Oil

I oil my knives with mineral oil because I often cut food with them, but many people who like knives to be super fast or whatever use tuffglide.
If it's a slipjoint I'd just use mineral oil.

I don't think there's 1 oil that is considered the best by all though.
 
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I either use high penetration fishing reel oil(not grease), or Breakfree CLP gun oil. Both work great for me, never had trouble using them.
 
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Ha. You'll get a lot of snake oil salesman haha. I use tuff glide. It don't leave no residue for crap to stick to. Or buy a lifetime supply of mineral oil for a couple pesos.
 
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Krytox GPL 105 and/or FG 40 are good choices if looking specifically at oils.
 
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There is no best per say. It varies knife to knife. Needs to be a corrosion inhibitor and not let the action slow down. Also let the pivot be tight enough for no blade play but have good momentum. A good oil with the best lubricity needs to be used sparingly on the detent track for best action. And most of all, a grease is great for keeping dust etc out of the pivot while oil attracts dust, but if used sparingly can help reduce that.

Avoid the snake oil like Nano oil. Too expensive for what your getting and all the made up marketing on there website can be debunked. Should work find if you already own it. Tho I personally don't like how long it lasts and the nastiness that I've seen it leave.

Recently started using quick release and it's been great in the small amount of testing I've done so far.

Best food safe oil would be mineral oil. It's not really great in any particular category but it's cheap and food safe and come in a big bottle yo apply whenever needed.

There are a couple tests done that show corrosion and lubricity of different lubes. Those would be good to research.
 
If I'm taking a knife down and putting it back together I use CRK grease. A thin layer between blade and washers. And a little bit in the blade pivot hole.

If I need to apply lubricant without take down I use the Victorinox Multi Tool Oil.
 
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The best thing I purchased in the oil arena was a needle tip applicator. They put a few drops exactly where you want them.
 
On most knives I like to use Hoppe's 9 lubricating oil. A bit thicker consistency than mineral oil and doesn't dribble out of the pivot area easily. Not food safe like mineral oil, but I don't put enough to be concerned with it getting on the blade. Seems to hold up for months if I'm not using the knife in a dusty environment day after day.
 
Food safe, mineral oil. Not concerned about that, most oils will be fine. Motor oil, gun oil etc. I personally stopped using oil a while ago. Red bearing grease has been working for me very well. I put a little on the washer side contacting the blade
 
Mil-tek, TriFlow, mineral oil, lithium grease and Chris Reeve's grease. All depends upon the knife. I always ask the maker or manufacturer what they recommend for their knife. They always have an opinion or better yet a reason to use one lubricant over the other.
 
Sparky22 said:
What is the best oil for the pivot of a knife?
Click to expand...
There was a big O' scientific cluster pluck here about a week ago on just that very topic.
Just relax and use Starrett Instrument oil. Basically it is just super light machine oil. Totally excellent.
I put it into a very fine oiler with a "hyper dermic" tubular metal tip. This way I can put the smallest fraction of a drop right where I want it. That way I don't attract and hold any significant amount of pocket lint or dust.
 
WD-40 followed by a blast of compressed air. Flushes crap out and leaves a trace amount of mineral oil so as not to attract more crap.
 
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