Cleaning medium for an ultrasonic cleaner.

J

Jeremy Dodd

Joined
Jun 9, 2018
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36
Hey guys! I pulled apart my Benchmade Mini Infadel a couple of days ago for cleaning and sharpening. It was starting to stick a little while opening/closing. After getting it apart and seeing how many tiny little pieces there were, I remembered reading that a lot of knife enthusiasts use an ultrasonic cleaner for their knives. This seemed like a perfect time to try it out, so I picked up a highly rated inexpensive one from Amazon. I have standard jewelry cleaning solution coming later today, but I've read that others use various solutions for knives and firearm parts. I've seen a water/Simple Green mixture and some others using solvents. Do any of you use a cleaning system like this, and what type of cleaning medium do you use? Thanks!
 
I use one and have a cheap one from 5+ years ago on Amazon. Use it for all types of stuff. I just put in a drop or two of dish soap. That's always worked for me, but I suppose it depends on what you're trying to get off
 
Bill DeShivs said:
Be very careful. An ultrasonic cleaner can actually remove the dye that is used in anodizing aluminum handles.
I don't recommend flammable solvents in an ultrasonic. It's dangerous.
Simple Green, ammonia in water or detergent in water are acceptable.
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Yeah, I hadn't planned on going the solvent route, but I wanted to ask the experts before dunking a $450 knife in it. I don't foresee using any solvents unless I'm cleaning a small carburetor outside in a well- ventilated area lol. Thanks for the info!
 
kreole said:
I use one and have a cheap one from 5+ years ago on Amazon. Use it for all types of stuff. I just put in a drop or two of dish soap. That's always worked for me, but I suppose it depends on what you're trying to get off
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I'm not abusing my knives anymore since I've retired, so I'm basically getting off dust, pocket lint, tape residue, etc. I'm also going to use it for pistol parts. I hadn't thought about dish soap. That's a pretty mild grease-cutter, so I'd imagine it would work really well. Thank you!
 
Jeremy Dodd said:
I'm not abusing my knives anymore since I've retired, so I'm basically getting off dust, pocket lint, tape residue, etc. I'm also going to use it for pistol parts. I hadn't thought about dish soap. That's a pretty mild grease-cutter, so I'd imagine it would work really well. Thank you!
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What you want is dishwasher detergent. Regular dish soap is designed to foam. Dishwasher detergent is designed NOT to, as is laundry detergent.
 
In the case of dishwasher detergent you can use like a tablespoon o' the stuff without issue. In the case of dishwashing soap you can't put more than a little of it in and it's not gonna' do much vs. regular water. Water alone has tremendous cleaning power. It's really the water and the ultrasonic action that does most of the heavy lifting. But if you have stubborn gunk the soap does help.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
In the case of dishwasher detergent you can use like a tablespoon o' the stuff without issue. In the case of dishwashing soap you can't put more than a little of it in and it's not gonna' do much vs. regular water. Water alone has tremendous cleaning power. It's really the water and the ultrasonic action that does most of the heavy lifting. But if you have stubborn gunk the soap does help.
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Oh okay. Gotcha. This is my first foray into ultrasonic cleaning, so I appreciate the wisdom!
 
I'd be careful with dishwasher detergent around knives containing aluminum or brass. Most dishwasher detergents (the dry ones anyway, IIRC) contain sodium carbonate, which is fairly basic (high pH -- in other words, alkaline), and (like Simple Green and lye) can attack those metals...I usually just use a drop of Dawn dish detergent in my US cleaner.

Most of the cleaning in a US cleaner is done hydraulically...water don't compress and Charlie don't surf! Detergent just helps lower the surface tension of water, making it "wetter."
 
Cementite said:
I'd be careful with dishwasher detergent around knives containing aluminum or brass. Most dishwasher detergents (the dry ones anyway, IIRC) contain sodium carbonate, which is fairly basic (high pH -- in other words, alkaline), and (like Simple Green and lye) can attack those metals...I usually just use a drop of Dawn dish detergent in my US cleaner.

Most of the cleaning in a US cleaner is done hydraulically...water don't compress and Charlie don't surf! Detergent just helps lower the surface tension of water, making it "wetter."
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I, too, love the smell of napalm in the morning! Thank you for the tips. I think the dish soap is the way I'm going to go. It seems like the safest route.
 
Cementite said:
I'd be careful with dishwasher detergent around knives containing aluminum or brass. Most dishwasher detergents (the dry ones anyway, IIRC) contain sodium carbonate, which is fairly basic (high pH -- in other words, alkaline), and (like Simple Green and lye) can attack those metals...I usually just use a drop of Dawn dish detergent in my US cleaner.

Most of the cleaning in a US cleaner is done hydraulically...water don't compress and Charlie don't surf! Detergent just helps lower the surface tension of water, making it "wetter."
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Hence why unscented laundry detergent is my usual go-to. However, the explanation of what detergent does is wildly incorrect. It does much more than that. However, I do agree that the water and ultrasonic action is doing most of the work. I only use any sort of soap if I'm dealing with something that didn't already produce sufficient results from the initial run through the machine.
 
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