Keeping the value!

waynorth

waynorth

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Nov 19, 2005
Messages
32,753
I buy and sell a number of knives every year, and notice that often a valuable knife will come to me with no oil in the joints. I oil everything I get my hands on because I can't stand that "grindy" feel and sound when you open a dry knife!! And the excessive wear going on when you do open it dry; fuggeddaboutit!!
At a show, I walked up to Bill Ruple with an antique Harness Jack in my hands, a few years ago it was; and asked him if he'd make me one, and he opened and closed it a few times and he said, because I took care of my knives (phew! it was oiled!), I'd probably take care of a custom, and so he would do it, even though he shuddered at the thought of making a punch!!
He sent me a beauty, at a reasonable price, even though he could have made 2 or 3 knives in the time it took to create the punch! Here it is, his prototype punch in his first HJ; works perfectly, and has been oiled, and carried!
Rupleproto.jpg

I think a good selling feature on ebay would be to advertise a knife as "well-oiled" along with its other attributes!!
Cougar, I know you will want to send this over to "maintenance", but it is aimed at my fellow antique collectors, so perhaps you will relent, and leave it here!
Even a cougar must lift one ear sometimes:D !
 
Beautiful knife and so true.
The first thing I do when a new knife arrives (after looking it over) is to give it a little lubrication.

Funny, when Tony Bose sent me the BackPocket I received last week (see writeup on this site for further), at the bottom of his note he wrote "don't forget to oil the joint". At the time I thought he must be pulling my leg, but then I thought, he doesn't really know me or my knife habits, so maybe he's just being cautious. (In any case, I didn't forget to oil the joint.)
 
Some people never oil the joint, they don't know how important it is. The English stamped on the blade "oil the joint". Boogie never oiled the joint on his knife and as a result the joint was completely worn out, it was easer to make him a new knife than fix his old one.any mechanical devise needs cleaned and oiled. I have thought about having that stamp made.
 
I'm surprised when I get an old knife sometimes, that after good oiling, how much the snap is restored on a lazy blade.
 
I oil my folders regularly, especially.

the climate that I now work in is very close to the Mediterranean sea,
so warm and wet is the consistency of the air. I wouldn't put any knife to work in that without some pro-tek-shun--if you understand what I'm sayin'.:D

Certainly not a custom.
 
thawk said:
I'm surprised when I get an old knife sometimes, that after good oiling, how much the snap is restored on a lazy blade.
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New knives, too! I've noticed that especially with new Case knives; sometimes they come bone dry out-of-the-box. After oiling the pivots and working the blades open and closed a bit, they snap a lot better. I also like to try and get a little oil in between the backsprings and the liners.
 
A good reminder and a very nice knife! It really carries an aura that says it could well be on old, well cared for knife. Bill kept the soul of the knife on that one.
 
Personally I just use 3-in-one.

I've heard good things about the more specialist stuff, like Militec (sp?) for e.g. though.

Waynorth, I take it that the tip of the punch is splashed with copper then, not rust? ;)
 
lotoblades said:
Sense were on the topic,what kind of oil do you guys recomend?
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For decades I got by with 3-in-1 just fine. But a couple years back I got into using Hoppes gun oil because I was out of the 3-in-1. I think the knives worked smoother on the Hoppes, so I stayed with it.

If its good enough for my Smith and Wessons, its good enough for my knives.:thumbup:
 
I haven't used Hoppes yet, jackknife, but that's a good idea, I've got enough of it around the house.

Now I'll have to make a precision oiler for it though. The small cans and plastic bottles don't seem like they'd deliver the oil as efficiently as the precision tip on my little Tuf-Glide bottle.

I've been using Tuf-Glide for quite a while now with no ill effect on either newer or older knives. (I occasionally use Rem-Oil as well.)
 
That is one sweet harness jack!

I sometimes get sleeper deals on antique slipjoints on ebay. The seller says it has weak snap, but it looks like it hasn't been cleaned and oiled in a long time so I take a chance. Often after cleaning and oiling, the snap is restored.

My current favorite oil for slipjoints is militec-1, but I also use Hoppes gun oil. I used to use 3-in-1, but if it sat for a long time it would gum up.
 
freezergeezer said:
Personally I just use 3-in-one.

I've heard good things about the more specialist stuff, like Militec (sp?) for e.g. though.

Waynorth, I take it that the tip of the punch is splashed with copper then, not rust? ;)
Click to expand...
Bill was trying a coating to blacken the inside, but it didn't work. It chipped during use, and some day he will clean it up, but not this year. I sometimes think I should leave it for its little slice of human history!:confused:
 
Charlie,
That is one helluva fine custom HJ! That was awfully nice of Bill to agree to fashion the punch via his own design. That one will be a favorite of yours no doubt.

As far as oiling the joints goes I cannot imagine anyone who knows anything about the way tools operate that would neglect oiling slipjoints. If its a metalic moving part then it must be oiled, that simple. I oil the joints, the blades and the backspings every time I acquire any pocketknife old or new.

I have used 3-in-1, WD40, Hoppes, Rem-oil, 3M Penitrent, Mineral oil, ect, ect.. What I have found is any good clear light machine oil works the best when used and stored for any long periods of time. Lately I have been using a product called RustFree. RustFree is a non-petroleum product from A.G. Russell Knives, Inc. and is pretty impressive. A little goes a long way and can be used on pocket knives and kept stored for longer periods of time and does not gum up like other oils like 3-in-1.
 
OOOhhh that knife speaks to me waynorth, aye it's calling to me way down deep...BEAUTIFUL !!! You will most definitely have to will that one to me...:D

Sunburst
 
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