- Joined
- May 3, 2002
- Messages
- 6,192
Those who know me and have been following my posts (on this and a different forum) for a year or so know that I'm on sort of a "mission" evaluating lubricants/rust-protectors and have read my experiments with them. It's just something I've been obsessed with for a while for my own knife and gun needs and I've been sharing from time to time.
Just a little update:
I've discovered (over time) that plastic handled (Zyetel or Spyderco nylon, etc.) knives have different needs than knives that have metal handles or liners. I CAN use the same lubes for both, but metal-on-metal folders prefer different lubes than plastic-on-metal knives do.
My favorites for metal-on-metal knives; which are MOST knives - G10 or Micarta with liners or solid metal handles are BreakFree and RemOil in that order. There's only about a nickle's worth of difference between these oils on knives. On guns I've noticed that BreakFree is about one step above RemOil but I won't go into that here.
On plastic-handled knives I've concluded that Buck White Lightening is the best thing hands-down! On knives such as Spydercos with nylon handles, Cold Steel Voyagers, and SOG Autoclips where Metal rubs on plastic I can't find anything better than White Lightening with it's waxy persistant (it stays in place) lubricant for these plastic-on-metal knives.
White Lightning, from my personal expreriments, is a poor rust preventative. It also has a "thickness" that hinders the smoothness and provides considerable resistance on linerlocks and Axis locks where otherwise a quick push will enable to blade to fly all the way open. In these cases White Lightening, I've found, has a build-up that prevents the free-flying of parts of linerlock and Axis lock knives that would normally have very little resistance. For these knives I recommend BreakFree or RemOil.
On the other hand, plastic handled knives don't really lend themselves to easy flicking or push-opening of the blade. Plastic-handled knives usually require the thumb to be on the opening hole or stud throughout the opening motion so White Lightening's "thickness" is never noticed but it's smoothness is definately noticed.
Try me. If you're using White Lightning on ALL your knives then STOP. Use BreakFree on the metal-on-metal ones and see. But most of all, try White Lightening on only your plastic-on-metal knives for a while and see if you like it better than what you're using. It's got a waxy base that I think works much better with synthetic materials acting against metal.
One more observation:
The BreakFree bottles and cans are messy and inconvenient!
If you have to travel with a lubricant it should DEFINATELY be with RemOil with it's small, neat and tightly-closing bottle.
Just a little update:
I've discovered (over time) that plastic handled (Zyetel or Spyderco nylon, etc.) knives have different needs than knives that have metal handles or liners. I CAN use the same lubes for both, but metal-on-metal folders prefer different lubes than plastic-on-metal knives do.
My favorites for metal-on-metal knives; which are MOST knives - G10 or Micarta with liners or solid metal handles are BreakFree and RemOil in that order. There's only about a nickle's worth of difference between these oils on knives. On guns I've noticed that BreakFree is about one step above RemOil but I won't go into that here.
On plastic-handled knives I've concluded that Buck White Lightening is the best thing hands-down! On knives such as Spydercos with nylon handles, Cold Steel Voyagers, and SOG Autoclips where Metal rubs on plastic I can't find anything better than White Lightening with it's waxy persistant (it stays in place) lubricant for these plastic-on-metal knives.
White Lightning, from my personal expreriments, is a poor rust preventative. It also has a "thickness" that hinders the smoothness and provides considerable resistance on linerlocks and Axis locks where otherwise a quick push will enable to blade to fly all the way open. In these cases White Lightening, I've found, has a build-up that prevents the free-flying of parts of linerlock and Axis lock knives that would normally have very little resistance. For these knives I recommend BreakFree or RemOil.
On the other hand, plastic handled knives don't really lend themselves to easy flicking or push-opening of the blade. Plastic-handled knives usually require the thumb to be on the opening hole or stud throughout the opening motion so White Lightening's "thickness" is never noticed but it's smoothness is definately noticed.
Try me. If you're using White Lightning on ALL your knives then STOP. Use BreakFree on the metal-on-metal ones and see. But most of all, try White Lightening on only your plastic-on-metal knives for a while and see if you like it better than what you're using. It's got a waxy base that I think works much better with synthetic materials acting against metal.
One more observation:
The BreakFree bottles and cans are messy and inconvenient!
If you have to travel with a lubricant it should DEFINATELY be with RemOil with it's small, neat and tightly-closing bottle.
