Some play is normal. Our out-the-fronts should have some minimal play both on the blade & button when deployed, and also when shaking it retracted. This is something our engineers do to assure a crisp deploy & for reliability. The amount of play varies across our different models & configurations. The play allows the components to work efficiently. That being said, rattling is another story. You should be able to hear a little sound, but not an excessively large amount of sound. If you would like to send it in for our technicians to take a look, you can certainly do that. To do so, fill out our support ticket form here: http://support.microtechknives.com/support/tickets/new.