What material does the spacers consist of?

I

il Coltello

Joined
Oct 20, 1998
Messages
301

I have been wondering about what material is being used in Benchmades knives and other brands to separate the sides. I read somewhere that in the BM Pinnacle the spacers are made of plastic. Is this tough enough, considering the rest of the handle is titanium? I suppose it would be more solid if they were made of titanium or aluminum.


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Tea drinker and hellraiser from Northern Sweden, above the arctic circle.


 
The spacers in my 710 are plastic, and I think they are will be plenty strong enough. Unless maybe you hit it with a hammer or something. But they're stronger than my hand. Fairly thick, and really only take a compression load, I'm guessing. I wouldn't worry about it, and don't.
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O_D
 
Most of the spacers used are polymer, which will last a very long time, unless sand and grit get in there to reduce the lifespan. There are some companies using brass spacers, which are supposed to be more abrasion resistant.
 
O_D, thanks for your reply!

Cobalt, thank you too.
I am not sure what they should be called correctly, but what I meant was the material in the back of the handle, used to separate the sides. This is a stationary item, not exposed to much abrasion as I see it.

The circular things that are often put in between the blade tang and the handle seems to be made of some kind of plastic or polymer or whatever, at least on my BM panther. And they seem to fit the description you gave. Heard they are called "washers", but I am not sure at all...

Time to separate the technical terms here
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Spacers, Washers etc
Any volunteers?

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Tea drinker and hellraiser from Northern Sweden, above the arctic circle.



[This message has been edited by Cousin Cinnamon (edited 15 April 1999).]
 
Alot of knives have teflon bushings, but the ones in my 710 are tougher, and feel more like a polycarbonate...It would be neat if someone offered aftermarket bronze bushings for knives...for all of us sickos who don't care about voiding warrenties..


Ugh...SPACE CADET YEK REPORTING FOR DUTY SIR!!

Spacers..not bushings...duh...The spacer is plastic of some sort on the 710..I would prefer aluminum, or g-10 if possible...but it isn't a real fault...that I know of...if it dissolves this summer after being exposed to bug spray than I will consider it a fault...

YeK

[This message has been edited by Yekim (edited 15 April 1999).]
 
At ease, Space Cadet Yek!
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If the plastic would dissolve by such things as bug spray I'll try to make my own eh...spacers out of aluminum. And I almost thought had come a step closer to the perfect knife.
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DEET bugspray can cause damage to alot of plastic products, especially in the 100% form...most bugsprays are about 20% or so..I don't think that the Axis's plastic spacer will suffer too much with contact to the stuff, unless for some reason you bath your knives in it. at most you might notice that the surface of the plastic getting tacky, but it won't rot out by any means. I don't know how well the g10 holds up to bugspray, I would suspect that it isn't going to rot completely away very easily..you shouldn't be getting DEET on your hands anyways..or any other skin..I hear that it can cause cancer of some sort...

YeK
 
Mikey,
It does worse than cancer. I know a fellow who used it directly on his skin for a summer and maybe he was a little more suseptible than some folks, but the brain damage is irreversible. Poor guy won't ever be right again. it's almost a blessing that he won't live too much longer.
DEET is VERY dangerous if it is not used properly.
To all who read this, consider yourselves as having been given fair warning.
READ THE DIRECTIONS, FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS! TO THE LETTER!
This stuff can lead to death and a fate worse than death.
Personally, I never use the stuff. I'd rather deal with the skeeters.

Also, Permethrin is just as bad or worse.
I do use Permithrin though. Lyme Disease is a serious worry in my neck of the woods and I have an allergy to tick bites anyway.

Just so this won't be completely off topic, I think a brass spacer in the AFCK would do wonders for it's balance. I may have to play with this one!
It's Airtool time!



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I cut it, and I cut it, and it's STILL too short!

 
I think bronze is good to use, EDI uses it. Brass might be better then alumn.
Stainless steel would be better then titanium
G10 is probably not really a solid material.
Berilium Copper heat treated might be nice,
but may not be smooth enough, and might warp.
Plastic does seem weak, anything really needs to be flat, and smooth.
So teflon is of course the smooth one.
Bronze seems best to me, a really easy to machine material.

Oh Spacers... I was talking washers...
I don't know a thing about what the spacers are made of, unless we talk PC boards...

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Mark Camp

"Life is nothin' but a series of fascinations"




[This message has been edited by mcfg (edited 17 April 1999).]
 
Cousin, I misunderstood. The plastic spacers used in most knives for connecting the handles are more than adequate for the job. Since they are encased by the handles nd liners, they will not receive impact, and hard plastics are quite impact resistant. That's the last thing that will fail on a folder.
 
Cousin - in addition to Cobalt's comment, rigidity is more important than impact strength, especially in a linerlocks, Rolling locks and Axis locks. When the scales bend or move, it changes the geometry of the locks.
sal
 
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