Anyone ever use something other than the flourinated grease on there pivots?

Different lube works on different knives. I can have two knives with bronze washers but react completely different to 4 different lubes. You have to find what works for that knife.
 
Could not get the CRK lube in South Africa for years so I have been and still use Elna sewing machine oil.

It is the oil for sewing machine gears. Really fine stuff and I apply a drop via a paper pin and was designed not to get gunked up from lint.
 
I use Boesheild T-9. It is a bicycle lubricant. When it dries it creates a paraffin wax coating. There is no drying out and separating of grease and you can just rinse your knife off and blow out the pivot when it needs to be cleaned, and there is no need to re-oil. It is also super smooth.
 
I'm using "camelia oil" direct from japan, works well, no probmes after months in the pocket or washing under water and it's edible
 
I really think it is less a question of what to use than how much to use. Over-lube and you will end up with a lint collector. Short of a trip through the washer or dishwasher any lube should hold up for several months. I use the CRK lube only because I purchased a tube of it several years ago and will probably die of old age before I use it all up.

As long as the lube doesn't creep (think penetrating oils) you should be fine.
 
Per CRK, lubrication for a sebenza needs to not only lubricate, but protect agaist corrosion. That's the design criteria for their grease. The design criteria for lubrication is to give smooth operation plus minimize wear...tight tolernces require materials and lubrication systems that minimize wear.
 
delkhouri said:
I have had a sebenza for about a month. I bought a pre-owned but in very good condition large insingo 21. One of the first things I did was take it a part to clean it. I didn't have any CRK grease (and still don't) so I just used the mil-tec that I have used on my knives for years. It's smooth but I think I will get some CRK grease soon to try it out.
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I've also used mil-tec and I used a fishing reel grease that I had in an unmarked container that my Old Man used to use with great results.
 
Brings me to a question.
It seems like my CRK grease, both tubes, seem to separate. When I go to squeeze some out, clear liquid ALWAYS comes out first, then after more squeezing, the white grease. Does this mean I need to shake it? It didn't seem to help when i did, perhaps its old? Or maybe just how the grease is? Anyone else notice this? Oh, and both tubes came like 1/4 filled from the factory, so its definitely not cheap buying it from CRK or a dealer in those little white new tube things....Any other advice for using the CRK stuff?

dave
 
d.weglarz13 said:
Brings me to a question.
It seems like my CRK grease, both tubes, seem to separate. When I go to squeeze some out, clear liquid ALWAYS comes out first, then after more squeezing, the white grease. Does this mean I need to shake it? It didn't seem to help when i did, perhaps its old? Or maybe just how the grease is? Anyone else notice this? Oh, and both tubes came like 1/4 filled from the factory, so its definitely not cheap buying it from CRK or a dealer in those little white new tube things....Any other advice for using the CRK stuff?

dave
Click to expand...

I noticed that too, but with a good shaking it comes out consistent. I wish they still used the syringe instead of these tubes, just seems easier to use.
 
I have used both Daiwa Reel Oil (which works great, but gives a CRK a bit less of that classic "hydraulic feel"). And also Finish Line Extreme Fluoro Grease. At first the Finish Line was awesome (pretty much the same as CRK's grease as far as I could tell)... and is packaged at 4x the volume of CRK grease at only 2x the price, so it's a "better" overall price/value than the CRK grease. However... it does not have a particularly great cap on it... and as a result mine dried out quickly over the course of just a few months... and I ended up throwing 85% of it away as a result... so in the end it really wasn't a "better" overall price/value after all. Maybe I just got a bad tube... or a really old tube that had been sitting for years and was already somewhat dried out. Regardless... I'll probably just stick with the CRK grease from now on. Not worth the hassle. Just my 2 cents.
 
kidcongo said:
Well if you didn't like it, at worst you paid $11 for a very nice tube of awesome grease. I'd be really interested if you tried it out as to what your opinion of it was. The Eureka lube is similar to the CRK lube in that it doesn't run out of the pivot, or stain clothes etc. It is very light gold colour and seems to contain PTFE or some version of it suspended in fluid. I find it enhances the smooth feeling and also when I rebuild/clean a knife that had Eureka in it, I find it is still on the surface of the washers and they are still lubricated looking after weeks of use. I obsessed (to put it mildly) over this pivot grease issue, and have done many hours of boring experimentation with oils and greases of all sorts, to the point where I figured I was going to go nuts if I took another CRK apart. I tried my hardest to convince myself I like the CRK grease more, but I can't. I'm stuck on Eureka lube. It beats everything else I tried and I can't do any more testing while keeping my sanity! :D.

From the Eureka product literature (sounds like everything you want in a pivot grease, especially the high residual lubrication and water resistance if you wash your knife often....smoother and quieter too ;) ):

Key Benefits: Smoother & quieter operation - Clean & easy to apply - Superior lubrication - High Anti-wear & Extreme Pressure properties - High water resistance - High residual lubrication

http://www.amain.com/product_info.php/cPath/167_293/products_id/16859/n/Eureka-Pro-Gear-Lube
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They're out of stock at your link, here! ordered myself a tube as well
http://www.absolutehobbyz.com/product_info.php?products_id=2062
 
Finish line :

I'll toss in my vote for this as well.. I've found very little goes a long way with this stuff.. Lasts quite awhile, I just took apart and cleaned/lubed my two 21's that I carry the most and I still found them easy to open before the cleaning, but man.... Afterwards? I barely have to move my thumb to send my large all the way open... I was at a picnic yesterday and I was showing it to a friend and he had thought it was an assisted opener by the way it just flies open...
 
Just looked up the finish line stuff, looks like they have it at my local bike shops. I'll probably be picking a tube up soon.
 
The lubricants I have used on a Sebenza over the past 15 or so years that I can outright recall have included:
  • --Standard fluorinated grease
  • Ballistol
  • Beeswax
  • BreakFree-CLP
  • Candle wax
  • Corrosion X
  • Eezox
  • Extreme Weapons Grease
  • FrogLube Grease
  • FrogLube Liquid
  • FP10
  • Milcom Grease
  • Militec-1
  • Mineral oil
  • MPro7
  • Nano Oil
  • Nano Grease (heavy weight)
  • Olive oil
  • Otis Dry Lube
  • Pennzoil Ultra 10w40
  • Rem Oil
  • Red Line 10w30
  • RIG grease
  • Sentry Hi-Slip
  • Tetra Grease
  • TuffGlide
  • TW25
  • WD-40
  • White lithium grease
  • White lithium spray
  • --too many Hoppe's products to remember


For rust prevention, Eezox and Corrosion X cannot be beat. However, they are poor lubricants, and especially with perforated washers. Most liquid products and especially the dry lubricants all performed poorer than the CRK fluorinated grease. They are not good matches for the Seb IMO. Some lubricants were outright terrible, including a few 'big' names.

Nothing performed any better than the factory fluorinated grease. All liquids performed poorly relative to the grease in terms of smoothness and longevity. Most of the liquids did not do a great job staying put, and had little-to-no resistance against giving the Seb a hot water bath. Other fluorinated/fluoropolymer greases worked equally as well. Many other greases worked well too. I use ST DuPont Extreme Fluoro as it is like 8 bucks for a giant tube, and strongly recommend it (it's very similar to the factory CRK grease, and a crap ton cheaper). I also really like Frog Oil, Tetra Grease, and Nano Grease.
 
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Never take mine apart for routine service.
I spray mine down with brake cleaner and let dry. Then 1 or 2 drops of Marvel Mystery Oil and it's GTG.
LG
 
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