Spring position?

Jiki

Jiki

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Jun 12, 2018
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Why is the position of the spring at half stop important? Or is it just a nit pick?
 
It has absolutely no effect on function. How long do you keep your knife at the half-open? A split second at most when you are opening or closing the knife. A slipjoint is not used at half-open, nor is it stored in that position. Slipjoints that are flush at half-stop, like polished internals on a 1911, do nothing except drive up the manufacturer's cost. That is fine on a custom knife, that extra attention to detail is why you are paying premium, but on a production? C'mon...
 
I agree. If it was an important feature then knives without half stops would be inferior, which they aren't.
 
A flush half stop is an example of quality and skill. Attention to detail and the skill of craftsman are worth the extra cost in my opinion. It doesn’t matter if he makes one knife a month or a hundred. There are plenty of knives available at every price point. Some manufacturers attain near custom quality (Moki knives as an example). I certainly expect to pay more for a Moki than a SAK.
 
Having the spring flat and even with the scales in all three positions is considered a fancy touch that shows off the skill of the cutler. It's an extra "cool factor" which has no impact on the functionality or even of the "fit and finish rating" of the knife overall. Both of my Case Swayback Jacks have it. None of my other knives do.
 
There’s a thought that half-stops were introduced for strong backsprings as an aid to help prevent getting fingers caught.

One thing I sure enjoy these days are the impressive walk n talk noises and actions on some - quite stunning when it comes right :thumbsup:
 
Chui said:
There’s a thought that half-stops were introduced for strong backsprings as an aid to help prevent getting fingers caught.:thumbsup:
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This is what I’d heard before too. It’s adds a bit of safety when you’re opening your knife. I’m sure at some point all of us have opened a knife maybe a bit too quickly and ended up sliding your thumb across the edge. Or snapping a knife closed on a knuckle.

Least I’ve had it happen. But I’m one of those guys who’s wife walks by and sees me playing with a knife, then a short time later walks by again and lays a bandaid down next me.

I’ve also read in some threads that on a knife with a really stiff backspring, to leave it laying half open for some time which helps ease the pull perhaps a tad. I’ve not had noticeable results doing this on a nail breaker pull knife. Really tough openers are just something I don’t care for.

Whether or not the knife has a half stop is by no means a deal breaker I should add. If I like the knife, I’ll buy it irregardless. I’ve been pretty lucky here for awhile not cutting myself when fidgeting with a pocket knife, so I’m probably due. Lol. I tend to play with my knife when I’m watching tv or whatever.
 
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Half-stop?

zerogee said:
Many people will tell you that it's for safety and all that, but really, originally, it had to do more with ease of construction and reliability. For a very long time, blades - particularly the tangs - were filed to match hardened patterns. It's a heck of a lot easier to file a square tang profile (the half stop is the flat end of the tang) than a rounded one (actually the profile isn't quite square, but we'll ignore that for now). Also, for a long time the old mark of quality construction was the "clean and square" joint - basically the square tang was matched to a square bolster, essentially filling the joint, even when closed. This meant that if you dropped your knife in the dirt, the dirt didn't get into and around the joint to foul up the mechanism. (Remington "discovered" this early last century. :rolleyes: )

A square tang is largely self cleaning -- the corners sweep debris either toward the end of the knife or back into the body - either way, the debris gets moved out from under the tang/joint mechanism where it can then be removed. Properly cleaning up an old, gunked up knife and getting all the crud out of the mechanism is a lot easier with one that has square tangs.

Also, a square tang causes less wear and tear on the spring over time - assuming the corners of the square tang were rounded a tiny bit in construction. The corners sweep back and forth along a length of the spring in operation. spreading the wear evenly along that length. A round or cam end tang concentrates the wear in a much smaller area of the spring - becoming a problem when proper maintenance and oiling is neglected.
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I think it depends on the knife. I have mostly GECs and I don’t think they pay to much attention to that feature so my preference is to have the spring be proud at half stop, seems like it is under more tension then than in the other two positions and my thought is that makes for a stronger pull and the knife wanting to be either fully open or shut more than it wants to be at half stop. I guess on a custom (of which I have none) I would want it to be flush all around because as others have said it shows an attention to detail.
 
gaj999 said:
That doesn't work for me. Strong springs and a half stop makes it more likely that I'll cut myself, especially if my hands are wet and slippery.
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- actually agree with you.

Have discussed this very topic with Geoff Hague, maker in UK who is an old hand at all this, and his contention is that a slippie should never need to have a strong spring or a half stop if made correctly and used correctly. Totally agree.

There is a quite an enthusiastic sector of slipjoint users here in UK who prefer a very strong backspring - which they mostly claim makes them feel safer. If I get to the point where the task at hand is making me feel nervous using a slipjoint, I'm either doing it incorrectly or I need a fixed blade.

My Case Bose have semi-circ tangs and therefore no half-stop..........they're just fine :)

Each to their own though, guess more than half slippies made these days - production and custom - have a half-stop.
 
Some of my GEC knives are flush in all three positions, most are not though.
This makes me think it's just a happy accident rather than something intentional.
 
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