How often do you disassemble for cleaning?

I ve only taken a couple of knives apart to remove the spring for the assisted opener.
When I clean my knives, I do it with them closed.
 
Of the ones that I have that I can take apart, most cleaning can be done with with a toothbrush, cotton string, lint free cotton cloth and soap and water or solvent. That being said, anything I own, be it knife, car, vcr , doesn't matter what it is, if I can take it apart.... I will and for no other reason than I can. In all fairness though bein' a mechanic/tradesman it's in my nature to take things apart so I'm probably a bad measuring stick.

In answer to the op though, as frequently as it needs it and that's solely dependant on usage and environment.
 
It is not necessary to take one apart to clean it. Like others, I have taken them apart for other reasons entirely but never to clean it.

You can do everything you need to do with lighter fluid, alcohol, warm water and soap, and oil. I use an old toothbrush for good measure but that's about it.
 
I keep my knives clean, dry and lubricated but don't ever disassemble to clean them. Maybe if there was an issue that I just could not solve with the knife assembled but that would be very rare.
 
This one came in a few days ago.
It was pre-loved by someone else..... I use my EDC blades for food prep and I
like to ensure they are clean.


Full tear down. Complete cleaning, polishing bushings and my preferred lube added.

Besides.. I was doing a scale swap with it.


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Seems like disassembling a knife, cleaning it out, lubing it up and reassembling it would be an interesting aspect of knife ownership. I realize it voids Spyderco's warranty, but many other manufacturers don't have a problem with it. In fact, some encourage it by supplying pivot tools. I dunno, maybe it's unnecessary to take a knife apart to clean, but it just seems like a natural thing to do to me.
 
Like uxo2 stated; either when I get a used knife or doing a scale swap.

May do it after this upcoming hunting season; plan on using ZDP-189, M4 and S90V blade steel for field dressing depending on what I bag :)
 
I would say as needed like i recently toke apart and deep cleaned my edc Delica of 6 years and smoothed out the pivot since i was already in there. Its a ti coated ive also polished some pivots too. But id say the only time i (or you) should take a spyderco apart is if it needs it as it voids all warranties on Spyderco's. But i have deep cleaned alot of other brands of knives like my buddies ZT301 awesome knife very simple inside tho for and assisted. I love taking apart auto's especially OTF's.
 
To my best recollection, I've never taken apart any folding knife for cleaning, ever.

I have taken them apart if needed, for other reasons, as stated above by others.
 
Just about every folding knife I've taken apart to smooth the washers or fix centering issues or something along those lines. As far as taking them apart for cleaning, I've only needed to do that with bearing pivots.

Anyone who says they've never needed to take apart a knife with a bearing pivot to clean the bearings has never used that knife for gunky stuff. Oranges have been the worst culprit IME. Unless I rinse the knife off immediately after cutting them they'll jam up the bearings faster than I can drink the beer I just threw the orange slices in. That's why I would prefer to stick with washers.

I wish Spyderco would have stayed away from that fad.
 
Never..

Bill Deshivs made a comment recently on pinned knives have been made for generations and never needed to come apart. Screwed came along to make assembly easier not for taking apart to clean or whatnot.
 
jbmonkey said:
Never..

Bill Deshivs made a comment recently on pinned knives have been made for generations and never needed to come apart. Screwed came along to make assembly easier not for taking apart to clean or whatnot.
Click to expand...

Bill DeShivs' opinion on this is absolutely incorrect. There are plenty of reasons to take a knife apart. If you're unable to take a knife apart then you live with the knife how it is no matter what. If it becomes unusable you throw it away or toss it in a drawer. If you can take a knife apart you can adjust several things, polish washers, clean bearings, CHANGE washers, regrease or reoil exactly where you want. Plenty of reasons. I don't care that 100 years ago a pocket knife didn't come apart. 100 years ago people were still mainly walking everywhere, too. Times change.
 
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