side to side play

M

misterjuiceman

Joined
Sep 19, 2009
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I was just examining one of my knives, and it seems if you have the thumb stud stoppers functioning, and built to a tight tolerance on each side, you'll have no side to side blade play, but with the stopper only functioning on one side, nothing really protects against side to side motion. it seems like the strider knives would have been better off with a traditional stopper, since the thumbstud stopper is only functional on the ti side. does anyone know the reason for strider's transition to thumbstud stoppers? it just seems impossible to prevent bladeplay unless both studs act as a stopper. does strider (and other designers) take other measures to guarantee tight lockup?
 
Tight manufacturing tolerances are all that is needed, along with a lock mechanism that has some self adjustment.

There are not that many knife designs that use the thumbstuds as a blade-stop.
 
Well, I have checked many knives with liner locks, axis, back locks and frame locks. Most of them didn't have any side to side blade play even if blade was not completely open (no contact between blade and the stop)
 
effer said:
Well, I have checked many knives with liner locks, axis, back locks and frame locks. Most of them didn't have any side to side blade play even if blade was not completely open (no contact between blade and the stop)
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actually I noticed the original knife I was inspecting has no movement whatsoever when it's not even completely open, but a benchmade with the axis lock has some extremely slight play, and a spyderco lockback feels extremely solid, but has an even slighter amount of side to side play (i'm not even sure if i can call this play, the blade is able to "wiggle" but it tkaes some effort to replicate and notice). I think probably the knife with the thumbstud stoppers is just built to tighter tolerances than the rest, so I made the assumption that the stoppers were responsible for the lack of play. it seems that at the very least, the stoppers would eliminate play when completely open.
 
tf8s said:
it seems that at the very least, the stoppers would eliminate play when completely open.
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I think blade stops might help to eliminate the play, if blade play is barely there. But if tolerances are not tight enough, blade stops will not help even if they contact frame on both sides like on hinderer or yuna. If you loosen the screw on hinderer XM-18 a lot, then it will have a blade play even in fully open and locked position with both blade stops touching titanium frame.
 
tf8s said:
I was just examining one of my knives, and it seems if you have the thumb stud stoppers functioning......
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What knife of yours? A Chris Reeve Umnummzaan uses the same stop pin as that of Strider, bit different though. It depends on the quality of the knife. If there is no side to side play in the motion of the blade ie not locked or closed then there should not be any movement when locked open. Striders have been doing it for years on the TI side as far as I know and it has worked. Ones again it depends on what quality you have. My CRKT M16 developed bladeplay, but that was due to the liner being of pore quality. The stop pins did not make decent contact and it developed side to side play. Fit and finish is what its all about.
 
it's actually an XM-18. I thought the umnumzaan has both studs functioning as stop pins, vs just one thumb stud as a stop pin on the strider knives. ive heard a couple of stories of striders developing very slight play, and I was just thinking maybe it'd be eliminated if they introduced a titanium liner so both studs functioned as stop pins, at least, that's what i thought when I first made the thread. I guess also it might prevent some wear on the g-10 side of the pivot. i have no idea if this is even a problem on striders though as i've never owned one.
 
tf8s said:
it's actually an XM-18. I thought the umnumzaan has both studs functioning as stop pins, vs just one thumb stud as a stop pin on the strider knives. ive heard a couple of stories of striders developing very slight play, and I was just thinking maybe it'd be eliminated if they introduced a titanium liner so both studs functioned as stop pins, at least, that's what i thought when I first made the thread. I guess also it might prevent some wear on the g-10 side of the pivot. i have no idea if this is even a problem on striders though as i've never owned one.
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ITS AN XM-18!!!!:eek: ha ha! I would not worry about it trully! If that knife ever develops blade play Mr. Hinderer would fix it for you! Thats one of the grail knives to many! Including me!

I think that when considering side to side play you seem correct that the stop pins can help with side to side forces (ads extra strength), but I have a hand made knife (Burger EXK) with no side to side or up and down. It has no thumb studs. So it depends on the manufacturer IMO. The higher the tolerance the better and less chance of side to side play.
 
Burger knives use dedicated stop pins versus using the thumbstuds as a means of opening assist and as a stop pin.

Chances are a G10 only scale will deform before a ti liner or scale, so I can see why blade play may develope on knives that use the thumbstuds as a stop pin and have only a non-metal scale contact area on one side. Heck, I've dropped knives with G10 scales and seen the scales "dent".

In many knives you'll see blade play become non-discernable when the knife is locked open. It is to be expected, since the blade is being "jammed in place" against multiple surfaces.

Since you have a "custom", as long as the maker is active you shouldn't have to worry about it.
 
I tolerate ZERO blade play. ;)

All of my higher end blades (Strider, ZT, CS Custom Series) have ZERO, NONE, NADA blade play at all. :) :thumbup:
 
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