Recommendation? Grease VS Oil, the great debate...

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SuzukiGS750EZ

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Hey guys, I owned at one point a knife art exclusive large 21 cf. It was my introduction to CRK. What I didn't like was that I couldn't sharpen it well (my fault) and it wasn't fast to open. I don't need lightening speed, but after carrying my spyderco military for a few years, it's spoiled me. I love the fluid feel of the grease, but eventually due to my shortcomings, I sold the 21.

Fast forward 6 or so years later, I bought a large inkosi insingo last year. Love it. I found the "sweetspot" in the pivot, but still can't flick it open without my wrist. I hate doing that to any knife. While not at work, I don't mind two handed knives or a slow thumb deployment but while at work, I need to have fast deployment and fast closing. I cut all kinds of things daily and work fast. I just ordered a large 21 Damascus spalted beech so it got me thinking.

Is there any ill effect for running oil in a CRK vs grease? I know it'll deploy the blade faster due to less friction but will it cause adverse wear over time? Also, what kind of oil if any? Is there a better grease? I'm trying to find a way to use my inkosi/sebenza at work.
 
Beem running sewing machine oil/nano oil in my Inkosi since 2017. Never stripped.

been running grease/sewing machine oil/wd40 in Insingo since 2010.

No issues. We tend to over think things.

Grease does ad value at the lock interface IMO. All-Tap works great if you have a lock that is sticky.
 
You can try Nano-Oil and Knife Pivot Lube. They both come in light weight and heavy versions. For me, Nano-oil is the fastest, but KPL Heavy has a cool fluid feel and it's a little quicker than CRK grease (not much). Neither of those oils last as long as OE grease for me, but I'm new to CRK (5 months) and keep swapping back and forth just changing up the feel to really see what I prefer.
 
No debate for me, there may be merit to trying something other than the OEM CRK grease but I haven’t had a reason to try anything else.
I live in a very hot climate, it stays put just fine in 110-115 summers.
 
Use the OEM CRK grease. Its superior to anything else you could use for a CRK pivot design.
 
I’ve been using the CRK grease. I collect mostly slipjoints and have never had an issue using just plain old mineral oil in those pivots. With a slipjoint, you can’t take it apart to clean it so I just keep adding mineral oil as time goes on. New applications work out the gunk while coating all the surfaces with a new layer.

I’ve thought about switching to mineral oil when I do my next takedown style cleaning to see how the same process would work. I do find a straw cleaning brush is pretty handy to clean a lot of interior areas without having to strip the knife down so always adding a drop of mineral oil should always keep things lubed.
 
BTTLBRN said:
No debate for me, there may be merit to trying something other than the OEM CRK grease but I haven’t had a reason to try anything else.
I live in a very hot climate, it stays put just fine in 110-115 summers.
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This. Also, I find that it attracts less dirt and lint than oil (as long as it is used sparingly)
 
Some folks don’t use any lube, so, running oil shouldn’t have any ill effects on the life of the parts.
Whichever CRK you want to use at work will need to be broken in for a while. You can always back off the pivot tension and stop pin to see if that helps it to be flickable.
I’ve got a few older ones that can be flicked open. Can’t say a new one will out of the box.
 
Chris Reeve always said to use grease & not oil. There is a reason. Oils are meant to lubricate closed systems, like your car engine. Greases are meant to lubricate open systems, like firearms and knives.

Certain greases actually bond chemically with the metal - providing lubrication & protection at the cellular level. Without going into a long discussion, greases are a better choice for pivots. If you want an alternative to CRK grease, try TW25B . It is a light grease preferred by the military for all firearms. It is applied lightly - not gobs of grease- and will lubricate your pivot (or firearm) and for longer periods of time because it provides lubrication and protection both physically and chemically.

if you are curious and want to learn more, research “grease vs oil for 1911 firearm”

View attachment 1539089
 
The CRK grease is food grade (approved for use in Food plants......so you can worry a little less when cutting an apple), and does not react with the bronze washers, so it had many good attributes. It is custom packaged Christolube. In the very old days, it still said Christolube on it. Christolube makes a few varieties of this grease. If I recall correctly it is this version:

https://tmcindustries.com/products/christo-lube-mcg-111-grease?variant=31978593910851

https://www.ecllube.com/userfiles/pdf/pds/PDS MCG 111.pdf
 
Ron Sabbagh said:
Chris Reeve always said to use grease & not oil. There is a reason. Oils are meant to lubricate closed systems, like your car engine. Greases are meant to lubricate open systems, like firearms and knives.

Certain greases actually bond chemically with the metal - providing lubrication & protection at the cellular level. Without going into a long discussion, greases are a better choice for pivots. If you want an alternative to CRK grease, try TW25B . It is a light grease preferred by the military for all firearms. It is applied lightly - not gobs of grease- and will lubricate your pivot (or firearm) and for longer periods of time because it provides lubrication and protection both physically and chemically.

if you are curious and want to learn more, research “grease vs oil for 1911 firearm”

View attachment 1539089
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. Gotta get some of that to try out.

kidcongo said:
The CRK grease is food grade (approved for use in Food plants......so you can worry a little less when cutting an apple), and does not react with the bronze washers, so it had many good attributes. It is custom packaged Christolube. In the very old days, it still said Christolube on it. Christolube makes a few varieties of this grease. If I recall correctly it is this version:

https://tmcindustries.com/products/christo-lube-mcg-111-grease?variant=31978593910851

https://www.ecllube.com/userfiles/pdf/pds/PDS MCG 111.pdf
Click to expand...

Nice, I didn't know the CRK grease was food safe. I must have misremembered because I thought it was Krytox the whole time.
 
jiggyfly16 said:
Thanks for the info. Gotta get some of that to try out.



Nice, I didn't know the CRK grease was food safe. I must have misremembered because I thought it was Krytox the whole time.
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How is krytox in these knives? I have TONS of it at my disposal.
 
I used Benchmade Blue Lube in my Inkosi once when it felt very dry and was due a re-greasing but I didn’t have any available at the time. It worked great making the action very smooth feeling but it didn’t last as long as the actual CRK grease does.
 
SuzukiGS750EZ said:
How is krytox in these knives? I have TONS of it at my disposal.
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Apparently CRK grease is repackaged Christolube PFPE lubricant. Krytox is just another brand of PFPE lubricant. If you have some try it out and let us know how it works compared to OEM grease. It's always good to have alternatives.
 
jiggyfly16 said:
Apparently CRK grease is repackaged Christolube PFPE lubricant. Krytox is just another brand of PFPE lubricant. If you have some try it out and let us know how it works compared to OEM grease. It's always good to have alternatives.
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Krytox isn't as thin as crk. It's more smooth though. A little goes a long way. I'll give it a shot.
 
Per CRK customer rep, grease is needed in the Sebenza for both lubrication and protection. She wrote that the CRK lube has been chosen and proven by testing and they don't reccomend subtitutes.
 
Both. I use grease initially and with breakdown, mineral oil the rest of the time. Usually a couple times a month I put a drop of mineral oil in (without disassembly) and it clears out a ton of lint from the pivot... All the stuff captured in the grease I'm guessing. This works great for me, easy to open, smooth and fast, and low maintenance.
 
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