Do you disassemble and oil your newly purchased knives?

I no longer have the manual dexterity to disassemble a knife. I merely oil them with something from Buck, and do what I can with a Q-tip.

Once in the distant past, I took a Buck 110 completely apart and replaced the scales with a heftier chunk of tropical hardwood, re-profiled the scales to fit my hand and put it back together. . . .but that was in 1982 or so.
 
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Not often. I took apart a SOG AO folder some years ago and never got it back together.

I have de- assisted a couple of ZTs.

I took my first CRK totally apart when I got it because I don't like lanyards and didn't want to cut the one off such a nice knife.

In general, I just give a knife a wipe down and maybe put a drop of nice oil at the pivot. These are typically clean tools put in a clean box and sent out with the intent of being used immediately. It's not like these are grease-packed combloc firearms found stuffed in crates for 50 years.

Most anything I need to fix when it comes to gritty action can be handled with compressed air.
 
I always disassemble, clean and lube knives I buy on the secondary. 90% of the time it significantly improves the action. I rarely have a reson to do it again after the initial breakdown.

If any issues pop up I’ve found spraying with wd40 then compressed air fixes just about any issues.

On new knives I only break down and lube if they feel like it’s necessary. Particularly with knives on washer I’ve been wondering if cleaning and lubing is actually a bad thing because it may actually slow down the break in process of the washers by not letting them smooth/polish on their own without the lube. I’ll probably never know cause I’m impatient and lube em up for immediate improvement rather than put the time in. What can I say, I’m a product of the immediate gratification generation!
 
So what I'm getting from this thread is that the majority of you oil the pivot point without taking apart the knife. I fear oil and dirt getting trapped this way. I've been taking apart and putting a tiny drop on the ball bearings themselves. Maybe I don't need to be doing this because it is quite frustrating to get the detent and line up correct when assembling again.
 
On the 3 i just got, I smoothed out the factory edge and a drop of oil later i was good to go.
 
ronaldvo said:
So what I'm getting from this thread is that the majority of you oil the pivot point without taking apart the knife. I fear oil and dirt getting trapped this way. I've been taking apart and putting a tiny drop on the ball bearings themselves. Maybe I don't need to be doing this because it is quite frustrating to get the detent and line up correct when assembling again.
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I fear too much oil trapping dirt. I'd much rather the bear minimum viscosity between the contact friction surfaces and zero dirt. I also fear losing or stripping Itty bitty fasteners (or worse - springs). I do like a puzzle and getting into the heart of the machine, but mistakes get made thataway. For regular maintenance, less is better. It ain't like an engine. If I really think it needs the grime cleared out, I'll try to blast it out first with air or water, try to reach every cranny I can with a cloth corner or q-tip, maybe those wd40 and iso steps if i'm really taking my time. That's how we did before they made them easy to take apart and it still gets the job done. Gummy bearings are probably the only reason the trend started, then the makers found out we think its fun, like how ball point pens are really only good sellers because people can't quit fiddling with em and lose half the parts.

If it's still too tight or gritty after some days, then I get to use the funky little bit driver that only has one use.
 
ronaldvo said:
I do this on used knives I buy but curious what everyone does for brand new knives straight from the factory? I bought the CJRB Pyrite recently, wasn’t happy with how it felt so I opened it up and oiled the bearings. Still wasn’t a fan.

Just picked up a Bestechman Dundee and this thing feels like a dream (a $40 dream) out of the box. I don’t think I’ll take this one apart for a while.
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Depends on the knife. Most of my knives do not disassemble, but whenever I pick up a new Opinel I "customize" it: Virobloc locking ring comes off and I grind out the newfangled nub that reduces rotation, I file the peen off one end of the pivot pin, knock out pin and disassemble. Once apart, the carbon blade goes in a shallow dish of yoghurt for patina and the handle gets a soaking in linseed oil overnight. The next day the blade comes out of the yoghurt and the handle comes out of the linseed and both dry for another day. Third day I rinse the dried yoghurt off the blade, dry it, and admire the patina. I sand the pivot gap enough to allow the blade to swing freely without the collar or virobloc, then I add the collar and test for a free swing. If it swings fairly freely, either by gravity or a gentle flick, il est prêt-à-l'emploi!

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This N°10 is probably twenty years old. It's my go to workhorse and has been patinated and linseeded and had the inside sanded numerous times to keep it a one hand knife (unlocks with thumb, blade flicks open, locks with thumb, lather-rinse-repeat).

And for the umpteenth time, I never oil or wax the pivots. It only makes Opinels sticky. Sand the innards until it swings and if--oops!--you overdo it, just give the inner collar a little squeeze with a pliers.
 
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I disassemble and “tune up” most of my knives.
Maybe I’m too picky, or simply OCD, but I fond that almost every knife leaves a lot to be desired, straight out of box.

Backlocks sometimes get their springs adjusted.
Screws always cleaned and thread-locker reapplied.
I use FrogLube on all steel liners.
I also like knocking edges off with my ceramic rods. I hate sharp edges on my scales and even internals.
Lastly, I always sharpen my new knife - factory edges are a big no go.
 
ShaiHulud said:
Oil the knife periodically when needed
Disassemble the knife only when absolutely necessary, but exhaust all other approaches first.
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👆👆This👆👆

Depending on the knife, prior to resorting to disassembly, I’ll loosen (not remove) the pivot,
douse liberally with WD-40 followed by copious compressed air, then righten back up with a drop of KPL or similar.
 
Nope. I'm not sure I've ever disassembled a folding knife. I bought a used Case Sod Buster around 1978, and I did oil it a couple of years ago.
 
As my grandfather would say “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it”.
So no I don’t disassemble new knives.
Just a drop of oil at the pivot and a wipe down of light oil on the blade.
 
I've gotten knives with compound stuffs still about on the knife and some what appears to be uh.. "metal dust?" Or powder on the knife and scales
So I wipe that off, chalk it up to a QC brain fart and off i go. Every time I disassemble a knife it doesn't end well. I did disassemble a Spyderco matriarch 2 after hearing sand in it from a trip to the beach, I took pictures of each step so I can retrace my steps and put it back together and it worked... but the sound of sand rock grit could still be heard so I sold it at a loss. Should have never brought that knife to the beach, it served no purpose other than dying 🙄
Just not a fan of disassembly
 
Since 4/5 years I always take apart a new knife. I find it interesting to look at the mechanics and internal milling, but mainly because there is too much oil in the pivot area. I put my nano oil in, use mild locktite on the screws and tweak the pivot to my liking
 
Full respect for all the ways people choose to handle it.

Surprised to be in the minority of everything needs to be looked over, adjusted and tuned up.

Just curious, do you all disassemble new and pre-owned firearms for inspection and maintenance?
 
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