Newbie's First Impression of Miliec-1

L

Laceration

Joined
Mar 29, 2005
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Well, I finally gave my old EDC a treatment of Militec-1. I know Benchmade recommends it as well as many troops and BF forum members, but I kind of thought it was just another lube and didn't think too much of it. I have to say I'm impressed. I recently purchased a Spyderco Para-military but haven't used it much. I absolutely love the knife but I don't make much money and it hurts me to really put the blade through that much considering how much it cost (pennies to custom fans and CRK users but I'm a blue-collar Joe).

Anyway, I decided to give my 3 year old hard-use EDC (a CRKT M16-00K) a dose of Militec-1. I disassembled the knife which made me just a tad bit nervous, and lubed up all the metal-to-metal points and the full blade. I set my new kick-ass oven to 170f (the lowest it will go) and baked the Militec in with 3 treatments. I let it sit in the oven for about 15 minutes each treatment and did a fourth and final treatment rubbing all of the Militec off and just let the residue bake in. Wow! I am truly impressed. I would often rub the components down with Rubbing Alcohol and give the knife a lubing of WD-40 but the Militec-1 blows that away.

After doing this treatment, I can tighten the pivot screw almost all the way and still have an absolutely silky flick with the Carson Flipper. After about a year and a half with my usual WD-40 pivot treatment I had to have the pivot screw loosened to the point where there was slight but noticeable side to side blade play. After the Militec, I can tighten the pivot screw where there is absolutely zero blade play and the action is silky, buttery, heavenly smooth. Very impressive stuff. The only downside is that my PM is going to have wait a little longer to make it into EDC rotation as my old friend has gotten a new life. Not to worry though, I don't think the Spydie minds being admired as my M16 has to have the crap beat out of it for awhile more.

I also noticed that after treating the blade, the black coating looks great again and slides through material like it had a new Teflon coating (even though Militec says there are no PTFE solids in it). Very impressed. If you've been on the fence about Militec-1, don't be. Well worth the asking price and a great knife lube.

p.s. I'm sure this has been covered a million times but I'm new and thought maybe a few people might benefit from this.
 
where did you hear about this baking process? I would be a little worried aobut the blades temper. I have just used miltec "raw" on my folders, although two of the four are spydies that are not dissassembleable.
 
I wouldn't worry too much about the temper at that low of a temperature (170 degrees F). Would you worry about ruining the temper when sterilizing a knife in boiling water? That water is going to be 212 degrees F, or more.

Obviously you should always be wary of high temperatures and blades, but as long as you keep the temps low, you shouldn't have too much to worry about.

I'm also curious where you heard about baking the Militec-1, though. I've not heard of that specifically, although I've long been curious about trying something similar. It's really not too different from seasoning cast iron cooking equipment.
 
Well. Militec says that on firearms you should discharge them until they reach normal operating temperatures and that you can place the weapon under a black tarp for a few hours in direct sunlight. They do say to avoid temperatures in excess of 150 degrees in controlled heat applications. My oven's 170 setting is actually about 165 degrees (according to the thermometer in my oven) and I don't believe that to be excessive. From what I've read on BF and KF.com, you don't have to worry about effecting a steel's temper or heat treat until you reach temps in the 300 degree F range. After each 'baking in' treatment of Militech, the blade was only slightly uncomfortable to hold and not anywhere near hot enough to make drops of water boil.

I believe the temperature was just hot enough to allow the Militech to permeate the steel as I could see a discernible difference on the coating of the blade before and after it was put in the oven. I know some folks use a hair dryer for more assurance on not f'ing up the heat treat of the steel but my M16 has been through a lot and I do have a brand new Spyderco PM waiting to take it's place if I did somehow screw the knife up. I am very confident that didn't happen though. I'll put the knife through it's paces in the next few days and post if I did somehow mess it up. Also, from what I've read, 'cold' Militec-1 hasn't given people very great results and that's why I did what I did. Like I said, so far I'm very impressed but I'll give it a week to see if it collects a lot of lint and to see if I somehow altered the steel's temper.
 
I read about it here...http://www.balisongcollector.com/militec1.html...I forget his username here but he does post often and is well regarded (sorry). I've read several posts on baking in Militec here and wouldn't have attempted it unless I was fairly certain that I wouldn't have messed up one of my favorite EDCs. As far as I can tell, it worked very well but I will post a follow up after I've used the blade heavily for a week.
 
Laceration,

To be clear, did you leave it disassembled in the oven?


NGK-Webmaster,

How about you?


.
 
Militech is great. I apply militec + bake 7mins @ 150F and repeat process a total of 3 times, with one last bake at the end. If you simply apply cold militec, you will get a more "coagulated" (slow), but still smooth opening action.

I used this method on my new Calypso Jr. and it is glass-smooth. From simply wd-40 and use, it took a lot of effort to flick it open without touching the blade.

With the militec treatment, it requires significantly less force to flick it open. If you email militec and ask for a free sample, you will get one afaik (that's how I got my sample). The sample they give is enough to last a while on knives. I will be sure to buy some to support militec w/ their great product.
 
I used a hair dryer and hade much better results than when I used Militec-1 cold. Now I feel the need to go Militec some knives. :)
 
Word of warning:
WD40 is not a lube. It's a solvent that leaves behind a slippery muck (the petrol base gives it some degree of slipperiness), that becomes gunky. It'll wash out lubes. You can use it to remove dirt and old lube, but you better get it off and put on some real stuff. If you have nylon washers in the PMillie, they don't need lube, though it can't hurt. Mine's freakishly smooth, dry
 
Just an update to let you all know that the Militec is still doing it's job and I haven't needed to reapply it yet. Baking it in the oven hasn't messed up the heat treat as far as I can tell. I've used the knife fairly hard and haven't noticed any damage to the blade. I've noticed that the performance of the Militec decreases slightly after a few days but then levels out. The action isn't quite as smooth as it was after first applying it but it's still much better than with the WD40 and I haven't noticed any decrease after the initial drop a couple of days after the application. All in all, this is good stuff. I'll probably use the hairdryer technique for additional applications. I found the oven easier for the first treatment because I didn't feel like waving around a hairdryer for 10 minutes each time for 4 applications. I guess I'm lazy and hate loud annoying noises. So, I'd recommend you pick some of this stuff up, I've done my other knives and a couple of friends EDCs and they and I are pleased.
 
After applying some to my Doug Ritter Grip I had gotten some sand in the pivot area. I flushed it out with hot tap water while working the action (axis lock). Dried it out and it was still very smooth. I may give it a follow up treatment of Militec-1 to see if it gets even slicker.
 
Miltec works pretty well without heating. Heating does make a difference for the better, however. Like others, I use a hairdryer.
 
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