Olive oil as lubricant

[joeyza]

I have heard people say that olive oil as lubricant may not be a good idea cause its tends to go rancid after a while. I used some olive oil as lubricant on my spyderco about a week ago without any problems at all and it seems to work extremely well as a lubricant. Been flipping it a lot and found that the olive oil lasted alot longer than my tuf glide did, surprisingly..about three times as long before I had to lubricate again. Just thought this was interesting and wanted to share:thumbup:

 

[coot_shootr]

Mineral oil. It is food safe and does not have the tendency to spoil under heat and pocket wear like olive oil does.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

On stainless steels, maybe not a big deal. But natural food oils contain sugars and/or fatty acids that become more acidic over time and might induce some corrosion on carbon steels (& verdigris on brass), unless the oil is washed off and fresh oil re-applied regularly. My mother has an old (30+ years) set of Chicago Cutlery stainless kitchen knives, handled in walnut. She's used vegetable oil to keep the handles in shape over that span of decades. On those knives, the wood has held up nicely, though some green verdigris has developed around the brass pins over time (more so on individual knives that don't get used and therefore washed as frequently).


David

 

[Rich S]

Yes, mineral oil is better. Vegetable oils also tend to dry out over time and can leave stains, even corrosion on some steels. I've used mineral oil on my antique Japanese swords, but they get cleaned and re-oiled monthly. For my folders, I just use good old 3 in 1 oil or similar product. I've even made up my own mixture of 3in1 oil mixed with Vasoline that seems to work quite well on my folders; not having to reapply for years (depending on usage). That's just for the joint oil, not as a blade preservative.

Rich

 

[KuRUpTD]

I don't think anyone has mentioned it here so let me be the first...

use mineral oil

 

[huckabee]

I'm with everyone else here - use mineral oil instead of food based oils.

You can find it in your local Walgreens/CVS or other drugstore in the pharmaceutical section next to stuff like laxatives. Mineral oil is not only safe to use on your knife, its also safe to use your knife to cut food even if there is still mineral oil on it. Don't worry, mineral oil won't actually cause a laxative effect unless you ingest a lot of it, like more than 1 Tbsp.

I sometimes use other lubricants like teflon-based Slick50, or just plain 'ol WD-40; but unless you like cancer, you should only do that on knives that won't be used on food.

 

[Jason B.]

Never use a food oil, it goes rancid as OWE said and becomes very sticky.

 

[Magnaminous_G]

Never use a food oil, it goes rancid as OWE said and becomes very sticky.

That's what I was thinking: wouldn't it eventually gunk up? Yuck. I use Hoppes #9 in the applicator bottle. Very good product. I've got some nano-lube on order, which people seem to say is the best lube on the planet so I want to try it out.