What lube do you prefer for smoothness?

[sbaker345]

More wanting to get a conversation going than anything. Everyone has their preference for rust and wear prevention. But what lube or style of lube eg wet dry or grease do you find to make open the best.

Currently I've been using the same oil I use on my firearms Weapon Shield CLP. It has extreme pressure additives, creeps into tight spaces and is extremely resistant if not nearly immune to drying out. I have a couple guns I last oiled months if not almost a year ago that are still very wet. I highly recommend it

However knives are a bit different, you don't have fouling but you do have more dirt, lint and other nasty stuff in contact with the oiled parts. Also because it gets into tight spaces it often ends up on the lockbar or ball bearing cage making them pretty slippery. So i'm always up to try new things or read about what others like.

[Mic1]

Froglube!

[MacLaren]

MPro-7 and Weaponshield.
I use those primarily for my pistols. And TW25b grease for the rails.
For pocket knives I hear that Nano oil and Phils grease are really good. Of course, theres a lot of good oils out there.
Prolly no such thing as a bad oil I reckon :D

[JD Spydo]

I guess I'm kind of "Old School" in many ways but I've had nothing but great luck with "MILITEC" lubricant for all kinds of lubrication jobs. I've used it exclusively on folding knives for over 10 years now and until someone shows me something better I'll probably keep on using it. I have other lubes I've picked up at shows and tool vendors over the years but again I've had my best results with MILITEC.

I'm aware that with the new "nanotechology" type of lubes that are on the market there probably is something that has more lubricity but I've yet to find it. Also MILITEC makes a grease that is amazing as well.

[bearfacedkiller]

I think that there is a lot of marketing that goes into lubricants. I use mineral oil on my knives to keep it food safe and I use Mobil 1 on my firearms because it is cheap and works well. I have never needed anything more myself. All my guns run well and most of my knives are silky smooth. The key with both knives and guns is to use the right amount of lube. Too much or too little is no good. I find that if I keep them both clean and properly lubed that the lubes I use work very well in their respective applications.

[sbaker345]

I think that there is a lot of marketing that goes into lubricants. I use mineral oil on my knives to keep it food safe and I use Mobil 1 on my firearms because it is cheap and works well. I have never needed anything more myself. All my guns run well and most of my knives are silky smooth. The key with both knives and guns is to use the right amount of lube. Too much or too little is no good. I find that if I keep them both clean and properly lubed that the lubes I use work very well in their respective applications.

That is why I mentioned why the best lube for guns might not be the same for knives, Weaponshield, and any modern high tech oil, is EXTREMELY persistent, I soaked a knife in soapy water, sprayed it in break cleaner, still oiled up. So I soaked it 20 minutes in a dish soap mixture opening and closing it. sat it on the car dashboard to dry. ended up still lubed. I wipe my blades down with ballistol for the fact Its NOT as stubborn, it will wipe dry but still leave the blade coated and you can wash it off handles. This is where a dry lube or grease might be potentially advantageous. Grease may be smoother as well.

I'm actually going to leave my knives on the car dashboard all today in 90 degree heat to see if it has any effect on the lube, I suspect it will not.

[bearfacedkiller]

I wasn't implying that there aren't better options than what I use. I was just stating that I personally do not need anything better. They are both cheap and I always have them both on hand. I always watch these threads but haven't actually tried much else on my knives yet. :)

[z4vdBt]

FP-10.

[MacLaren]

I know that for a fact my weapons come clean faster with either mpro7 or weaponshield than hoppes. Nothing against hoppes or any other. I just really like both mrpo7 and weaponshield. Militec and Mil Comm are also fantastic stuff. Been thinking about switching exclusively to mil comm....

[MacLaren]

FP-10.

Yeah, George was the inventor of fp10 as well as weapon shield. I like talking to George. Good guy.

[tvenuto]

I personally don't lube my knives much. It's probably the last fix if the pivot is tight or gritty. Not saying lube is a bad thing, I just haven't found it necessary, and I tend to think that less is more in these instances.

I use the tough (tuff?) cloth on any non-stainless blades, but that's more of a protectant than a lubricant, and it doesn't get on the pivot.

[Evil D]

I've come to prefer bearing grease. I tried it on the bearing pivot of my Southard and was so impressed I had to try it on a non bearing pivot and I've been very happy with the results and have used it on just about every knife I own.

[Liquid Cobra]

I got my hands on nano-lube recently and it's been great so far. I've tried a few different gun lubes, grease, ballistol...

[dubya3]

I'd like to try Nano and frog lube but I'm pretty happy with Otis oil, it's a high quality oil marketed for firearms. I don't actually lube my pivot very often (very very rarely actually) but I do give the blades a light oiling and wipedown once a week or so depending on how much handling and use they see.

[Liquid Cobra]

I've tried frog lube on my knives, they didn't play nicely together

[remnar]

I've tried several different lubes but the one that I found works the best for smooth operation is Gun Butter. It leaves a nice slippery coating that doesn't dry out. I use it sparingly to avoid extra slippery surfaces or lint build up.



BTW: I only use it in the pivot area.

[Pinetreebbs]

CorrosionX

[JudasD]

I'm a nano-oil kind of guy. I love that stuff.

JD

[jackknifeh]

For pocket knives I've used several different oils over the years and all do well except one. Tuf-Glide I think is sold as a corrosion prevention product as well as a lubricant. It does well at preventing corrosion IMO but when it comes to lubrication I think it's horrible. Other than that I think all the ones mentioned work very well.

I do want to put a plug in for Nano-oil though. In my experience it's the best lubricant. I have had a couple of Spyderco's that were almost impossible to adjust the pivot so there is absolutely no blade play when open and locked and still, when releasing the lock the blade swings down on it's own. The Manix2 is the best example of a solid lockup while still allowing the blade to swing freely. But a couple of knives I'd tighten the pivot screw just tight enough to eliminate blade play that would make the pivot tight enough that the blade would not swing freely. For those situations I've then used Nano-oil and suddenly the pivot could be tight enough to eliminate blade play and still swing down freely when I released the lock. No flicking or jerking of the hand or anything. Gravity was all that was needed to make the blade fall down. Nano-oil is claimed to perform better in situations where there is LOTS of pressure between two metal surfaces. Machinery and stuff like that I guess. Therefore, I use Nano-oil recently mainly when "Quick Release" (my second favorite lube) isn't good enough. Most of the time the Quick Release is plenty good enough. And I think Quick Release is close to Tuf-Glide as far as corrosion control. Supposedly it bonds with the metal forming a barrier against corrosion and is dry. But actually, Quick Release and most of the ones mentioned here that I haven't tried are great for pocket knives. While Nano-oil may not be needed to achieve perfect operation I consider it the best.

Another thing that is wonderful about Nano-oil is it comes in 3 consistencies. 5, 10 and 85 weights. The 5w is very thin. The 85w is very thick. The 10 weight is about the consistency of any other oil. You can mix them together to obtain a consistency you like. I think this is really good for things like watches that are still mechanical. I mixed some 10w and 85w at a 50/50 ratio and use that on almost anything I want to use Nano-oil on. The 85w by itself is great on folders because being thick you don't end up wiping a lot of it off because it runs out of the pivot. Of course this over-run is usually due to just using too much anyway. The 5w by itself is wonderful as a product to use to free up rusted bolts and nuts. It is so thin it seeps in between the threads very fast and the bolt is freed up. I've soaked things in WD-40 or other things over the years and while I don't remember any of them failing completely sometimes the rusted thing needed to soak for several hours. Every time I've used 5w Nano-oil to free a rusted bolt I have been able to break the bolt/nut free within the amount of time it takes to apply the Nano-oil, set it down, pick up the wrench and turn the nut. Maybe these nuts weren't rusted as bad as others I've had but still I've never had WD-40 or any other product to work this fast.

Tuf-Glide does seem to last a long time. I tried to force a patina on my GB (M4) and could not because I had treated it with Tuf-glide and used the cloth frequently. So I didn't use Tuf-anything for 2 or 3 months and then I was able to force a patina. M4 seems to be a very corrosion resistant non-stainless steel compared to others. Superblue will patina even if I did treat the blade with Tuf-glide.

I've talked about 3 things instead of just lubrication for a smooth action. Breaking rusted bolts loose and corrosion resistance. I have used Tuf-glide in a pivot of a carbon steel folder to protect the un-seen areas from corrosion but then after it dries I then use something else to create the smoothness that Tuf-Glide doesn't. But I think if you do keep the pivot oiled with anything you like that will prevent corrosion also. But I think if you ever come across a folder that has been neglected and the blade is rusted and won't open or close easily the 5w Nano-oil would get it back to working order as well as anything and better than most.

So my vote for the "best" is Nano-oil. But for pocket knives the "best" isn't always needed. You can use the less expensive lubes and keep the Nano-oil for when they don't do well enough. It's nice to have a little on hand. Nano-oil is more expensive. But if anyone is going to get some I'd suggest the 10w as it is the most common consistency needed. But, if you want the other features that the very thin and also very thick consistencies provide get a tube of 5w and a tube of 85w. Mix half of each together in a seperate tube for a middle of the road consistency and then keep the rest of the 5w and 85w for when you need either of them.

Jack

[D-Roc]

Plain old non toxic mineral oil...