Mornin', Jack. Yeah, she's being a bit stubborn. I will send you a PM later. Maybe you have some tips on smoothing out the action. Have a great day, my friend.Cool pic Kevin, I have just been admiring your knife after a few weeks of use, looking good my friendI noticed you referred to that one as "troublesome" though, have you had any issues with it?
Thank you, sir.
I've not had a problem with any of mine, but maybe I am missing something. I remember Chin saying he needed to do some work to smooth out the action of one of his Wright knives.
You're starting in style there, Dylan - Welcome! I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of the pattern in use. How was your hike with Rosie?Well, it is time to make my guardianship official. Thanks toflatblackcapo , I am now the proud new owner of a pretty little gal (more on that here: The Venerable FBC). I couldn't wait to post here so here I am.
So we have all seen this gal before, for it is none other than Rosie, and I am so thrilled to be able to provide her with a new home. This knife is everything I had hoped it would be. It is a warm, comfortable, no nonsense approach to a working man's, or woman's, knife and I cannot wait to see what it can do. Having carried my latest acquisition for the last few days prior to getting Rosie in the mail, I can already attest to the useful simplicity of a single bladed, straight edged jack and Rosie is going to fit right in and will be getting a lot of pocket time. In fact, I don't think I will be leaving her at home anytime soon... After some time carrying her and putting her to work, I hope to have more comprehensive thoughts on the pattern overall but until then I am absolutely over the moon with delight.
Thanks again, Kevin!
Thanks, my friend!Nice work my friend, certainly a good 'un
There's a cure for that now, more lambfeet, lambsfoots, err, knives.
I'm glad to report that the fellow at the local Sheffield wares shop is totally stand up, working with me on getting a nice example of AWS cutlery. Hope to have it in hand soon!
Thanks again Charlie! I get the same pleasure from seeing knives I've gifted to people, being well used and appreciated.
Kevin, I smoothed out the 'walk' on a couple of my A. Wrights by dabbing a little bit of diamond lapping paste into the bearing surfaces of the pivot and tang action with a toothpick, and working it open and closed for a while, then flushing with oil and repeating until I was happy.Sorry to hear that Kevin, that's Yorkshire folks for you I'm afraid!
Thanks for the tips, Chin. I will give it a try and let you know how it goes. In the meantime I will use the heck out of it and see if she'll break in on her own.
I haven't noticed a problem with any of my A.Wright Lambsfoot knives, but like a stiff pull and a hard snap on opening. Nice to see your knives together my friend
Very helpful to the hobby, as always Chin. Clear, concise, well illustrated. Always informative to read your posts, but I really am thankful for your helpful spirit. Thanks sir!
I too like a strong snap, but have weak nails. Wright's is generally "just right" once broken in, but can be a bit too strongly sprung initially for those like myself that have less thick fingernails. I have had to modify knives from different makers occasionally over the years, using similar methods to those described by Chin.
Certainly no point struggling to open a knife, and you might need to open it with cold, wet hands
Thank you, sir . I think it might be time to clean up my work bench.Cool pic Kevin
Great tips, Chin and a very well done post, thank you.Thanks Jack, Greg, Bart and Kevin.
Bart: I'm really glad that tip worked for you.
No worries, Kevin - cool photo too!
I've been waiting for the rain to ease off, so I can take some photos for this next tip in natural light, but evidently it's not happening anytime soon, so apologies for the indoor pic quality.
So, after using a little bit of abrasive paste or compound in the action area of your Lambsfoot knife, and flushing it clean again, let's take a closer look at this pivot area.
View attachment 736836
The curved camming surface at the back of the tang is nice and polished now. We can't access the underside of the backspring, which it bears against when opening and closing, but the abrasive we applied should have smoothed that contact area out.
Next, we have the bearing surfaces between the sides of the tang and the brass scales. I try to keep excessive abrasive paste out of this area, so it remains tightly fitted. What you can do is just strop the sides of the tang area, without the blade flats or edge really touching the strop. I tend to do this every time I resharpen the knife.
View attachment 736834
Bear in mind that even though the steel may seem smooth to the eye and touch, under high magnification it's a different story.
This is a scanning electron microscope (SEM) image at 5000x magnification, of a high carbon steel edge apex and bevel, which has been finished on a 4000 grit Shapton Glass stone.
View attachment 736835
This image is included (from the excellent scienceofsharp blog), as I find it helps to be able to visualise what the actual steel surface looks like, even though it may seem smooth and uniform.
Now, the next point to address at the back of the tang is the corner which is exposed within the blade channel, when the knife is open.
View attachment 736832
This is what this corner looks like, fully broken in, on a well used Lambsfoot knife:
View attachment 736830
The above knife (my Unity) hasn't been worked over at all - that wear is just from extensive use.
When it is new, crisp and squared off, this is a point which will offer initial resistance to the opening pull. If it is burred, or roughly finished in any way, it will be quite noticeable in the 'walk' of the knife.
So I usually make a 'file' with a wood skewer or icy pole stick and a little piece of wet'n'dry sandpaper folded around it. You could use a SAK toothpick as well. I used 800grit, then 2000grit paper for this.
View attachment 736833
Get your 'file' into the blade channel, and gently break that corner a little, and smooth it out.
Remember the tang area on slipjoints is annealed so it'll respond quicker to abrasives than the hardened blade.
You'll find this has an immediate noticeable effect on the opening feel of the 'walk' of the knife.
Once you're happy with it, I usually slide a bit of scrap leather charged with stropping compound in edgewise to give that tang corner a bit of a smooth polish.
Clean and flush again, and you're done!
You might want to tape the blade edge while doing this.
As with filing the kick on slipjoints, work cautiously and slowly, checking often - you can't put material back, once it's gone!
The other tang corner which is accessible when the knife is closed, serves to offer initial resistance to closing the blade. For this reason, I generally leave it alone, unless it has burring evident, maybe just a light 'strop' with the edge of a bit of leather to clean it up.
View attachment 736831
These 'tools' are what I used, but you can easily improvise. If you don't have stropping/lapping compounds, you could use metal polish or even toothpaste.
View attachment 736829
I hope this hasn't been too off topic, but as A. Wright & Son are a mainstay of modern Lambsfoots here, I wanted to assist Guardians in future who would like to speed up the break-in process of these hard workin' knives. Of course, these tips will work with any slipjoint that needs a little 'tuning'.
Thank you, sir . I think it might be time to clean up my work bench.
Hope everyone is having a good week 
I have always liked the clasp knife, but they are nearly impossible for me to get opened. I did have the good fortune to get one of the late model all stainless 2 piece versions from my friend Steve Billard, left over from when they were making them at Stephenson & Wilson. Much easier to get the blade open than the older models! I like that it retains the point forward sheepsfoot design, while not a Real Lambsfoot it does share many of the good attributes. I also really appreciate the tin opener/ caplifter. The only tin opener that I have ever used on a folding knife that had a blade that was long enough to be truly efficient, combined with a caplifter that has never failed, even after what now must be hundreds of trials (in fact, I believe I will test it out a few more times this evening...).I started out with British Army and Navy Clasp Knives as a kid, and they really are beasts, so have never found the Wright's knives to be hard to open (Sheffield cutlers tend to favour a stiff pull). In fact I much prefer them to my Stan Shaw knives, which open easily! I'm sure I'll be glad of them when my arthritis gets worse though!