What is the best lubricant?

J

John Puckett

Joined
Dec 10, 2000
Messages
418
I would like to know your thoughts on which lubricant you think is best. I'm not looking for rust prevention or anything else. All I want to know is which one makes the knife open and close the best. Thanks guys for your help. :)
 
You'll probably get a broad range of opinion, but of everything I've tried I like White Lightening the best. I haven't had any of the problems some others have found. If you've got the knife apart, then CRK fluorinated grease is great. I haven't had good experiences with Tuf-Glide or Militec.
 
92degrees...what kind of problems have you had with tuf-glide and militec? I currently use White Lightning, but have been thinking about buying some militec or tuf-glide because I would like to have a needle applicator.
 
Where would I find white lightning? In a hardware store?
 
I dididn't need websites as much because It's not worth it fro me to have it shipped from the states up to Canada. I'm just curious whether white lightning or other lubricants are only found in specialized stores or not.
 
Originally posted by ian_j
I was wondering, since it keeps water and dirt off, and it drys with no stickyness or staining, could you wipe a knife blade with it for corrosion resistance?
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it dries leaving a coat of wax on the blade. no, it doesn't stain and you can wipe it off with just a little bit of elbow grease. I leave a good thick coating of it on my blades and of course I don't store my blades in their sheaths. Just keep in mind that some of the wax gets rubbed off INSIDE the sheath when you DO resheath it. I don't mind that.

oh, and if your blade has a bead blasted finish, it'll be harder to wipe it off. I have a Ray Ennis Entrek Scout and boy it was hard to get the wax off... Eventually I used some spirit as a solvent and cleaned it all off. (I'm in the process of polishing off the beaded finish so that won't be much of a problem in future.)

That being said, I use white lightning ONLY on the blades that I use with some regularity... like my camping knives. The pieces that I display... well currently I'm using a very thing coat of mineral oil. Just a few drops and then I wipe it clean leaving a teenie coating. I pick them up fairly often to "play" with them and they get a new coat b4 they're put away. I'm trying to get friends to buy some of the sentry solutions stuff for me and I'll be trying that.

Another idea from another knut was to use silicone spray. He said that they're from bike shops catering to mountain bikers/hardcore bike nuts. The spray goes on invisible and repels water too. I haven't tried it myself.
 
ZENGHOST, all of my knives have had better action with White Lightening vs. the others. There was a thread a couple of months ago where some folks said they found White Lightening collected dirt, but I haven't noticed any problem. It's helped all of my knives and transformed a couple.
 
Some will think I'm a barbarian for suggesting it but I've
used plain old 3 in 1 household oil on my knives for decades.

I find that the small amount is needed when the knife is maintained
and sharpend. Since this oil is very light and pure with little if any
additives it won't hurt you if a little wicks off on to the blade if used
for food. Might taste a bit funny but no harm done. Can't say that
about some of the other hi tech products.
 
Originally posted by calyth
I dididn't need websites as much because It's not worth it fro me to have it shipped from the states up to Canada. I'm just curious whether white lightning or other lubricants are only found in specialized stores or not.
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Calyth...I found mine at a knife show, but if I'm not mistaken, White Lightning was originally made for bicycles so you might be able to find it in a bike shop or sports store.
 
Originally posted by ZENGHOST
Calyth...I found mine at a knife show, but if I'm not mistaken, White Lightning was originally made for bicycles so you might be able to find it in a bike shop or sports store.
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Perfect timeing.. I'll probably go find it then. I'm going to an electronics store to get a trox 6
 
I have seen the bicycle white lightning and although it comes in a diffrent bottle I wonder if its not the same stuff. It has the same sales pitch(dirt that gets to it makes it flake off so its always fresh) and is made by the same company.
 
Ill be the third to go against the grain here. In my experience, White Lightning flaked away easily and basically did not perform well in making the blade any slicker/smoother. After trying nearly everything, I think that 3 or 4 oils can cover EVERY situation, for grease I would say Superlube or SS Hi-Slip. No specific order on the folder lubricants:

Tuf-Glide/Cloth
Militec-1
Rem-oil
Breakfree/3in1/corrosionx e.t.c.

It is a trade off like everything else. What you lose here in rust prevention, you get there in slickness or low viscosity (speaking of room temp obviously.)

For instance, as a light oil rem-oil is great for being slick and rust preventative, but it evaporates somewhat rapidly. Militec does not evaporate (and if you check out Mr. Gollnicks site you can learn how it actually bonds with the metal after beign put through a short process), I know that MIlitec does make folders slick for sure, but it is thicker than rem-oil, but with its lubricity it doesent really matter IMO. Tuf-glide has it's applications as well, but IMO it wears away thrice as fast as rem-oil, but it is totally dry so... Always gonna be a trade off. Good luck, stay away from wd-40 and enjoy your knives.

JC
 
Originally posted by Jameson
Tuf-Glide/Cloth
Militec-1
Rem-oil
Breakfree/3in1/corrosionx e.t.c.
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Where would i find any of these without resorting to web orders? I really don't want to order them off the web.
 
Any gun shop should have the Rem Oil or Breakfree. Acadamey and Wally World should also carry them.

Bob
 
Militec-1 is a bit difficult to find...even online the only place I've seen it is the Benchmade site and they charge $10 flat for shipping so it probably wouldn't be too economical to buy just that. I have not seen it at any local store here (then again it's hard to find anything blade-oriented around here).
 
White Lightning is nice.
I use it on all tools and knives with hinges and joints.


They could make the bottle spout thinner and longer, so it would be easy to apply it to small joints and hinges.

-Jens-
 
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