Benchmaintenance

[Daniel Moore]

I just gave my 2-year-old 550 the ol' 60,000 mile treatment. I used my blue box kit (Benchmade generously included a very nice free nylon sheath with horizontal and vertical straps) to take her apart, and once it was completely disassembled I dropped all the metal parts in soapy, almost-boiling water, wiped them with Militec-1, put a little Militec grease on the washers, and put it back together. It took a couple of hours, though, because trying to get the keyed pivot back through two liners, two washers, and the blade was no fun so there was a lot of fiddling. All in all, it's back to normal and I'm glad I finally got to see how it ticks on the inside. It's a very user-serviceable knife, and I'm impressed with Benchmade's quality even more now. I highly suggest voiding that pesky warranty and checking and cleaning your knife. It's not very difficult (just a little annoying at times) and it gets rid of all the gunk that normal cleaning doesn't get at.

Just make sure you're doing it in a room where the shrimpy omega springs won't get lost when they inevitably take flight in search of adventure