I'm Curious about something...

IMO, an adjustable pivot for me is just another tool I'd have to carry. No matter what, it would need to be adjusted whenever I needed to use it. Not a big fan of liner locks either....

Plus, you can't please everyone... The youngsters are so used to have everything their way, they don't understand when they don't get it...
 
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just like them myself. if setup to allow for adjustments. if knife comes without blade play side to side dont care so much as I wont need it to adjust. problem is they dont always come that way.
 
I’ve had dozens of lockbacks mostly Buck and I’ve never had the need for an adjustment screw except on a cheap brand gifted to me. Even then a simple setup of a vice and some leather and it was fixed in a jiffy.

I’ve done fine without them and really don’t want to see prices go up to have them built with screws type pivot. I guess if a person wants to special order and pay for the screw type pivot that would be fine.

It’s been over fifty years now for the 110 and if it were a problem I don’t think they would have been anywhere that long.
 
J Hubbard said:
While I understand why customers want to have an adjustable pivot on a liner lock, but why do people feel like they need one on a lockback?
Click to expand...

The reason's I've read are:
  1. It's a fad among collectors.
  2. They want to make the blade loose so it can be flicked open.
  3. They think knives are guns and need to be "taken down, cleaned and lubed" after use...think Onion's Field Strip Technology.
  4. It's a baseless fear among newbies that the blade will get loose and need to be tightened and they don't know how to use a hammer and the anvil on a vise.
  5. Some believe screws are better but the reasons are sometimes not rational.
  6. They want modern-up-to-date and that's screws.
 
I've never felt an absolute need for screw construction.
In fact, I don't believe I own a knife with it anymore.
Years ago I had a Gerber lockback that was screwed together. The pivot screw came apart, half of it was lost. That knife shaped object went into the trash. Warm butter dulled the blade, so it wasn't a big loss.
(That was my first and last Gerber "knife".)
 
brownshoe said:
The reason's I've read are:
  1. It's a fad among collectors.
  2. They want to make the blade loose so it can be flicked open.
  3. They think knives are guns and need to be "taken down, cleaned and lubed" after use...think Onion's Field Strip Technology.
  4. It's a baseless fear among newbies that the blade will get loose and need to be tightened and they don't know how to use a hammer and the anvil on a vise.
  5. Some believe screws are better but the reasons are sometimes not rational.
  6. They want modern-up-to-date and that's screws.
Click to expand...
good point on the take apart and clean doers. ill probably get verbal slapped and rightfully so.... but shoot sometimes and dont clean my gun right away. might even go shooting again before I clean it.
 
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J Hubbard said:
While I understand why customers want to have an adjustable pivot on a liner lock, but why do people feel like they need one on a lockback?
Click to expand...
I have many lock backs. Not necessarily because I like lockbacks but some of the knives I like or have steel that I like (ZDP-189) happen to be lockbacks.
I really like a knife that drops the blade down when I release the lock. I tend to angle the handle down so it doesn't swing into my finger.
So my compression locks drop, my axis locks drop and since I can adjust the pivot on my Endura 4, Delicas, Dragonfly, Boker Plus Titan etc., etc. I can make them close like my axis locks and compression locks. For the most part.
Plus if / when they develop excess play I can adjust it out. Unlike my Buck 110 from the '80s. Has a fair amount of play; hasn't hardly been used, I just have to accept that it has play. I supose I could start compressing it in a vise and or peaning on it with a hammer . I just don't use it that much to care. Many, many of my other lockbacks I care a lot.

Yes I want an adjustable pivot.
Also my many Cold Steels with Tri Ad locks I have had to disassemble to make them unlock better so if they were not disassemblable I would probably have sold them off.
 
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I've had too man bad experiences with pins on fixed blades so now I just prefer screws, given the choice. I still buy both without too much consideration but appreciate acrews when they have them. Hard use fixed blades, like a machete, and I'll start seeking out different construction or plan for the adaption.

I will add, if they use a goofy tool for the pivot that isn't commonly on a multi-tool, big minus. Allen keys and flat heads, nice. Stars and such, far less preferred.
 
I have a titanium 110 with adjustable blade pivot,in a lockback design I would rather have a non adjustable pin ,it's not needed for anything other than extreme wear or a changeable blade system ,and makes the knife more complicated than the lockback design needs to be .
 
The special run screw together 110 came out and reviews are good. I don't know if it was popular enough to be a stand alone model. Haven't seen too much chatter one way or the other.
 
A good number of requests for technical features are to satisfy deep emotional responses and have little or nothing to do with actual performance. Often this is related to simple aesthetics (i.e. it looks cool, or as we say here, wicked pissah) but generally aesthetics are related to deep emotional responses.

An example from cycling is the fact that MTB bikes sold for kids universally have knobby tires on them despite the fact that semi-slick tires (like Paselas) will give kids better traction in any situation they're likely to ride in, including dirt roads. Still, parents don't understand this and emotionally equate the knobby tires with better traction and safety for their kids so MTBs with less safe tires will simply sell better.

Buck includes a lot technical elements on their most popular knives that have more to do with aesthetics than function: swedges, fancy grind lines, blood grooves, overly thick blades (Spitfire, I'm talking to you), recurved blades... I'm not busting on any of these features mind you. Just noting that for most of the buying public, they have nothing to do with technical performance and everything to do with an aesthetic response that is strong enough to drive a sale.

I see the interest screwed pivots in a similar light. I suppose one can make a case for it allowing for easier self repair [1] but I suspect that for most people, this is an emotionally driven aesthetic and not an actual need.

[1] - I should note that I have a drop point 110 from Copper and Clad on my dresser upstairs that I got for Christmas that came with a massive amount of lateral blade play out of the box. I've been too busy to send it in but a screwed together construction would allow me to fix it myself instead of the hassle of sending it in. That said, I prefer my lock backs to just work without me needing to adjust anything, so I'm no advocating for screws. Just nothing the kernel of truth behind the aesthetic.
 
When I have been using a knife a little harder than I should (as I have been known to do) and there is a little play, with an adjustable pivot I can tighten the blade back up, nicely, instead of the old press or ball peen tricks.
 
The reason I would make the effort to build one like, tiguy is not for fiddling with it as I know guys are OCD these days. But for changing a
blade out and the construction is stronger & something of a novelty. Still, in answering the question, did I ever have a problem with the construction of the original design? On that point I'd have to lighten up. Ha. DM
 
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