What's your knife care regimen?

[Pcexbird]

I'm looking for information on knife care, particularly pivot lube and protecting the blade from corrosion.
I live in coastal South Florida if this applies. My present knives have compression locks and the Tri-Ad. I'd prefer a product that I can apply without opening the knife frequently, but not against opening if necessary.

What do you use to keep your knives in tip top shape?

What product do you use on your knives? Would you describe the process that works for you?



As a side note: When opening Spyderco knives (PM2&3) is there a technique to keeping the blade centered and setting the action?

[Wartstein]

The only stuff I apply sometimes and not even to all my Spydies is Victorinox Multitool oil as a pivot lube. Highly recommended, but I am sure there are many more products that work equally well too.
Most times I don´t disassemble a knife for adding pivot lube, just on rather rare occasions when the action seems to be "gritty" or very sticky and I do a thorough cleaning anyway. As said, just very rarely if at all really necessary.

I never protect any part of the knife from corrosion, as mentioned in this recent post (pics included) viewtopic.php?f=2&t=92418&start=20#p1623434 my Spydies just don´t corrode, no matter what I do, and I actually (would) like a patina - but only my REX 45 Manix has developed a subtle one o far

Ah, yes: Don´t know if blue loctite counts here - but I use that stuff a lot, for securing screws especially on Seki FRN models

[Wartstein]

There are also several threads on this topic, here is one you might want to check out viewtopic.php?f=2&t=74686

[jegred2]

As long as you don’t have scales that absorb a lot of oil: I’d take my favorite lube and really spray and slather it in around twice a month then use rags and Qtips to absorb up all the extra. Or just get a Salt series in LC200N that I could just rinse off and not care. I don’t live in a particularly salty area so I just lube the pivot of my knives every once in a while.

[JSumm]

As far as the pivot, I used to use thicker oils but realized I was getting more gunk around the pivot because of it. Some form of Nano oil would probably be ideal for the pivot. For awhile now, I have been very satisfied with using common household mineral oil. It is cheap and readily available. Also food safe. It is not thick, so it doesn't seem to clog up. Just a drop on the pivot without disassembly when the action feels stiff.

[dj moonbat]

Ride 'em hard and put 'em away wet.

[The Mastiff]

For pivots I lube with an aerosol teflon dry lube. It lubes enough and because it isn't wet and sticky it doesn't trap gunk that can damage stuff. These aren't bearings on an engine that redlines at 7K. It can even go a long time dry without doing damage. In fact the back locks I'm most familiar with ( started carrying Enduras in 1992) seem to get smoother and wear in if left unlubed. I have yet to wear one out.

I use Rennisance wax on the blades mostly. I will take other precautions as needed and clean the knife off after it gets dirty, dusty ( especially after sharpening) but it's always a simple process and isn't time consuming. Liners get cleaned and treated with cloth Tuff Glide or silicone cloth meant for gun cleaning.

Keep things simple with few steps so you aren't as apt to put off cleaning at the times you should actually be cleaning it. The simpler the better.

Joe

[TomAiello]

I wipe every blade that's not Vanax, LC200n, H-1 or Magnacut with a Tuff Cloth after each day I carry them. If I lived where you did (on the coast) I'd use marine grade Tuff Cloth. I prefer the cloth to the liquid Tuff Glide because I feel like I waste less and therefore it goes further.

I blow out the internals with compressed air if they start to feel gritty, and use some kind of lube if I feel like the action isn't smooth enough. I'm currently using KPL, but I haven't really established a strong preference on pivot lubes like I have on the Tuff Glide, which I've pretty much settled on as my corrosion protector of choice. I've used Nano oil in the past with good results, and I've also just used sewing machine oil (which I buy in gallons and have quite a lot of, for my 'real life' work).

I've used a lot of Ren Wax on wood handles (mostly knives I made before I started stabilizing my own wood) but I've definitely found Tuff Glide/Cloth to be superior to Ren Wax for protecting metals. My dad has been doing high end custom woodwork for almost my entire life (so 50 years) and he swears by the stuff for wood, but I'm not sure if that's just him being old fashioned.

Side note: I'm really looking forward to a Magnacut Manix Salt, which should solve pretty much all corrosion problems in my favorite platform (my current favorite Manix is 4v).

[Coastal]

I usually rinse or wash my knives after use, even the Salts, dry them off, and often leave them open to dry further. I apply a drop of mineral oil to the blades most likely to rust -- 52100, K390, M4, etc. -- and rub it around, even though this is probably not necessary for knives kept inside the house. On those same knives I occasionally apply a drop to the pivot as well, without disassembling.

When I disassemble a knife, either to mod it or maintain it, I lube the pivot with KPL, usually the original viscosity, sometimes the ultralight. Honestly, I don't think it matters much what I lube the pivots with; my experience is that they usually operate just fine with very little attention.

My best example of how tough Spyderco folders can be is my early Catcherman, which for a decade I simply wiped on my shorts, or rinsed off in saltwater, with no attention at all to the pivot. Recently I cleaned it up, removed the light rust with naval jelly, sharpened the blade and oiled the pivot, and now the knife operates essentially as new.

[Evil D]

Since I mostly carry Salts, it's mostly just keeping them sharp and monitoring screw tightness and pivot adjustment. I sometimes rinse them out if they're really dirty or clean them out with Q-tips. I take them apart once in a while and give them a thorough cleaning and I like Phil Wood bearing grease for the pivots. If I need blade corrosion protection it's probably Tuf-Glide just because I have a bunch of it.

[JRinFL]

If you like to clean and lubricate often, just use mineral oil. Anything else will be wasted. If you are like me and just lubricate very infrequently, a better lube helps. My favorite now for pivots is Gunny Glide graphene or KPL heavy. Traditional knives with high carbon simple steels get a more frequent wipe down with mineral oil.

I almost never disassemble my knives so whatever minor corrosion is on the liners never bothers me. There is more corrosion on my truck’s critical suspension parts that protect my life at 65 mph plus, than will ever be on the liners of my pocket knives.

Salt knives might get rinsed out of there is any sand in them, other wise I neglect them and they don’t care.

[Airlsee]

I really like Frog Lube for corrosion protection and use fishing reel oil on pivots...but it's all overkill.

Unless you're regularly carrying against your skin or neglecting your knife, very minimal care is needed.

Common sense is your friend, and if it gets bad enough to need disassembly then use it as a learning experience and clean it up well.

Don't be worried about your knife developing character, use it hard.

[Manixguy@1994]

I use Tri Flow on pivots and most blades usually are all coated or oiled as needed . I go through knives for clean ups in rotation as needed . Prefer Tuf Glide on blades if not polished out with Simichrome . MG2

[Matus]

KPL and KPL heavy if I really feel the need the action needs improvement. I don't take my knives apart for cleaning unless something extraordinary would happen to them. I use WD40 to clean off heavy gunk off the blade (on a knife that I would not use for any food cutting!).

[Rymanz]

Open... cut... close... repeat.

I try to limit the lube on pivots since that collects dirt, dust, and lint. If I must add lube, I usually use something thin like sewing machine oil, and I use it sparingly.

Most of my user knives aren't tool steel, but those get a coat of Tuf Glide before putting into service. Then touch ups with whatever oil is handy. Stainless just gets wiped off and stored for the next task.

I use goo-gone for removing sticky residue.

[Ramonade]

If there's too much stuff around the pivot, remove it.
If there's a weird noise or drag while opening/closing, disassemble it to clean everything up.

Otherwise, I often disassemble a folder one or two weeks after having received it. I then clean everything up with isopropyl alcohol (because that's what I have since I built PCs before), put a tiny drop of lube on the washers, then I use my loyal loctite 243 stick to set everything like I want. I wait 24 hours and then it's use until needed.

As far as sharpening goes, I've had steel dust lodging itself in the knife and starting the tiniest bits of rust. So, on K390, M4 and other steels, I might disassemble to just have the blade while I'm doing a heavy reprofiling job (heavy = more than 3 dps).

Oh, and I use something to protect tool steel blades. I mostly use the FrogLube CLP paste cause I've had it for years and it's still almost full. Anything goes as far as rust protection really.

[billdoier72]

I wipe the blade with tuff-glide at the end of the day. Occasionally take the knife apart for a deep cleaning.