Let's Clean Some Adhesive!

T

thunderjacket

Joined
Nov 10, 2004
Messages
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Yesterday I went through a bunch of packaging tape with my coated BM Ares. After taking its place in my pocket for the rest of the day, the blade is now sufficiently caked with lint and sticky stuff.

My plan of attack was to 1) wipe the blade (JUST the affected areas) with WD40 to clean off the adhesive 2) wash off all that nasty WD40 residue with dish soap and 3) wipe some mineral oil over the un-coated part of the blade.

I basically need your opinions on the 2nd step. Any suggested cleaning agents other than dish soap? I'm thinking of going with something a little more harsh (alcohol even) just to make sure all the WD40 is off. I figure since I'm laying the mineral oil down right after it doesn't matter, but I figure I'd run it by the knuts first. (FYI, blade is M2 high speed).

So let me know what you think and feel free to post any other golden tidbits of knife maintenance you'd like.

ps In every other way, I LOVE WD40...but just not on the knife please. :)
 
Orange oil if the blade is stainless. If non stainless it will clean it off but it may leave a patina or staining over the blade afterwards.
 
i personally use alcohol on my blades and my Ti handled bali often. the WD40 is perfect for removing the gunk, and following up with the alcohol should get rid of it all. i havent done this on any coated blades though, but it should be fine.
 
If that's a Benchmade 730 series ares, the blade is 154CM....doubt you will get anything to stain it, but you might take the BT coating off with the wrong cleaner. I would stick to alcohol. I normally use actone nail polish remover to clean packing tape adhesive off blades, being careful not to get it on synthetic handles, (trust me it WILL eat the red cellidor scales of a swiss army knife!) but I haven't used it on a BT coated BM.
 
thunderjacket said:
My plan of attack was to 1) wipe the blade (JUST the affected areas) with WD40 to clean off the adhesive 2) wash off all that nasty WD40 residue with dish soap and 3) wipe some mineral oil over the un-coated part of the blade.
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That's exactly what I do. You could use other things to help completely remove the WD-40, but I wouldn't worry about it.
 
gat some gasoline, a cotton swab and wipe it off. Acetone will affect most finishes and plastic.
 
I would NOT recommend gasoline! Even though it should not hurt the materials of the knife.
Acetone (nail polish remover is mostly acetone) should do the trick quite nicely and won't hurt anything on the knife. It will take the tape residue off very well all by itself. That is what I use on a regular basis.

A bit of vegetable or mineral oil to follow up is just fine as well. I assume that you want it to be food safe.

Rick
 
I would avoid using WD-40 entirely. I would use Goo Gone citrus cleaner to remove the tape residue and then use alcohol to remove the citrus residue. I hate the smell of WD-40 and it tends to get into things where it is hard to get rid of.
 
I too recommend alcohol, specifically 90% isopropyl. The 90% stuff leaves no water or other residue behind, and is a good light degreaser.

Acetone will attack some plastics and/or finishes, so I recommend staying away from it.

I recommend against gasoline, too. The regular unleaded stuff from the pump has a bunch of additives, some of which are known carcinogens, so you don't want skin contact with it.
 
We have stuff called "cleaning gasoline", which is sold in drugstores. highly refined stuff, even suited for garments. Won´t touch blade finishes at al, even plexi-glass can be done with it.l
 
Gryffin said:
I too recommend alcohol, specifically 90% isopropyl. The 90% stuff leaves no water or other residue behind, and is a good light degreaser.

Acetone will attack some plastics and/or finishes, so I recommend staying away from it.

I recommend against gasoline, too. The regular unleaded stuff from the pump has a bunch of additives, some of which are known carcinogens, so you don't want skin contact with it.
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I second the alcohol, 90% is great. It's also farily cheap...so is mineral oil afterwards.
 
I've used my wife's fingernail-polish remover on the steel blades and it works very well.

The only handle I ever used the polish remover on was a micarta Calypso Jr.
It did'nt seem to harm the handle.
Keep in mind that I just soaked a cottonball and wiped the handle, removed the adhesive, and then cleaned the handle with water.

Good luck,
Allen.
 
I use alcohol too. Saturate either a cotton ball or paper towel and get er done. Alcohol is cheap and I don't worry about getting funky flavors on my apples and other food I might use my knives on.
 
Use caution with certain removers. things like goof off or any type of those tar or adhesive removers will damage the BT2 causing it to lose its luster and depth and be a gross matted gray (already ruined my MT LCC coating years back when i was young and stupid!) :rolleyes:
 
To get rid of tape residue on metal, I sometimes use a regular pencil eraser. Works good and doesn't do any harm.
 
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