Slip Joints and Blade Play?

[SteelSnob]

Hello all my fellow slip joint lovers. I'm about to sell some knives to get a traditional custom slip joint but here's my question. Has anyone ever had a well used custom slip joint develop blade play? Is it common for slip joints? I havent been in the game(so to speak) long enough to see this happen, but I have heard comments along the lines of people saying their slippie might develop blade play in the future. Can you help me out? Thanks.

 

[joebonny]

Well if its custom, an you used it till its worn a lot , it depends on how you used it, if you did normal things with it . It shouldn't get loose, if you used it for prying an heavy scraping,yes it could work loose some. So you get a hold of the guy who made it an see if he or she would tighten the bolsters if you sent it to them , If the maker is worth a D??? he or she would fix it an send it back to you. no charge !!! thats what I would do anyway, fix it an send it back, I mean even the great names have knives sent back to them for repair, So please go ahead an buy a custom pocket knife. Joe Allen (maker )
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[brownshoe]

Custom slipjoints can get blade play with use just like any factory knife. How much hard use a slipjoint can take depends upon its design, constrution method and materials used.

Some makers specifically design some of their knives for harder use than others. For example, I have a "heavy duty" trapper that when compared to a "standard" model, has thicker scales, thicker brass liners and thicker pivot pin plus a steel pivot (with nickel silver bolsters, you can see the pin). This custom knife is 15 years old, with no blade play and has been used hard. I have a more "gentlemanly trapper" that got blade play in a year. The maker fixed it, but IMHO, compared to other knives, it shouldn't have held up better. Since it was fixed, it has held up now for 4 years, so I think there was something wrong with that knife to begin with.