sak problem

[RescueRiley]

having a problem with my vic farmer....(this is currently my edc, and my favorite knife) I've only had it for about 2 months....but when I open it it seems the last 1/4 of the motion is really tight and when I close it the 1'st quater of the motion is really tight...It also feels realy grainy...(I havn't been around any sand) I washed it out with some soap and water , and it was beter for about 10 openings I oile it with a little grapeseed oil and it seems to be a bit better but not fixed (seems like alot of friction in the joint) any ideas on how to fix this,,,,I've been thinking that carrying it in a sheat might be better than carryion it in the pocket....

 

[nevertoomany]

Funny, I just developed the same problem w/a Wenger Soldier. Of course, it went through the washing machine today just before the problem showed up! The blade is a mite sticky and the awl worse. I have tried WD40 followed by Break Free. It's better but what happened??

 

[lukus]

I've mentioned a similar problem on a thread about oil. I've had a couple of SAK hikers get so stiff after 2 or 3 years of riding around in my pocket that I had to "retire" them. Very difficult to open and gritty, like metal galling, and a good cleaning followed with a good oil would only help a little for a few days and then be a nail breaker again.

I'm really not trying to hawk the stuff, but I tried a new "wonder" oil called Quicken nano-lube. Supposed to have nano sized diamond bits suspended in the oil. They are so small they fill up all the micro pits and act like ball bearings. I dug the knives out of the junk drawer and worked it in (I had to use a screwdriver in the nail nick to open one of them). A few dozen opening and closings and they feel like almost new. Kinda weird, but when they got better it was just all of a sudden, not gradual like you would think.

I've been carrying one of them and using it daily for a month now, and it opens and closes very nice. I'm psyched that I've got two knives that get to be used again.

 

[Sword and Shield]

Funny, I just developed the same problem w/a Wenger Soldier. Of course, it went through the washing machine today just before the problem showed up! The blade is a mite sticky and the awl worse. I have tried WD40 followed by Break Free. It's better but what happened??

The bearing surfaces were totally dry- no lubricant at all. I've had knives tear off thumbnails when they're dry, but work smooth as silk when oiled again.

 

[Dr. Mudd]

That Vic. Farmer is my single favorite pocketknife, too, as I've already said too many times probably. I have not experienced the stiffness you mentioned, and I lubed mine with Break-Free for the first several years, and then with Militec-1 for the past few years since I learned about it. If you haven't used yours in such a way as to get some kind of gritty material inside of it, then it must be just metal-to-metal galling without sufficient lubrication. The only SAK I've had that was stiff was a used Vic. red Pioneer (a Farmer minus the saw blade) that I once bought for $10 from a fellow at a gun show. He said he had carried it on hunts in Africa twice, and he evidently used it to eat with many times. It was all gummed up with what looked like dried fruit juices and blood maybe. I had to soak it for a couple of days in hot soapy water and scrub it out repeatedly with our dish washing brush. Then I oiled it after it was dry, of course. Worked fine after all that. It's a good spare to my old Farmer.

 

[Vivi]

Sometimes I've seen alox SAKs get dings or dents around the pivot area that seem to affect the action. One thing that many people here do is polish the pivot area of their knives. It's not worth trying to take the SAK apart for this, but you can take some high grit sandpaper (Anything over 1000 grit should do) and wrap it around something small or just fold it into a crease and polish the insides some. Though I'd try giving it a good cleaning first. A soak in hot, soapy water and scrubbing the pivot with a nail cleaning brush always worked well for me, followed up with a lube like others recommend. Don't lube too much though or it'll attract so much pocket lint that it'll be even gritter after the first day you EDC it.