Let's talk about ... pocket lint

D

Dog of War

Joined
Sep 4, 2004
Messages
1,670
OK, I never gave pocket lint much thought, until Spyderco introduced the Byrd line.

Bear with me here. :)

A few months ago I picked up a FRN Cara Cara and started carrying it some. At first I thought I must have left a tissue or something in a pair of jeans when they got washed, it got so caked with lint. But as time went by I found it did it constantly - I was cleaning the blade lock notch every couple of days. I thought maybe the extra clip holes (I carry it tip up) which themselves fill up with lint, might have something to do with it, or maybe the texture of the FRN handles.

Then I got a G10 Cara Cara, which I like tremendously. Day after day, for several weeks now, it's been finding it's way into my pocket. And it has barely picked up any lint; have yet to clean it in any way.

What's going on, I'm wondering?

I carried an FRN Caly Jr a lot for the last few years, it would pick up some lint, but nothing like the FRN Cara Cara.

Only lube any of these knives have ever had is a minute amount of FP10 on the pivots when I first get them, and an occasional wipe-off of the blade with a silicone treated cloth.

Thoughts? Unless it has something to do with FRN building up static from rubbing against pocket fabric, I have no clue what's going on. :confused:
 
For me, lint is not much of a concern, UNLESS it stops the blade from locking, or weakins it. I had a blade unlock onto my finger because of a nice little buildup of lint. I then swore to never carry a backlock again. The next day I had my Delica in my pocket again. :o
 
All tools require regular maintanence. Cars need oil changes, lockbacks need lint inspections. ;)
 
Lint can cause outright failures of blades...for some reason I have only heard of this in lockback FRN knives and not G10 or SS. Maybe it is a polarity issue?:confused:
 
I have also had it to keep framelocks from locking.
 
NickZac said:
Lint can cause outright failures of blades...for some reason I have only heard of this in lockback FRN knives and not G10 or SS. Maybe it is a polarity issue?:confused:
Click to expand...

Nope, I had a Stretch (SS) knife take a bath in a jeans pocket during a machine wash and dry. The lint was so thick that the lock would not safely lock up correctly/safely. On the other hand, I had a SS Police for 14 years of near daily pocket wear, and the lint never interfered. Perhaps some geometries are just better at capturing lint. :confused:
 
Glad I'm not the only one who's experienced this mystery. Since I regularly inspect all my tools I wouldn't say it's a problem, but it's sure weird to notice one Cara Cara picking up fuzz about twenty times faster than another one.

Thinking back on other knives I kind of seem to remember some delrin handled slippies being worse about lint than all metal ones. But like I say I've never really paid attention before.

Have to puzzle on this one a while longer....
 
I have an older Spyderco Renegade (backlock) which failed to lockup because of lint. But I was carrying it loose in my pocket at the time. Wearing it clipped inside the pocket seems to be OK. At the time I thought it was another good reason to EDC a linerlock or framelock. I have since carried a Mini-Manix without any problem with lint. I also make sure that jeans & trouser pockets are washed inside-out to prevent the buildup of lint.
 
Dog of War said:
Glad I'm not the only one who's experienced this mystery. Since I regularly inspect all my tools I wouldn't say it's a problem, but it's sure weird to notice one Cara Cara picking up fuzz about twenty times faster than another one.

Thinking back on other knives I kind of seem to remember some delrin handled slippies being worse about lint than all metal ones. But like I say I've never really paid attention before.

Have to puzzle on this one a while longer....
Click to expand...

Maybe some sort of electro static attraction caused by pocket friction on the "delrin" handles...
 
The first thing that came to mind for me was static. However, you may also want to try thoroughly cleaning the knife and then lubricating it again. It's possible that there some sort of residual oil or lubricant from the factory that is picking up the lint.
 
I usually inspect my E4 and my frn cricket at least once a week but usually more like every other day. Its a good habit to check after you have used it.
 
I had a Police fail to lock up twice. Caught it both times from the sound. It didn't have that nice resounding click. Luckily I was in the relatively quiet confines of the shop. Since a lot of my work is in a very noisy environment, I check all my lockbacks before hand. I just open em and close em a few times. I don't clean them that often and those two times have been it. It was weird in that those two times were like a week apart and the only ones in years of carry.
 
Some years ago I suffered a bad cut when pocket lint got in a knife mechanism. Since then I always turn my pockets inside out and remove all lint before wearing, as well as inspecting my knives.
 
I've been using White Lightening and my spyderco's have never had a problem with lint.

The WL claims to be a "Self-Cleaning" Lube, which is supposed to repel junk.

I carry some of these at the bottem so my pockets, it seems to work for me but YMMV.
 
I'd really like to know what you guys do to get that much lint.:eek: I've never had to clean lint out of the lockwell on any of my lockbacks. BB locks I did, because lint got caught in the springs, but on a lockback, unless you're using too much lube, it shouldn't attract enough lint to make the lock fail.
 
I sometimes find lint in the lock notch on the blade. Only once was it ever bad enough that the lock wouldnt close and that was after washing in th pants pocket (FRN aus8 Delica) hasent been happening with my newer frn Endura.

The worst spyderco for lint and crap build up has to have been My Veile, the open bottom design made it a crap magnet in my pockets, the blade never seemed to be clean when I took it out.
 
Have you checked for lint trolls? I know they can sometimes sneek into your pockets at night and put lint in them. I have no evidence but it is only natural to assume that they have the ability to put lint directly into the working of a knife as well. It is only common sense to put two and two together.
 
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