Oiling made my slipjoint gritty?!

J

jamesbeat

Joined
Jul 26, 2009
Messages
314
I have a rough rider canoe that used to have a silky smooth action on both blades.
I was oiling it today, and I noticed that a small amount of oil had run out of the pivot onto the blade, and was grey in color.
I decided to flush the pivots out until the oil ran clear.
So, I liberally flooded the pivots in my favorite oil (mobil 1 thinned with a tiny bit of kerosene) and worked the blades back and forth, catching the grey runoff with a paper towel.
The odd thing is, the action on both the blades started to get gritty.
Thinking it was just dirt working its way out, I continued to flood with oil and work the blades.
The grittiness just got worse!
Now I KNOW that this is not a lack of lubrication, I literally flooded the knife with oil.

Anyone know how this happened, and more importantly how to fix it?
 
There is an old trick to sell a clapped out car leaking oil everywhere -- load it up with much heavier weight oil than it is speced for - it'll stop or drastically slow down the leaks, at least until you can unload it on some sucker. Sounds like they used some heavy weight grease to smooth the knife out, just saying.

Use some WD40 to blast out the joints, not just flood it. If you have access to compressed air, blowing the joints out is good too. Then see if it's still gritty.
 
That did it, thanks :)
It now feels silky smooth again.
Maybe flooding the pivot with oil actually carried grit further into it?
 
Quite possible -- I think the knife was probably lubricated with a heavier grease originally when it was assembled, then the various finish grinding and polishing grit got into it, but probably only sat on the surface of the exposed grease rather than getting into the joint itself.
 
RR knives are really good for the money, but they are mass-produced very quickly. You were just working loose & then working out the sanding compounds that were used to grind & polish the blades, some of that stuff can really get into the nooks & crannies.

I've got a whole mess of RRs and they almost always exhibit what you are describing when I first oil them.
 
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