Spyderco Take down.

roughneckrob

roughneckrob

Joined
Jul 3, 2009
Messages
1,213
Hey, I was just wondering how many of you take your Spydercos apart to clean them? I have a few that I think its time to clean and lube but I am unsure how I should go about it? What size allan or torx wrench is it that they use? I have a Ti Military and a Civilian. Anyone wanna walk me through before I screw something up?
 
i don't want to sound like an ass but it only voids the warranty if you make it visible.

with proper quality torx drivers this has yet to happen to me...

and there was a ressource thread on the maintenance section with youtube vids showing disassembly of quite a few knives.

personnally i can't see an user that can't be thoroughly cleaned and the only way i know is taking the knife appart. so if it voids the warranty fine, anyway most warranty issues show up in the first weeks of use, past this there can be wear but this is not covered so what do you risk ?
 
roughneckrob said:
Really, I didn't know that? This sucks. How do you get oil into the pivot? just add a few drops to the area and work the knife a few times?
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Depending on the steel - I will usually dip the knives into a tub of hot & soapy water. I'll open and close the blade a few times. You can actually see the crap/lint/grime floating out of the liners and lock interfaces. I will towel dry and use compressed air to blow the water out. At that point, just a blast of Triflow and wipe off the excess. Good as new.

As far as the bit about Spyderco not being able to tell, you might be correct. But then again a 200x magnification camera with a 32" screen proudly displaying the results is hard to disprove. In short, they know. They build the darn things every day for over 20 years now.
 
roughneckrob said:
Hey, I was just wondering how many of you take your Spydercos apart to clean them? I have a few that I think its time to clean and lube but I am unsure how I should go about it? What size allan or torx wrench is it that they use? I have a Ti Military and a Civilian. Anyone wanna walk me through before I screw something up?
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It's kinda like jumping a motorcycle over a dozen school busses. If you have to ask how, it might not be the best idea to try. But they are yours, you can do whatever you want. Warranties are overrated anyway.

roughneckrob said:
Really, I didn't know that? This sucks. How do you get oil into the pivot? just add a few drops to the area and work the knife a few times?
Click to expand...

I've been cleaning pinned construction knives with automotive brake cleaner and lubing the pivots that way for over forty years. It works for me. YMMV.
 
Although I'm not going to say that I've never disassembled a spydie, I've never found the need. I've yet to find dirt able to sustain a properly aimed jet of WD-40.
 
I just tore down a Military I bought back in 93. Really think I care about the frikkin warranty? In years and years of collecting and using knives, I've never had to use the warranty. I take mine apart, clean and lube them, re-assemble them and sharpen them, then use the heck out of them.

Yeah I've gotten some knives I was less than satisfied with, mostly kershaws. Never sent them back, just sold all of them, or gave them away.
 
I've taken apart and reassembled a Stretch out of curiosity, and I've taken apart an FRN UKPK and shipped it that way to someone in the UK as a precaution after Customs there seized one. As others have said, I think there a number of ways to clean one without disassembly and that it's preferable to do so because, no matter how skilful and careful you are, there's always some risk of damaging small, fine threaded, screws.
 
RevDevil said:
Depending on the steel - I will usually dip the knives into a tub of hot & soapy water. I'll open and close the blade a few times. You can actually see the crap/lint/grime floating out of the liners and lock interfaces. I will towel dry and use compressed air to blow the water out. At that point, just a blast of Triflow and wipe off the excess. Good as new.

As far as the bit about Spyderco not being able to tell, you might be correct. But then again a 200x magnification camera with a 32" screen proudly displaying the results is hard to disprove. In short, they know. They build the darn things every day for over 20 years now.
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Me either, the tolerances are loose enough that blasting them with WD-40, deep sinking them and blasting them with air works just fine, same goes for most other knives too, a few small drops of oil around the pivot area and they are fine.

Something like a CR.... Well that's different, but then they were made to be taken apart, greased and put back together.
 
i use my folders around food, my food, i use them with acidic food wich leave acidic juices everywhere in the pivot area, i put my work folders on my pocket when working and i sweat a lot during services, i can treat corrosion problems i can see, not those i can't see. i used the bath plus WD40 thing for all my knives until i decided to take apart my stretch 2 CF to see HEAVY pitting under the washers. now i disassemble all the knives i take to work, those i can't only get limited use.
 
I mentioned the warranty as an FYI. It's obviously your knife if you want to disassemble it that's fine. I just haven't needed to take mine apart after cleaning deer or fish. Hot water and blow the pivot out with oil is all I do. I doubt it would be hard to reassemble. I will say that years of fat and gunk build up probably would demand a teardown to make it smooth again. I just had to do that to my brother in laws Benchmade I gave him about 9 years ago. He had obviously never cleaned it.
 
I actually just cleaned my Delica yesterday. I didn't disassemble it. I just rinsed it under hot water and then used a soapy toothbrush to scrub the handle and pivot. Finally, after rinsing it again, I blasted the Delica with a can of compressed air. This got all sorts of grim and dust out and the action seemed a lot smoother. I will likely try to put a drop of silicone oil on the pivot.
 
I wash my Military out every so often with dish soap and hot water. Then I pour some alcohol (rubbing :) ) into the pivot and liner, rinse it out. Clean the body with a q-tip. At this point I'll usually use a blow dryer to dry it out completely and re-lube with a lubricant that displaces water like Militec-1 - (there are many others Corrosion -X is great but really stinks to me anyway.

In the case of a slow or sticky pivot. This usually happens from regular applications of lubricant until the pivot get funky, the best way I've found to clean that out in a jiffy is lighter fluid, (naptha) which dries alost immediately too. Then I do the above and it's nice and smooth again.

I use a high power flashight to look inside, why take it apart if there's no rust or crap left inside. I would if I had to but my little cleaning attempts have served me well. :)
 
I like to spray the pivot area with brake parts cleaner. Let it dry and put what ever oil on it, that floats your boat.
 
I take all of them apart. If there is a screw, out it comes. I've only had a problem once, and that was because I did not have the correct tool and tried to make do with something else. That one experience taught me to always have the correct tool, and now I do.

I take them apart to polish pivots, washers (phospher/bronze), and the area around the pivot hole in both the blade and liners. I also have this fear, with liner locks & framelocks, of the lockbar slipping because it does not have enough pressure to hold it in place. So while I'm in there, I also give the lockbars a tad bit more bend so that it takes a conscience effort to unlock it. Probably not really needed, but it does give me peace of mind, so I do it.:thumbup::)
 
Razor said:
I like to spray the pivot area with brake parts cleaner. Let it dry and put what ever oil on it, that floats your boat.
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I've heard the brake cleaner trick. Does that dry out by itself w/o a residue like my lighter fluid method? Actually it was Bill DeShivs that first told me about the lighter fluid - not my idea.
 
cziv said:
I've heard the brake cleaner trick. Does that dry out by itself w/o a residue like my lighter fluid method? Actually it was Bill DeShivs that first told me about the lighter fluid - not my idea.
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I've used it before and it does dry very fast, leaving nothing behind. I want to think it contains acetone, and that is what allows it to dry so fast. But I could be mistaken.
 
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