Slight blade movement in lockback during cutting

J

James Y

Joined
Feb 18, 1999
Messages
6,504
I notice on some of my lockbacks, including Spyderco, during cutting pressure there is very slight vertical blade play. THis happens in one of my Delicas and 2 of my 3 Enduras. It's not a big thing and I'm sure it doesn't affect the performance of the knife, just curious if anyone else has noticed this.
Jim
 
I had the same movement in my two BF Natives. The slight up-down play is due to oversize hole in blade wrt pivot pin. The excess clearance will allow the blade to move up/down when open and locked.

Regards,
FK
 
I have experienced this with a couple FRN handled Spyderco knives. Never with the more expensive G-10 handled models. I am not willing to accept such movement as normal. Lockup should be stable during cutting. Any movement (up & down) would bother me and I'd send the knife to customer service.

Since my experience with two light weight Calypso Jr. knives, both exhibiting this vertical play during cutting, I haven't been interested in the Spyderco knives with FRN scales. On the other hand, I would highly recommend knives like the Military (my personal favorite) and the Starmate.

Interestingly, this is a problem one rarely ever reads about here on the forums, perhaps because it is a very rare occurrence. Just the same, I don't think the blade is supposed to move up and down in the open and locked position.

 
I have a pretty wide variety of lockbacks; Calypso jr, and Delica in FRN, Dragonfly in SS, Harpy and Navigator in G-10 and none of them show any movement at lockup. You might want to have Spyderco service look at it because I don't think it is typical for FRN or any of the other materials.

Rick
 
Do ya think it could be the blade pushing back on the spring-loaded locking bar? Do you notice the lock-bar rocking at all when you get the vertical blade play? Every knife that I've ever had that had a back-spring (lock-back, front-lock, slip-joint) has exhibited this when I bear down hard during cutting. If the face of the tang of the blade and the face of the front of the hook of the lock are not perfectly mated, and EXACTLY perpendicular to the direction of the force, enough force will cause them to slide against each other. As soon as the cutting force is relaxed a little, they go back into their normal alignment due to the pressure of the spring. Like I said, I have seen this type of movement on EVERY knife of that type, regardless of brand, if I push it lke that. Never had ANY of them UNLOCK on me, though.

Just my experience, YMMV.

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iktomi
 
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