Spyderco Forums

My wife todays sprayed a bleach based bathroom cleaner all over my Delica I was cleaning after using it on a floor a toilet leaked on.
I assume bleach is not good for FRN, I washed it off once I noticed she did it, so hopefully it’s not damaged the FRN.
This then got me thinking, if I need to disinfect a knife with FRN handle what’s best way to do it.
Cheers
Kev

Bleach or alcohol should kill off just about any fungus, virus, or bacteria. I thought FRN was pretty tough and would not be hurt by either, but I may be wrong. Soap and water (the solution to pollution is dilution) would be both safe and effective.

Ted

Doubt that bleach would harm an FRN handle. It's more likely to cause rust on the blade or hardware, since chlorine is an oxidizer, but even there a quick wash would do no harm if you rinse well afterward, it would take prolonged contact to cause problems. If you're not convinced, boiling water is a pretty effective disinfectant.

Bleach water mixed at a 15% ratio should be just fine for the frn. That shouldn’t be caustic enough to cause any damage. I’d be worried about the chlorine reacting with the metal more. I once had an m4 blade oxidize and put in a matter of minutes because of some highly acidic peroxide based cleaner that got on there.

Also remember you only have 24 hours before all the chlorine evaporates away, and your solution will no longer sanitize.

Another alternative to use is window cleaner(ex:Windex). Most brands have alcohol in them as a solvent to break down oily hydrocarbons(ex:fingerprints). That acts as your sanitizer.

....

90% isopropyl alcohol

Bleach is usually diluted when used as a disinfectant so I doubt it would effect the color but you can always try color safe bleach instead. Otherwise I'd just pour rubbing alcohol on it and that should be enough.

Besides, if you've ever flushed with the lid up, you've got poo particles all over your bathroom and on your toothbrush anyway and it hasn't killed you yet :p

kernelpanic wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 03, 2018 1:40 pm

Cool cheers, will boiling water affect the blades heat treat. I assume it’s not hot enough but though i would check.
I gave it a good rinse with warm water to clean the bleach spray off and blew through the blade op OMG to get most of water out of scales.
Also like the sound of using alcohol as I can use my wife’s Vodka, will make her think twice about spray bleach on my Delica :)
Kev

Boiling water isn't hot enough to affect the HT.

If bleach bothered FRN, most of mine would be toast. I've gotten chemicals much stronger than that on a lot of my knives, including a few that etched the steel without doing anything to the handles.