How often do you clean/disassemble your user?

Clean? Once a quarter, whether it needs it or not.

Disasemble? Never.
All I have are traditional slipjoints and lockbacks. They are not designed or constructed to come apart.
 
Once, going on 2 years with my Spyderco K2. It’s my edc that gets worked hard. It was getting tough to open and clean/dry/oil wasn’t helping. There was a bit or rust forming between the blade and washers. Once I polished it out it was better than back to normal.
 
Sometimes my knives get real dirty at work and if I can hear or feel grit in the pivot it gets run under hot water and a few drops of dish soap.

Then usually some pipe cleaners with alcohol for the tight areas.
If all is well a drop of Tuff Glide in the pivot.

For certain knives or when they are really bad I do have an ultrasonic cleaner and that does the trick.

I rarely ever take my knives apart.
 
I take down my ZT's more than any other knife. It just seems that when I work around sand or sandy dirt, they get gritty to the point I need to clean them. I've had the same thing happen with my Shirogorv, but, it didn't feel gritty after it was flushed with water and WD40 and blown out with air. Maybe the caged bearings in the ZT's hold grains of sand.
I rarely take down a knife with PB washers, maybe once a year.
 
Stelth said:
I clean assembled knives. I've never found a need to take them apart.
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This. I don’t disassemble my knives for maintenance. They do just fine being cleaned, lubricated, and sharpened as they are. One reason I avoid ball bearing pivots is that I feel I’d need to take them apart for maintenance. No thanks!
 
Due to my current love of carbon steel, those knives get oil after each day of carry to prevent rust. Which has now become a habit for all of my knives and a nice wind down activity at the end of the day - my way of saying thanks to the knife for its service. I sharpen when they need it. I've only disassembled 3 knives. My two Svord peasant knives, because they often get grunt work that leaves crud in their simple handles. And I once had to clean out a gunked up Kershaw Leek. The rest have never needed it.
 
Perhaps a couple of times a year Id disassemble and clean my main carry. That was the habit when I had only one.

Since my carry options have increased dramatically through collecting again I usually just blast them clean with a can of Ballistol and a brush then compressed air when I get back from the shooting range. Once every couple of weeks I might just use compressed air as I don't really work in a particularly dirty environment. The dirt I may encounter will most likely be lint and/or adhesive from cutting tape or plastic shavings from trimming 3D printed parts.
 
If you do not own a compressor go buy one. There is no need to "disassemble" a knife to clean it. I have been maintaining knives all my life by just running hot water over them, blowing them dry with compressed air and then relubing the pivots with a drop of oil. You don't need strong solvents or aerosal spray products. If you get tape adhesive on your blade a few drops of Zippo lighter fluid (naptha) will take it right off. Besides, you KNOW you need a compressor in your garage. It has always amazed me that so many people will drive their vehicle down the highway at 80 MPH every day and yet NEVER check their tire pressures and have no idea what pressure they should be inflated to. Keeping a close eye on your tires can save your life.
 
This was a couple months , still worked perfectly but I did not expect it to be this dirty.
pT7lCI2.jpg
 
Gideons said:
Hey guys,

I'm curious how often do you guys disassemble/preform maintenance on your users?

-Gideons
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Only if I feel something particularly funky with the pivot going on that flushing with zippo lighter fluid won’t solve. I run most my bearing knives dry and my washer knives with minimal oil.

As long as the action is good I’m not taking my knives down constantly to try and chase the best possible action.
 
lex2006 said:
This was a couple months , still worked perfectly but I did not expect it to be this dirty.
pT7lCI2.jpg
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That’s my fear that a knife will appear clean from outside and the action is still great but actually there is gunk on the inside holding moisture against the steel somewhere.

Those ZTs with the big plate stainless steel liner like the 562 are prone to get rust between the scale and liner.
 
It was starting to rust but not pitting , I did the hot water and air a couple weeks before I took it apart , still wet inside quite surprising actually
 
I took my Benchmade 710 apart for the first time today. I've had it, and carried it since it was first issued (about 10+ years ago?) Mine is one of the originals made with the ATS-34 steel. Although I've cleaned it several times over the years, I never fully disassembled it. Today I broke it down completely. There was quite a bit of gunk built up inside the Omega springs, but no rusting anywhere. Washed everything down with Stoddard Solvent, polished the blade pivot area and the washers, put on a drop of SuperLube, and put everything back together. Good for another 10 years!
 
Most my knives never needed to be taken apart, some even can't be taken apart, others multiple times, when I felt they got to gritty.
 
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