Help with an old Caly, please

KarlMaldensNose

KarlMaldensNose

Joined
Feb 3, 2009
Messages
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I think it's an old Caly or Caly Jr, or something like that. Worn down AUS8 blade and (I think) some sort of polished micarta. Anyway, it's my uncle's and he asked me to try to bring it back to life. The opening/closing action is very tight and slow. Not really gritty, as far as I can tell, just difficult to push open and close. Still locks up fine. But it has pinned construction instead of screws, so I'm not sure how to go about trying to get it back to smooth.

Any ideas? Would it be okay to flush out completely with warm, soapy water, dry with compressed air, then lube as best I can. Or, being pinned, should I avoid the water and flush with WD-40 to clean?

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As long as you don't leave it in the water for HOURS, I'd go the way you described, plus lots of opening and closing underwater after a few minutes of soaking, and maybe again while flushing it under running water in the end.

If the knife wasn't abused or somebody messed with the pivot pin, it should be easy to bring the action back to normal. Dry and lube it just a little as a final step, and it is good to go again (hopefully:)) If it is still stiff, maybe WD40 can still flush out some debris that the water wasn't able to get out.

Good luck and tell us how it turned out!

Dennis
 
also if it's still stiff after wash/dry, maybe some breakfree clp overnight can loosen the tough stuff left behind.

that is a well-used knife if I've ever seen one
 
I would recommend that you use really scorching hot tap water for the cleaning/flushing part. When the water is really hot it heats the knife up so that when you dry it off after cleaning any moisture quickly evaporates and you are left with a nice and dry knife. Now apply just the right amount of lubrication so as not to attract too much pocket crud. You shoud be good to go after that.

I have one of those knives NIB stashed away for another day.

Best!

JK
 
Hang onto that knife. Sal basically said there'd be no more linerless micarta folders forthcoming from Spyderco. (However he did release a white micarta sprint run of the Goddard jr since he made that statement so who knows??). I have a couple of these (fully serrated) salted away. The only weak point these have is the fact that the clip screws are tapped directly in to the micarta. Once stripped, you need a wood-style screw to replace it and of course you can only go so big. So be careful when you tighten those clip screws down. DON'T STRIP THEM HOLES!!!

Cheers.
 
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