Sebenza Maintenance

I

IH-Antonio

Joined
Mar 30, 2008
Messages
103
Hello,

Just for curiosity, you take your Sebbie apart, clean and lube... Daily? Weekly? After a few months? And which kind of lube you use?

Just so we can share our "methods".

Antonio
 
just for extream cleaning, about every 6 months to a year or if it's just not opening right i.e. gritty or having been in salt water. I use tuf-glide or the CRK lube. I would not recommend taking it apart daily or weekly as you will wear out the screws & there is really no reason to do so.

just my 2 cents...
 
I have NEVER taken Sebbie apart. I haven't had any issues that warrant me taking it apart.
 
I have taken one apart just for fun a few times at that. I like to personally check the merchandise myself.
 
When I carry mine daily, the blade starts wobbling after a few months from all the foreign particulates, dust, lint, what-have-you, getting into the pivot mechanism somehow. (It's not just the screws loosening, that happens every month or so. I think a few of them accidentally got greased during reassembly) So mine gets stripped and cleaned every three or four months or so.
 
Took mine aprt once, but just because so many forum regulars said disassembling your Sebenza is part of the experience of owning one. Otherwise, I don't see a need to disassemble my Sebs, unless something is wrong. As for lube, I used some of the white lithium grease that mechanics seem to like so much. Seems to work fine.
 
took mine apart once to see what its about. Did it a second time to flip the screws because it annoyed me. Havent done so since. I just use militec to lube it once in a while. When I took it apart I used some bike ballbearing grease. Worked like a charm:)
 
It's usually 12-18 months between d/a & cleaning for ours. My wife has EDC'd her dog paw Seb for almost 3 years now and it's been d/a & lubed once. The others are all younger than that one, so the only other one I've d/a & r/a was my latest small regular. The blade was pretty loose for my taste so I wanted to clean it up and relube it to see if it tightened up any.
 
Tech question:

With the pivot bushing washers, does anyone know which side (blade side or handle side) is supposed to slip when you open the knife? I'm trying to figure out which side I should concentrate on lubricating when I disassemble.
 
jfn said:
Tech question:

With the pivot bushing washers, does anyone know which side (blade side or handle side) is supposed to slip when you open the knife? I'm trying to figure out which side I should concentrate on lubricating when I disassemble.
Click to expand...

Lube both sides lightly, less is more here...

A well broken in sebbie's washers do not move at all, the blade slips on the washers. :cool:
 
Took mine apart a couple of times. First time was when my flourinated grease came in the mail. Second time was when my lanyard pin "upgrade" thingy came in the mail. Both times that I disassembled the knife, I was amazed at the amount of crap that gets in there. I heartily recommend taking your Seb apart for a good cleaning/lubing at least twice a year if you EDC it regularly. It's an amazing piece of equipment. :)
 
I take mine apart every few months for a regular cleaning. :thumbup:

As far as lube, I've used CRK grease, Benchmade Blue Lube, Militec-1, Mineral Oil and Tuff Glide. I like Blue lube the best.
 
I take new ones apart as soon as I get them mostly to turn the screws around.
After that about every couple months,I use Militec-1 as a lube.
 
So-Lo said:
Lube both sides lightly, less is more here...

A well broken in sebbie's washers do not move at all, the blade slips on the washers. :cool:
Click to expand...

I actually checked with CRK and they recommend only lubing the blade side. Because the washers do not move the only friction is between the blade and washer while opening / closing.

The sebbies come apart and go back together so easily I see no reason why they should not be cleaned out 3 or 4 times a year if it is a user.
 
As you use your Sebenza, the mating surfaces of the pivot "break in" like bearing surfaces in a car engine. At that point in time, the pivot gets silky smooth. Nice feel! :) After break in, I tend to lube my Sebenza when it loses this smoothness.* For my EDCs, the clean/lube interval is not so much dependent on time, but rather how I've been using. If I've cleaned a bunch of fish, for instance, my Sebenza's gone through several cycles of gunking up and under-water shaking to un-gunk (number of cycles go up with the trip's increasing success rate . . . :D). Within a week of fishing, I'll have cleaned/lubed my Sebenza a 2-4 times. Conversely, I've not done any dirty work with my large Sebenza EDC since mid-summer. I followed up that work with a clean/lube job, and it's as smooth silk today as then.

As for my cleaning method, it's the one in TedV's most excellent sticky note here: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=260685&page=2
The only difference for me is that after cleaning the parts, instead of oil, I use a small spot of CRK flourinated grease. BTW, this is all it takes; adding more just makes for excess lube that has to be worked out of the tight tolerance pivot (and the pivot is a bit stiff when over-lubed during this process). Go easy on the flourinated grease, and a syringe will last a lifetime of lubing.


* BTW, I wasn't always like this. Used to go a couple years w/o cleaning my EDCs. No problems with very infrequent cleanings. I just seem to have slowed down to enjoy things a bit more in my old age . . .
 
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I continualy open, close and play with it so maybe once a month. I take it apart, clean out the pivot with breakfree and then put CRK flourinated grease between all the components in the pivot. BTW nothing I have found compares to the flourinated grease in terms of smooth action.
 
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