avoid nano oil, its snake oil advertising. its just mineral oil with some fake ass nano crap that doesnt benefit knives what so ever. not only that but the stuff gets gunky after time and heavily attracts dust/debre. the only reason why its used is because the guy pressures people to buy it. its just too expensive for mineral oil. its a rip off. they also dont have quality control
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1322458-Not-so-Nano-Nano-oil
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1325019-Nano-oil-fool-me-once
This is a photo of nasty dried nano oil
https://s23.postimg.org/rb5vz0inf/IMG_20170314_200500.jpg
in any case, you can use grease or oil with either pivot type. it really depends on the knife. i have many bearing knives with grease in them and the action is great.
basically you are just using lube to protect against water/rust. lube doesnt magically make your bearings smoother or faster or whatever people think. it will quiet the sounds that can come from loose bearings due to the nature of it. but you dont even want to apply that much lube. just enough that you cant even see it. if you do the nick shabazz method you get lube all over and it flys on your hand and blade. not good... lube should stay in the pivot.
there will be a reduction in friction to a degree. action will slow if its a thicker consistency of whatever type you are using and the more you use it will get even slower. a thin consistency just goes all over if you apply to much. you ideally want a lube that stays in one place and only apply enough that you can see your finger print. i use a qtip to wipe off excess and even then plenty is still on, even tho its not visible to the eye.
i have recently got something called quick release. its suppose to be top notch in making stiff slipjoints work better. it does in the short term. i have not long term tested it. its also not food safe. use very little of this stuff. one drop was almost too much as it will flow everywhere (which is not idea for flipping knives or knives you use for food prep obviously). but if anyone thinks nano oil is good. try this one, you will be impressed (again ive only done short term testing, not had it long enough to say its worth it).
in any case ideally you would use grease for washers and oil for bearings. but as i mentioned above it really depends on the knife and the person. you would have to try both... and some people apply way to much lube or apply it improperly or whatever, so results will vary.
they do make food safe grease and food safe oil and mineral oil is food safe as well (tho mineral oil does not last that long in comparison to say grease. and grease wont attract as much dust etc.
in fact you can very much run your pivot dry. check this out
https://www.instagram.com/p/BSDJ1r0hghK/
also some PB washers are self lubricating and dont need lube at all.
