Vertical blade play on high end knives

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ShaiHulud said:
I'm okay with play, a folding knife is mechanical and as such needs to have a certain amount of tolerance to allow the moving parts to, move --- now there's a difference between play and drunk swaying however
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Not necessarily.
-Horizontal play: if the knife has ball bearings you can squeeze the pivot screw and adjust for no play but the knife will stil open and close without a problem.
-Vertical play because of space between the pivot and blade hole (hole diameter is larger then pivot diameter): You can feel this play when the knife is half open. But if the knife has liner lock it will push the blade in front when you open it and there will be no vertical play.
 
My 31’s have some vertical give, the small more noticeable than the larges - where the tang of the blade pivots a little on the ceramic lock ball interface. I honestly still don’t know how it makes me feel but I still love my knives. Would’ve preferred they didn’t do that and not sure why they do since the Inkosi and Umnumzaan’s don’t
 
Wolverine666 said:
So back locks and cross bar locks are prone to blade play?
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Not so with SOG XR locks; they have perfected the axis lock with solid lockup and drop shut ease. I know SOG doesn't get a lot of love here, but if you haven't tried the XR, they are amazing after a brief break-in and proper lube.
 
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donkbet45 said:
New to the forum here ☺️ What's everyone opinion on vertical blade play on high end knives? Should this be an absolute no-no or would you be okay with it? For instance my SPK Lamia has some slight play. It doesn't bother me too much though.
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First off, welcome to the forum.

Secondly, while I don't own a Lamia; I have followed the maker somewhat and he seems very meticulous and proud of his knives. I would reach out to him and ask him, I am sure he would not only like to know if there is an issue but can get you to a satisfactory resolution.
 
Fixedwing said:
Not so with SOG XR locks; they have perfected the axis lock with solid lockup and drop shut ease. I know SOG doesn't get a lot of love here, but if you haven't tried the XR, they are amazing after a brief break-in and proper lube.
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Funny you mention the XR. I’ve been looking at them very closely as of late. Do you have the standard or the LTE? It doesn’t shake open , does it? I hate that. Love the look of the knife.
 
Wolverine666 said:
Funny you mention the XR. I’ve been looking at them very closely as of late. Do you have the standard or the LTE? It doesn’t shake open , does it? I hate that. Love the look of the knife.
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I have both the LTE and the standard versions of the Terminus XR. They will not shake open; you must apply a small amount of backwards pressure on the lock. At that point, they will swing freely. Deployment via flipper works well also with small amount of resistance to overcome. (less than a frame lock)
 
Fixedwing said:
I have both the LTE and the standard versions of the Terminus XR. They will not shake open; you must apply a small amount of backwards pressure on the lock. At that point, they will swing freely. Deployment via flipper works well also with small amount of resistance to overcome. (less than a frame lock)
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Nice. I’ve been interested in the Kiku XR. Not sure why SOG isn’t very popular here. I’d like to try the XR lock.
 
Wolverine666 said:
So back locks and cross bar locks are prone to blade play?
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Haven't noticed this with cross bar locks, but backlocks often do. One important thing to note, though, is that the backlock is a very old design. A little blade play provides enough give to ensure the mating surfaces come together correctly. Newer iterations of the backlock, however, have tweaked the geometry of the parts to take out a lot of this play. So you're more likely to encounter a little wiggle on something like a Case or GEC vs a Spyderco or Lionsteel, and that's normal.

On a side note, I think button locks tend to wear through and develop a little play faster than other locks.
 
Guy McVer said:
Maybe not as silly of a question as it might seem at first. I once saw somebody on here who was using propeller blade pitch terms to describe knife edge angles. It was really confusing for me to make heads or tails of when I dug into it. I eventually gave up trying. Maybe he was a pilot.

For ultimate clarity, vertical on a knife would be from the spine to the edge, and horizontal would be from one scale to the opposite scale.
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I like your description of each movement.

Yes it seems like a silly question, but vertical and horizontal is constant only if everyone looks at the knife in the same position from the same direction.

I would not like either movement on a premium knife.
I have old delicas with no play in either direction. I understand there are some that do but it is not a $500 knife.
 
Cross bar/axis locks will develop up/down blade play if the bar bottoms out in the channel. That's pretty rare though.
 
blade play is annoying for the way I like to whittle, so for me it is definitely a dealbreaker. And for something as expensive as the one OP named, undoubtedly. The $70 Buck 110 I bought at Walmart has absolute zero play, so I would want anything above that price to have the same lockup strength.
 
I was showing a guy my sharpening jigs and he asked me if I can fix his sons pocket knife. He said those snorts were opening cans with it.
This knife was suspiciously similar to Buck 110 but the only sign or mark it has was INOX on the blade. You don't need a lot of imagination to figure out where this knife came from. The blade was heavily damaged with large dents; so, heavily abused. I had to grind away close to 2 milimeters of the blade.

But here is a funny thing; despite all abuse and origin this knife had no vertical play, no horizontal play and no lock play. Nothing.
Makes you think.

Here is a link to a video. I don't have photos but you can see from the video the knife I'm talking about.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1269i9a3kBABEyjPeRoOARO43_sa0JoVa/view?usp=drivesdk
 
Enzo’s Woodshop said:
blade play is annoying for the way I like to whittle, so for me it is definitely a dealbreaker. And for something as expensive as the one OP named, undoubtedly. The $70 Buck 110 I bought at Walmart has absolute zero play, so I would want anything above that price to have the same lockup strength.
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Let me ask you a question if I may. As a knifemaker and craftsman yourself, what is your opinion on why a USA manufacturer would allow a $500+ knife leave its doors with vertical blade play or issues at all?
 
Eliteone2383 said:
what is your opinion on why a USA manufacturer would allow a $500+ knife leave its doors with vertical blade play or issues at all?
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You opened a very delicate matter. I suspect you won't get your answer here and if you'll insist on this there is a chance you will be banned.
 
I have noticed that most, not all, back/mid-locks have a bit of vertical play. That same with my Benchmade Axis lock knives. The play is very slight and it seems to be a function of the design more than the execution. My usual EDC is a CRK Mnandi frame lock and there is no play with that one. Pretty much what you would expect from a frame lock.
 
My benchmade has zero blade play in either direction, very tight lockup and glassy super smooth action opening or closing. That's how all axis locks should be, and any other BM I handled was the same. I wouldn't accept any vertical play on any knife over say 30 or 40 bucks
 
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