All About Pocket Knives

I just got a new Case TrapperLock and want to carry it. It wasn't advertised as having a belt clip but arrived with one. I removed the belt clip but now there are gaps between the blade, spring, and liners and the blade is wobbly. Looking through a loupe it looks like these parts may have shifted along the pin, but it is still flush on both bolsters. Also, I can't move anything back to original position.

If I reinstall the belt clip there is no change.

Before I ship this off to Bradford and eat crow, is there anything I can do?

If it's a new knife I'd let case deal with it, otherwise you'll end up paying someone like me to fix case's mistake.

Thanks for your input, MM. Also, I like the looks of your website. I have an old beauty that needs a repair and I'd like to email you a picture someday soon.

Reinstall the belt clip, being careful to make it look as though you haven't "worked on it", and send it back to Case as MM suggested. They need to get their mistakes back in order to see where they've gone wrong.

Was the knife tight before you removed the belt clip?

Yeah, it was originally tight. I have another TrapperLock that never had a belt clip and they quickly get a little looser in the open/close direction and they don't snap because of the linerlock. In addition to that in the new one, the components on the back side of the blade have fanned out. I can't see, using a loupe, how removing a #3 x 1/8" machine screw would allow anything to move. Especially when the pin is still flush on both bolsters.

Anyway, I think the pin is shouldered, not smooth, and that one of the liners won't fit over the shoulder. About the flush bolster, maybe the works are bowed from the pin toward the middle.