Need help/advice for my SAK that went for a swim...

[Mongo]

Greetings all,
So.... I lent one of my multi blade SAKs to my daughter for her recent Boundary Waters trip. Long story short, she dumped her canoe and the SAK I lent her went for a swim. "Don't worry Dad, I dried it off"..... yeah.
It is now very difficult to open everything, some I cannot open at all as I don't have any long finger nails.

How do I fix this?

Thank you in advance for your help and answers,
Mongo

 

[315]

I’d hit the joints with some oil and let it soak a bit, then see if you can start them. Heck, even warm soapy water then a good rinse, dry and oiling should do it.

 

[cbach8tw]

if still cannot open them after the soak, use a small pair of needle nose pliers to pull gently on the blade. Once free, gently work the blade with your fingers back and forth. Would a soak in mineral oil help? I found an old knife that was rusted shut, I soaked it in a bowl of mineral oil for a day, wiped down and got the blades open, worked the blades back and forth. I still need to clean the blades better with sand paper. But hers hopefully is not that far gone.

 

[Hickory n steel]

Soak In warm soapy water then dry out with compressed air, then flush with w49 and more compressed air.

I'm guessing the aluminum liners corroded a bit.

 

[Hickory n steel]

if still cannot open them after the soak, use a small pair of needle nose pliers to pull gently on the blade. Once free, gently work the blade with your fingers back and forth. Would a soak in mineral oil help? I found an old knife that was rusted shut, I soaked it in a bowl of mineral oil for a day, wiped down and got the blades open, worked the blades back and forth. I still need to clean the blades better with sand paper. But hers hopefully is not that far gone.

Sandpaper?
I'd try oil and steel wool, a knife is only new once.

 

[cbach8tw]

Thanks, I was stating sand paper for my rusted knife’s blades , not his, however I did not think of steel wool, appreciate it. Mine is an old Sears Craftsman stockman in white handle, I had old pics somewhere in a Found thread. Hope his in better condition where the oil, and steel wool, if needed, will work. Let us see how it turns out.

 

[cbach8tw]

Here’s what mine looked like.

 

[kamagong]

Get your daughter her own knife?

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

I have a Victorinox SAK that I once left in a toolbox in the covered bed of a pickup. Completely forgot it was even there and it remained exposed to the central Texas condensing humidity for a couple years or maybe longer. It actually rusted enough that I also had trouble opening it up. I drenched the whole thing in WD-40, wrapped it in paper towels also soaked with WD-40 and then sealed all that up in a zip-loc bag for a few days to let the WD-40 soften up the rust. After doing that, I used needlenose pliers to start opening the blades & implements. Then drenched it again in WD-40 while exercising all the pivots. Takes a while to do all this, and it's messy. Kept flushing with WD-40 until it wasn't running red/brown draining from the knife. After all that, I gave it a proper bath in warm water with liquid dish soap and then made sure it was completely dried afterward. The blades and stainless liners had some slight pitting afterward, but the rust is gone and the knife is functional again.

If the knife mentioned in the OP was fairly quickly recovered from the water, it may be mostly sand/silt/grit binding it up, if it isn't showing obvious rusting. If so, exercising the pivots while washing in dish soap & water should work most or all of the grit out of the pivots.

 

[JohnDF]

Get your daughter her own knife?

Or better yet... Give her back the one she buggered up (after you fix it of course).

 

[Hickory n steel]

Here’s what mine looked like.

Those colonial rangers were a excellent budget knife, especially the large stockman.

 

[meako]

Get your daughter her own knife?

Or better yet... Give her back the one she buggered up (after you fix it of course).

Yes ...she has "Baptised" it...it is now hers....get a nice new one for yourself....everytime the blades are stuck she will be reminded of the canoe trip...Im cruel....but fair

 

[mitch13]

Yep warm soapy water, oil and pliers if required.
I always have a toothbrush in my cleaning stuff to clean pivots. The inside of the backspring can be hard to clean. I like to use a thin piece of cardboard to scrape the gunk off, usually a bit of cracker type box I've cut up.
Good luck.

 

[jc57]

Odd - I thought SAKs were pretty stainless. My Alox SAKs have been through the laundry cycle more than once and just came out really clean, but otherwise unaffected. I put a drop of mineral oil (Norton Sharpening Oil) in the joints once in a while, and call it good.

 

[willc]

When I get a gunked up SAK or slipjoint I use pipe cleaners dipped in oil or WD40 to clean the spring channel and all around the cam of the blade and it works pretty well.

You need real pipe cleaners though, tobacco shop kind not hobby shop type.

 

[Rich S]

Been using pipe cleaners for years to get pocket lint out of my pocket knives (SAK Tinker). Works great.

 

[Hickory n steel]

Yep warm soapy water, oil and pliers if required.
I always have a toothbrush in my cleaning stuff to clean pivots. The inside of the backspring can be hard to clean. I like to use a thin piece of cardboard to scrape the gunk off, usually a bit of cracker type box I've cut up.
Good luck.

Wooden match sticks work great as well.

 

[GIRLYmann]

yeah sound like a pry job is in order.
if youre using a plier be sure to
glue some card board to avoid
the plier's teeth marks on 'em.

 

[Jack Black]

When I get a gunked up SAK or slipjoint I use pipe cleaners dipped in oil or WD40 to clean the spring channel and all around the cam of the blade and it works pretty well.

You need real pipe cleaners though, tobacco shop kind not hobby shop type. View attachment 1621567

Been using pipe cleaners for years to get pocket lint out of my pocket knives (SAK Tinker). Works great.

Pipe-cleaners are my secret clean-up weapon too!