You Lube What?

brandoak

brandoak

Joined
Aug 1, 2015
Messages
1,351
I watch knife disassembly/cleaning video's because it gives me a peek at the inside workings of knives that I may be interested in purchasing.
One thing I keep noticing is the way people lube and reassemble there knives.

There seems to be reoccurring practice of lubing between the handle scale and washer...Why?

I would think the last thing you would want would be the washer turning on the softer material of the handle slab (Micarta or Titanium)

So my question to you is..... How do you lube?o_O

The picture below is how I've been doing it for years....am I doing it wrong?
I keep it dry between the handle scale and washer only lubing the washer face that comes into contact with the blade... and then a dot of oil on the detent track. I put a little lube on the pivot pin as well..
Been using TW25B grease and Benchmade Bluelube with wonderful results.
 
Oil will always work its way between the washer and the liner or scale, so may as well lube it anyway. Oil being there means less chance that it can move away from the side it is most needed on. Also if you've seen a well used knife both points of contact wear down, so no matter what you do, there will be movement between the washer and the liner or scale.
 
Ive always noticed wear marks on the liners which tells me the washers are moving. Moving parts = lube.
 
I don't. Honestly, using lube on parts moving relatively infrequently and at relatively low speeds strikes me as a bit silly. Lubes and oils are really useful for preventing heat from building through friction but, though my fiancée may disagree, I can't actually open my knives fast or often enough for that to be an issue. I oil my knives about as frequently as I oil my door hinges and for the same reason, to keep 'em from squeaking annoyingly.
 
I don't take my knives apart to clean them because it's generally not necessary. If it needs oil I put a couple drops on either side of the blade near the pivot and then open and close a few times
 
Im with Insipid. I dont oil my knives for the same reason. Just not enough movement even with constant opening and closing to justify it. My work knife is a mini grip and it gets abused. If I have a knife that I have invested enough in to make me want to oil it, then I probably invested too much into it for me to want to use it regularly anyway, so it wouldnt need oiling either.
 
Lube between the washer and blade. Leave the scales to washers dry. You don't want the washer to spin. You want the blade to rotate on the washers.

Alot of people on YouTube don't know de whey. They also over lube. Only a very thin film is needed. Soaking your pivots in a lake of lube is not good for a multitude of reasons.
 
Mo2 said:
Lube between the washer and blade. Leave the scales to washers dry. You don't want the washer to spin. You want the blade to rotate on the washers.

Alot of people on YouTube don't know de whey. They also over lube. Only a very thin film is needed. Soaking your pivots in a lake of lube is not good for a multitude of reasons.
Click to expand...
Why should you not want the washer to move? What would you consider overlubrication in such a case and what negative impact would it have?
With knife pivots I see no way to overlube them (apart from slathering them in grease maybe)
 
Mo2 said:
Soaking your pivots in a lake of lube is not good for a multitude of reasons.
Click to expand...
I know the old saying "You can have too much of a good thing" so I don't doubt there is problems or potential problems but what are they?

I will rarely disassemble a knife so typically when I oil my knives I place a few tiny drops in the pivot area and work it in opening and closing the blade then I apply a few drops to the blade itself to help improve rust resistance particularly for my carbon blade(s). I would only disassemble a knife to repair it or potentially to mod it but I would clean the knife and re-oil it while it was disassembled.
 
SV-97 said:
Why should you not want the washer to move? What would you consider overlubrication in such a case and what negative impact would it have?
With knife pivots I see no way to overlube them (apart from slathering them in grease maybe)
Click to expand...
Why ask so many questions. over lube does nothing but attract dust etc. On top of that more lube increases friction. The fastest action or movement is when a very thin film is used. Lots of lube tends to leak out and fly out everywhere, looks messy and gets into whatever your cutting.

You don't want washers to move. It's just how it works. Your washers will over wear if they are spinning. Reducing there life. Look for example Chris reeves..his washers are made not to spin at all and only lube on blade side specifically for this reason. Friction is also a factor.

As I said. People in general just do what they think is the right way in there minds. Doesn't mean it's correct. Doesn't mean it's going to not work doing it wrong either. Plenty of ways to skin a cat that work.

I'm sure I could go on about this, but its a lengthy subject.
 
FWIW, I've never oiled between the washer and scale. Some probably gets in there anyway, but to put it in there intentionally gets into the realm of overlubing which is a place I don't want to go. Besides to me, putting oil in there just gives another place for grime and crud to collect and stay. And I think most everyone agrees that is something a knife doesn't need.
 
As time goes on I'm getting to where I'm using dry lubes more and more for folders. Sentry Solutions has a really nice product called "BP2000". It seems to be a bit better than plain graphite and I'm also going to try some of those newer teflon based dry lubes.

A few years back I was using one of "White Lightning's" products but the more I used it the less I liked it. It seemed like excessive buildup became a problem over time and it got somewhat difficult to clean up.

I'm seeing more and more dry lubes at the local hardware stores and I'm thinking that might be the way to go with folders. The two conventional wet lubes I still like to use are Militec and Sentry Solutions TUF GLIDE.
 
Dry lubes for OTF's are the bomb digity.
Never really tried them on a folder....hmm
 
So I know things like mineral oil are good at preventing corrosion are the dry lubes also? What about food safe are any of the dry lubes food safe?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top