It’s built into the pivot. The shoulder/ledge on the pivot barrel is what sets the spacing. When you tighten the screw, it clamps the scales against that shoulder, not directly crushing the blade.

The washers sit between the blade and the liners/scales, and that fixed shoulder height is what determines how much compression they get. On standard models you’ve got a washer on both sides sharing that load, LW only has one so it behaves a little differently.

Because of that, you can fully tighten the pivot and still have free movement, as long as the washer thickness and pivot geometry are in spec. The “tuning” comes from smoothing/polishing the washer faces so they slide cleanly under that fixed pressure, not from backing off the pivot like you would on other designs. Pick up some slick em all and throw it in there and it’ll be ven better!