Hello! Do you guys disassemble knives to clean them? Do you remove the handle scales on your fixed blades and do you disassemble your folders to get them fresh and clean again? I personally don't do that. I'm just curious what other "knife guys" do. I mean.... is it necessary? I think in 95% of cases it isn´t, whenever a folder was really dirty and sandy I just washed the dirt off, cleaned and dried it up, a drop of oil and that's it.... But maybe you just having fun doing it or you guys will tell me that it makes such a difference in the maintenance of knives.... Let me know. And if you have cool pics of disassembled blades, I think that could be interesting. Cheers, John
If my knife has removable scales, and it's not coated underneath, I'll take it apart once in a blue moon to clean it, or whenever it comes into contact with salt water. Keep in mind though, I live rather close to both salt water, and the rainiest place in North America.
I've never disassembled mine. I dont think I've ever oiled a folder either. I will occasionally use straight hot water and dish soap at the sink to clean and rinse, that's what 115f-120? Removable scales like Esee get pulled when new, cleaned and hot air dried then permanently sealed against under scale contamination via silicone. Despite numerous contacts with woodland critters, poultry, fish, dirt, mud infused river water.....Well...I haven't died...yet!
when used for gutting large animals I tend to disassemble and clean throughly....I take my CR2.5 down a few times a year for fish duties!
I do my CPK’s every time I field dress or skin a deer. Micarta is porous after all and 3V isn’t stainless.
I just made the mistake of taking apart my Blade-Tech folder that I referenced a few posts down. I found the clip screws I was looking for and decided to detail strip it, as the action was very gritty. Not knowing how old the knife actually is or how it was serviced, I thought it would be a good idea. The Good Idea Fairy needs to be slapped upside the head! While I was able to slightly smooth out the action and put it back together correctly in the end, the effort to fit the parts back together was a struggle. Both the pivot post and lock post have a very small, flat spot, that line up with the metal liner. Only it's so small, that I didn't notice it until after I had taken a hammer to it in trying to pound it back together. That caused the metal liner to bend, which I had to unbend, twice. Once I got the pivot pin to line up correctly, the lock pin had worked itself out, which caused the metal liner to bend, again. See where this is going? I said a couple of bad words, put everything down and walked away for about 15 minutes. Came back with some fresh eyes and got everything lined up correctly and with some modest effort, got everything back together in working order. I still need to add some loc-tite to the small screws, but I'll do that after my blood pressure returns to normal.
You said duty ha ha, I will take the scales off and clean and oil after extended periods of animals butchery or time in the water.
I use a dry lube spray to clean out my folders, maybe take the scales off it that doesn't risk scattering parts. I use Otis or Hornady sprays. Never really found a need to take scales off a fixed blade, maybe if they were exposed to salt water or something corrosive.
I just disassembled my BM Griptilian for the first time - have it since 2014 and use it a almost every day for almost everything. It was pretty dirty - dust, pills and even hairs from my dog.... That's disgusting.... But on the other side, I guess after a week of carrying and using it an treating it relatively rough, the inside will pretty much look the same....
I disassemble my folders on the regular. I've never found a need to take handle scales off a fixed blade though
It’s bothered me that since having Benchmade do the blade swap my Adamas has never been as buttery smooth as when I bought it from @Emac so I finally pulled the pivot pin and screw out and polished up the phosphor-bronze washers, pivot, inside the pivot hole of the blade and the contact spots where the washers and blade meet with 800 grit wet/dry sandpaper. When I pulled everything apart it seemed like Benchmade had applied an ungodly amount of grease to the pivot and parts I polished as I had expected. This had also drawn a large amount of dust and pocket lint. After digging some online it’s seems CRK and other high end maker’s pivot grease is the same Krytox that we use at work for lubing o-rings in our water quality instruments. After polishing and cleaning all parts and contact areas with a Q-tip soaked in 99% isopropyl alcohol I applied the tiniest amount of Krytox to the washers and other pivot contact areas being careful to wipe off any excess and avoid getting any inside the pivot threads. Got it all reassembled and tightened down the pivot screw until it was tight enough to not freely drop when I pulled back on the axis lock then started loosening by approximately 1/16 turns until it deployed and dropped back closed how I like. I’d say it and my Contego are equally smooth now.