Best approach after cleaning in water

[maximus83]

Interested to hear best approach that people use for cleaning in water. I had a frame lock folder with a lot of grit and crud in the internal mechanisms. Submerged it in tap water with Dawn detergent for about an hour, rinsed thoroughly, then blew it out with compressed air and dried with a blow dryer.

Any harm in this approach? Did I miss a critical step, for instance, should I use WD40 to displace water after rinsing it and prior to drying it out? I've used this approach a handful of times with folders that got super gritty in the internals.

 

[Mo2]

Take apart and clean it would be preferable, but your fine. Wd40 would not be idea, but if it's what you got, use it. use a good lube instead if you can. A drop on each side. No more needed. But again it's better to take apart for this maintenance. Allows you to wipe everything dry and put lube on where it's needed without applying too much.

 

[adamlau]

^ Disassemble, maintain with soapy water or a solvent (e.g. isopropyl alcohol) or any cleaner you deem acceptable (e.g. SEAL 1 CLP Plus), relubricate washers/bearings/detente and reassemble. If not comfortable with disassembly, I see no outstanding issue with your current approach outside of the addition of lubrication to replace what the degreasers in dish liquid may have removed. I would prefer isopropyl alcohol as a safer alternative to WD-40 to displace water.

 

[maximus83]

Good tips, interested to try the rubbing alcohol. I should have added, I do always add a drop of mineral oil after cleaning.

Rather than using water, I've toyed with the idea of using a rubber and plastic-safe, non-toxic gun cleaner. Two that I have that work great, and do not harm stock materials: Boretech Eliminator, and Mpro-7. These would be better than water in the sense of not introducing water into the internals. Also the "residue" from both cleaners is perfectly safe to stay behind, in fact, the Boretech stuff even provides modest corrosion protection. The downside? The stuff is relatively expensive per ounce and using enough to immerse a knife is a lot. Rubbing alcohol is less expensive and water is a LOT less expensive.

 

[Mo2]

rubbing alcohol is okay. its decent enough that it evaporates but its not idea for nylon washers (well nothing really is tbo, and thats a good reason to dissemble the knife if you have nylon or teflon washers). as it will dry them out and they will lose what action they had.

if you have PB washers or bearings sure. however alcohol will not fully clean off old lube and other residue, even food. you will need something stronger like Acetone, zippo lighter fluid, brake cleaner etc. i like to soak my bearings in the stuff to remove whatever gunk was left on by the factory. or heck any food that was on prior on the tang of the knife and detent. alcohol wont be strong enough to get it completely clean. and when taking it down, you can scrub at the internals that need a scrubbing with q tips or paper towels or whatever have you.

i use alcohol mostly just to clean off my blade after food service, but soap and water works just as well. gets rid of the bacteria at least.

 

[jackknife]

You're way over thinking this.

All you need to do if the knife gets gritty, just wash with dawn, rinse, blow out as much as you can then drop back in pocket and keep on trucking. It's a knife, not a helicopter or space shuttle that needs extensive maintenance after use. A drop of oil in the joint now and then is a good thing. Until the modern knife age, knives were not disassembled but just used. They did just fine. In fact, disassembly will void some manufacturers warrantees. The knives are not screwed together for disassembly but for ease in manufacture so they don't have to employ skilled cutters who know how to pin a knife together.

The below knife has been used pretty steady since it was made by hand in a blacksmith shot on a Maryland farm in 1943. The original owner, a friend, used it until the mid 1980's when he gave it to me after I openly admired it, slightly drooling. I've used and carried it with minimal care, and it's been just fine, aside from about 1/3 of the blade being sharpened away from use, and some shrinking of the stag away from the steel liners.

 

[Mo2]

You're way over thinking this.

All you need to do if the knife gets gritty, just wash with dawn, rinse, blow out as much as you can then drop back in pocket and keep on trucking. It's a knife, not a helicopter or space shuttle that needs extensive maintenance after use. A drop of oil in the joint now and then is a good thing. Until the modern knife age, knives were not disassembled but just used. They did just fine. In fact, disassembly will void some manufacturers warrantees. The knives are not screwed together for disassembly but for ease in manufacture so they don't have to employ skilled cutters who know how to pin a knife together.

The below knife has been used pretty steady since it was made by hand in a blacksmith shot on a Maryland farm in 1943. The original owner, a friend, used it until the mid 1980's when he gave it to me after I openly admired it, slightly drooling. I've used and carried it with minimal care, and it's been just fine, aside from about 1/3 of the blade being sharpened away from use, and some shrinking of the stag away from the steel liners.

modern folders are unlike the old knives of yesterday.

 

[jpm2]

If mine gets sluggish from gunk, I just apply dishwashing detergent, sometimes to the whole knife, sometimes just to the pivot. Work it till its free, work it under running tap water to flush away the detergent, shake and dry with rag or paper towel.
That works about 90% of the time. If it doesn't, I go through the same procedure with breakfree clp (no water) and at the end work it and wipe it till there's no residue detected on a paper towel
or
Just take it to pieces and do the breakfree thing, making sure in the end, there's no residue or discoloring on a white paper towel.

 

[Bill DeShivs]

Modern folders have screws for assembly- not disassembly. They are cheaper to use with modern manufacturing methods.
Using WD 40 to displace water is a very good idea-it will get into tiny crevices and pockets that you can't access, and leave a protective film.
Some knives use carbon steel internal parts or springs, and protection is important.
If your knife doesn't work well with WD 40, apply the lubricant of your choice after the WD 40 is wiped off.

 

[adamlau]

rubbing alcohol is okay...if you have nylon or teflon washers...it will dry them out...

Both nylon and PTFE are nearly impervious to the effects of isopropyl alcohol in the absence of a catalyst such as heat, or an acid and are both rated excellent in resistance to most alcohols in general. The drying effect you noted is likely the byproduct of degreasing.

 

[maximus83]

So, assuming a person wants a way to clean without always having to disassemble, and you also want to avoid the risk of immersion in water, sounds like best affordable options for immersing the knife without harming rubber/plastic or other parts, are rubbing alcohol, or a mild non-toxic synthetic safe solvent, for example the gun cleaners I listed, or perhaps some more cost-effective commercial cleaners of the types others listed in this thread.

Maybe it's worth the trouble to do something like find a synthetic safe solvent like Boretech or Mpro-7, keep some in a tupperware container for immersing knives, small parts, etc., when you want to clean. Should be able to reuse it a number of times before you have to dump it. It'll totally get stuff clean without any risk of corrosion or attacking the internal parts (although I definitely wouldn't trust these on knives with wood parts).

 

[gadgetgeek]

modern folders are unlike the old knives of yesterday.

Yep, modern folders are much more corrosion resistant and have generally fewer places where water will sit long term. So if the old ones could handle it, the modern ones should do better. Sure soaking a bearing folder might leave water in the bearing, but if its grease packed, its not big deal. If your bearing has been meticulously cleaned of everything that might be in it, then what will protect it? So maybe bearings need different treatment, dunno, don't own any. But for washers, just get the grit out, get the lube in, and forgettaboutit. you'll risk more damage stripping it than you'll gain from the cleaning.

 

[maximus83]

I experimented a bit last night, and found an approach I like a little better that gets away from the downsides of using water with a folder that has crud/grit in the internals after hard use. Also avoids the need to disassemble the knife every time you want to clean the internals after hard use.

Here's what I tried:

• Blasted it out with compressed air
• Poured Boretech Eliminator gun cleaner into it and let it soak a while. Boretech is totally non-toxic, safe for skin contact (but not food-safe), contains corrosion inhibitors, so you can just leave it in the knife internals to do its work and it'll eventually dry. And consistent with their claims, I've never seen it harm plastic/rubber/synthetic stocks, so I'm not worried about it harming micarta, G10, plastic, or rubber knife parts. I don't work for them or anything, and I think there are plenty of other similarly non-toxic cleaners that would work for this.
• After I let it soak a while, I use a few Q-tips and a narrow pipe cleaner brush to scrub out the areas I could reach.
• One final blast with compressed air, reapply a drop of mineral oil to the pivot, and done.

Next time I do this, I'll take before/after pictures to demo how well the water-based cleaners can do to clean up the internals of a gunked up knife. It was pretty effective, and no water required.

 

[PirateSeulb]

If there is dirt/grit down in the pivot or lock then: Disassemble, Clean, Dry, Oil, & Reassemble assuming it isn't using a pinned construction. Things using pinned construction get flooded and blown out then clean up what you can followed by drying and oiling.

 

[Wowbagger]

Boretech stuff even provides modest corrosion protection. The downside? The stuff is relatively expensive per ounce and using enough to immerse a knife is a lot.

I'm asking this in another thread and not getting much help with G10.
I have no experience with cleaning knives but lots of experience with solvents.

I would recommend using lots to clean the knife but then not disposing of it. Find a good resealable metal container with an air tight lid and just let the crud settle to the bottom. Maybe put a screen with short spacers or legs so you can put future knives in the "solvent tank" without it lying in the muck. You might be able to use the same solvent for quite a while this way. As long as you don't agitate the sediment in the bottom the solvent should get surprisingly clean just from the dirt settling to the bottom.

 

[flphotog]

^ Disassemble, maintain with soapy water or a solvent (e.g. isopropyl alcohol) or any cleaner you deem acceptable (e.g. SEAL 1 CLP Plus), relubricate washers/bearings/detente and reassemble. If not comfortable with disassembly, I see no outstanding issue with your current approach outside of the addition of lubrication to replace what the degreasers in dish liquid may have removed. I would prefer isopropyl alcohol as a safer alternative to WD-40 to displace water.

I'd go with denatured alcohol rather than isopropyl, it's a much better degreaser and doesn't contain water. Stinks a bit but it does work much better

 

[kniferbro]

If you don't want to use water...
drop it in a jar of naphtha, give it a shake, take it out, leave it to dry, relube the pivot

 

[F308gt4]

What about using Brake Cleaner (non-chlorinated)?

I've used it on plenty of firearms (plastic parts included) without any issues. Don't see why it wouldn't work on a knife (but I will admit, I haven't tried it yet).

 

[Mo2]

What about using Brake Cleaner (non-chlorinated)?

I've used it on plenty of firearms (plastic parts included) without any issues. Don't see why it wouldn't work on a knife (but I will admit, I haven't tried it yet).

yes, i have used brake cleaner before. its probably more toxic than the other stuff i use tho, so i dont like to use it often.

Its probably bad for synthetic scales, g10, micarta etc (probably, i havent tried). but if its just cleaning steel and titanium id say go for it as it will clean off whatever lube and other gunk was on it prior without issues.

not sure if you would want to cut food with your knife after using it on the blade itself. im sure you could wash the blade with dawn soap or alcohol on the blade after using it if you are concerned, i rarely use brake cleaner but i have it and use it to clean my spinner bearings often.

 

[F308gt4]

Its probably bad for synthetic scales, g10, micarta etc (probably, i havent tried). but if its just cleaning steel and titanium id say go for it as it will clean off whatever lube and other gunk was on it prior without issues.

I've used it on G10 Grips on a pistol with no issue. But, like I said, I have yet to try it on a knife...