of course it seems cheap to use a bent and twisted piece of spring wire for that purpose.

Is the internal pin supposed to make contact AFTER the clip spring does? Does anyone have one that remains perfectly aligned when the clip spring is removed? It's easy, you just pull it outwards with your fingers, one side at a time.

 

[gaj999]

I suspect that your questions can only be answered by the engineer that took the concept to production. What pops into my mind right away is production tolerances. Maybe the machining doesn't have to be as accurate with the clip acting as a stop. Less accurate machining = lower list price, a really big deal for knives in this price range. There may also be a strength issue if forces get shared between two points.

Gordon

 

[J Hubbard]

The Button is the primary lock for the open and closed positions as it falls into the large holes at the end of the smile on the blade. The floating pin that rides in the smile on the handle is to keep the blade from over rotating, not to act as a stop. The floating pin and the spring clip are not intended to be open stops. The contact the spring makes is incidental. There is only 2 positions that blade will lock into place, closed and open. On the unit I am looking at, without the clip it 'over rotates' by less then .010". You really have to be looking close to even notice it isn't lined up perfectly. The blade does wiggle up and down slightly due to production tolerances between the Button base, Blade, and the handle relief. There is a built in slack of about .005 between these 3 parts. Any less, and we would have no room to mix and match parts that are at different ends of the tolerance bands.

I hope this helps,

Jeff
QA Supervisor

 

[Carl64]

Mine is out by about .04 or .05. It's kind of disappointing because it is so perfect when the clip spring is there to stop it.

When the spring is removed, the blade locks open with just a tiny bit of wiggle vs. no wiggle at all with the spring. I am not surprised that the button lock is not 100% perfect, as the design kind of mandates a little wiggle room unless you were to acheive unimaginable perfection.

If you are working with .005 accuracy in grinding, it seems like a waste to not use the internal pin as a stop. The button lock is, as you know, a slight cone-like shape. Instead of just wedging against itself, the far side of the button could press the blade against the stop pin.