silicone based lube?

knoefz

knoefz

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Mar 20, 2009
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I'm sure this has been asked before only I can't find any threats about it. I wonder what you guys think about silicone based oils to lube folders?

It seems most of you guys use mineral oils, even olive oils to lube your folders, but I find less dirt sticking to my knife when I use silicone based oils. The knife makes less "cracking" sounds when openening the fist time coming out of my pockets. Are there any reasons I should not be using silicone based oils for my folders (Spyderco Tenacious, Victorinox Huntsman)?

Thnx.
 
I don't see why we can't use silicone oil except for the price. Plain old mineral oil is just cheaper.
 
Militec-1!

...well somebody had to say it. Seriously, though, I've been on my sample bottle for a year now. Lubed my D4 (edc) as needed, lubed just about all my other folders, even did a full treatment (3 applications) the Sram PC-991 chain on my Gary Fisher mountain bike and I still got a little left in it!
 
I was recently gifted by a bicycle tech a tiny sample amount of 1000 weight pure silicone oil, made by Ofna Racing for RC car gear differentials. It's kind of tacky and gummy when wet, but once you rub it in and buff it off it is the slickest stuff I've ever encountered, and I've tried about 15 different oil, grease and lube products in the last few months. And this particular grade I have isn't even close to the top of the RC car lube heap as far as purported slickness goes. There's also 3000, 5000, 7000, 10000, 30000, 50000, and 120000 weight. I find it works even better when applied as base coat to dry before using on top of it CRK fluorinated grease, lithium grease, or other heavy grease-type lubricants, as opposed to thinner, less viscous oil products.
 
Ah, so silicone is ok... thnx fot your insights. I'll look into the Miltec-1 stuff. Never seen it here (the Netherlands) before but you never know.
 
Silicones formulated as LUBES are OK. Other silicone oils/greases, not made for lubrication can be bad news.
Some copiers use Si oil as a "fusion oil", about as thick as honey. Another is "high vacuum grease", made by Dow Corning. DO NOT use these as lubes, they have low film-strength and actually act like machinist's cutting oil, worse than nothing at all. These non-lube silicones can actually cause the surfaces to gall and stick. They're especially bad on gall-prone joints like aluminum to aluminum.
Been there, done that.
 
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