Why use any lubrication on a bearing pivot flipper?

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Nov 20, 2016
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I have been using 10w nano oil on all of the bearing surfaces, the pivot, the detent hole and the path of the detent ball on the knife tang. That just seemed to be the smart thing to do and I see a lot of people doing it.

I got a couple of fidget spinners for my b-day a few days ago and thought.... why don't I put some of that nano oil on those bearings. Well I did. And it was a quieter and smoother spin but the duration of the spin was less than 1/4 of the duration without any oil. And I had to do some serious cleanup to get back to the original non lubricated spin.

That made me think about the flippers. The bearing mechanisim is about the same. So by using oil I am making the bearing action smoother and quieter. I am probably increasing the life of the bearings (although I cannot ever see that being an issue). But I may be slowing the action a bit.

I think that I have determined that the ease and speed of action, given a constant opening force and ignoring the detent preload addition to that force, is really determined more by the the drag of the detent ball on the knife tang.

So some lubrication should help with that. However if the detent ball gets lube on it.... and it will.... then it will lessen the preload (detent ball comes out of the detent hole easier with less force) during the flip reducing the flipping force.

I am over thinking this aren't I. I know that many of the new knives that I get have no visible lubrication anywhere. While others.... like Grimsmo Rask, will pack a tube of nano oil in the knife box. (in my dreams I have a Rask... but I have seen the videos)

I am going to try some no lube experiments and report back.

I would love to hear other experiences on this.
 
Funny enough, I only add lube(blue lube) to the detent ball on my Domino. The bearings themselves are run dry. What I do is drop a very, very, very small amount on the detent ball and almost immediately wipe it off using a Q-tip.

My Domino flips like a champ, but every so often I get a little grittiness coming from the detent ball. That fixes that issue for me.
 
I have one flipper and zero ball bearing knives so why the H would I think I could contribute to this thread ?
Well cause I got a pretty good fix on high speed low drag lubrication.

As I see it the only reason to add lube to the bearing is to prevent rust. If they are stainless or ceramic, well there is no prob. The reason NOT to add lube . . . wet lube any way . . . is that it attracts / holds dirt and lint.

As far as drag from the 10w . . . 10w . . . that's what I put in my full size metal lathe so I'm thinking you don't ACTUALLY need that in your knife.

Two lubes I would recommend that I have tons of experience with for low drag applications :
This first one is a bit black and smudgy so at first you may want to keep a paper towel like wrap on your knife until you know there will be no more "excretion". There may be none if you are sparing. It is hard to be sparing with this stuff because it is so unbelievably thin it RUNS like lightning out of the hypodermic like nozzle that is usually supplied with the container. It is
DriSlide. Agitate it very well before using or you will just get solvent coming out and no graphite lube. I like to put a small nut or two into the can to help stir things up. Goes on very wet like solvent; leaves a DRY graphite film. This is . . . compared to ANYTHING ELSE I have tried in forty years of magic elixirs . . . THEEEEE THING to put on a control cable that has drag. Even fairly obvious RUST it just kills it and the thing glides effortlessly.

Second . . . and this stuff stays wet because it is basically just oil but oh such a low viscosity oil. It is
Starrett Instrument oil . . . the reason I like this is that it is just freekin' simple. No BS, no magic particles of teflon to gum up the works, does not thicken or do any thing "high tech". It's just thin oil and it WORKS !

On my own stuff I almost never use or need the Drislide. At work I use it when I am faced with a cheaply made and out of date (irreplaceable) mechanism that MUST work and work with very little drag. THEN I neeeeeeed to use it.

At home, on my high quality and very well cared for stuff. I often use the Starrett Instrument oil. Think precision instruments.


My one flipper is my Grail.
The Starrett oil is in the unlabeled little bottle with the fine hypodermic. I also like this oil because it really flows into a pivot or slide quickly because it is so thin.
 
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Could be your snake oil has metal in it like others have experienced
 
I use this cuz it's food safe .
boker-09bo751-cm.jpg

Its not thick. I drop it near pivot and blow so it goes in further. One of my flippers I'll just do the detent ball only and give it some oil to pivot after I wash it with soap once in a while.
It works well and is cheap, when i apply it to some of the spyderco midlocks they start to fly out open when flick them.
I apply it from time to time when I'm not lazy and feel like it. I don't like an idea of completely dry.
 
Moving parts. My common sense tells me require lubricant. It's not like these ball bearings are self lubricating. More lube less friction between ceramic ball and titanium or a steel washer.
 
I have one flipper and zero ball bearing knives so why the H would I think I could contribute to this thread ?
Oh wait. I was lying. I'm a liar.
My grail does have ballbearings. So I have ONE knife that has ballbearings .
 
you dont need lube. lube is going to try and protect your pivot from corrosion/rust, a barrier from water/moisture . its going to provide some friction (this is why your spinners slow to a crawl after a few sec) but also may make it slightly smoother, as you dont hear bearings rattle around. SOME lubrications provide metal to metal protection. more lube or thicker lube will slow down the action. use it sparingly in 99% of cases. different lubes will have different properties for different things, some last longer than others.

in any case, ive used finishline grease in ball bearing flippers without issues. still great action.

if you knife doesnt work without lube, that tells you something.

edit: nano oil is snake oil https://www.instagram.com/p/BSDJ1r0hghK/

why is it included? marketing, customer request, snake oil marketing, maybe because of the easy applicator tip? dunno why, dont care, its BS snake oil. all nano oil is, is different weight mineral oil that your paying alot more for.
 
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While I can see bearing knives not needing any lube on the bearings themselves, the detent tracks absolutely do. Most every bearing knife I've felt, if you take the tension off of the lock bar and point the edge toward the ceiling (spine to the floor) and lift the blade up, it will fall back down effortlessly. Most of the time the drag is caused by the detent ball - metal on metal, or ceramic on metal - which is why it needs lube.
 
That "Starett" Oil that the one Brother had pictured honestly is a great overall lubricant for all kinds of machinists tools and I have a few Starett tools myself and I do use the oil on a few tools and other items I use. I've also heard that Victorinox has a comparable oil that they have recently started marketing here in the USA and I've heard good things about it too.

Now on most moving parts on folding knives I've gone a different route in the past year or so>> I've been mainly using dry lubes for most moving parts on folders and even automatics too. One dry lube I've had really decent results with is BP-2000 made by Sentry Solutions. I know there are a lot of new dry lubes out there and some of them might even be better than BP-2000 but I've yet to find it. If any of you know of a dry lube better than BP-2000 I would sure like to know about it and I will definitely give it a try because I'm becoming more of a believer in dry lubes for many applications and especially on folding knives.

Now for wet lubes I'm still sold on Militec>> I also use their synthetic grease for a lot of items I use grease on. Again if anyone knows of something better I'm all ears.
 

Quote from the vid : "This knife is running totally dry".

Thank you for that. And if the parts are relatively rust resistant it will continue to do so as apposed to something with oil or wet lube in it which is collecting grit and lint over time INCLUDING MY STARRETT OIL.

Blow it out occasionally with forced air and lube the detent ball.

PS: serious lube is only needed for something in continuous high speed motion for periods of time like a motor bearing or that is handling a load other than its little light parts. I mean you could spin a dry spinner for years and never wear it out or flick a knife a few hundred or a thousand times and experience no significant wear. Now a slippy is different because that spring exerts a VERY significant load on the pivot.
 
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While I can see bearing knives not needing any lube on the bearings themselves, the detent tracks absolutely do. Most every bearing knife I've felt, if you take the tension off of the lock bar and point the edge toward the ceiling (spine to the floor) and lift the blade up, it will fall back down effortlessly. Most of the time the drag is caused by the detent ball - metal on metal, or ceramic on metal - which is why it needs lube.
on most of my knives i dont even need to lube the detent track. if i have too, i put the slightest drop on the detent ball. not enough to fly all over and make a mess like some folks do.
 
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