White Lightening

[Alarion]

First let me answer to who said that his knife doesn't get much dirt as it sits mostly in his pocket.
Pockets are the most harsh environment possible for what concerns lint, dust and other contaminating agents that can get trapped in any mechanism.
One of the main reasons because pocket carrying a semiauto for personal defence is discouraged is that the gun can build up so much dirt in so small time to be completely inoperable.

Second thing I don't like, above all what rdangerer said, is that greases are not very good lubricating agents for hand-operated mechanisms, especially if there is a probability of using them in very cold weather.
Greases can gum up, can freeze blocking the device and so on.
In my guns and folders I use just one type of lubricant: Break Free CLP.
It's a thick oil, which must be applied very sparingly. It is one of the best protective oils available (if you have carbon steel blades) and a marvellous lubricant.
Moreover, whichever oil you use, before applying it you must think about the absolute minimum you think is needed to do the job.
Then divide this by two, and you will still be putting much more oil than is really needed.
Any more lubricant than that needed to form a film of a few molecules thickness on the mechanism to lubricate serves only to attract dirt.
Dirt means friction.
Dirt means rusting.
You don't want dirt in your mechanism, and you don't want too much lubricant.
On many modern knives, using bronze bearings or teflon bushings, no lubricant is actually much better than too much oil or grease.
Dirt will quickly abrade the bearings and embed in teflon bushings spoling them completely.
I never tried White Lightning, but in my experience the only place where grease is of some use, either in knives or firearms, is in rifle bolts (if applied sparingly).
For all the other knife and firearm mechanisms oil is better.

And stay away from WD40 as a lubricant and protective, because it's not.
WD40 is an excellent cleaning oil, marvellous for removing rust and unblocking stuck parts, but will evaporate quickly and it's too runny, offering little lubrication and almost no rust protection.

 

[phlatinum]

I'm no scientist, so FOR WHAT ITS WORTH:

I used to put Break Free CLP on everything ... knives, guns, door hinges, etc., until I was informed that it contains teflon. Break Free must be shaken before use because the teflon settles to the bottom of the bottle. This would indicate to my addled noodle that I might see a build-up problem somewhere down the road on more intricate machinery???? (I don't know if this is a legitimate concern or not.) Anyway, I fer sher don't want teflon inside the chambers of my firearms (HUGE increase in bolt thrust forces, I would think), so I've switched to Remington Nitro CLP .... for everything. Seems to do a fine job, so far.

Remington boasts that it's Nitro CLP is not refined from crude oil, whereas the Break Free bottle warns that it contains petroleum distillates. Can someone decypher these words of wit for me? What does all this mean to knife knuts? Is one safer to use around the natural and unnatural materials that knives are made of?

 

[Alarion]

Yes, Break Free contains teflon. It's because of that that it is so effective a lubricant.
You must shake well the bottle, if you want it to function properly. There's no buildup problem, I assure you. No gunk, no gumming, no buildup.
I used Break Free on some of my firearms for more than 10 years without any problem. It's a marvellous protective and amazing in friction reduction and a very good cleaner at best.
For sure one should never, ever, for any reason, oil the chamber of a rifle.
It's not just a matter of teflon: oil will avoid the case grabs against the chamber walls, acting indeed as a ram against the bolt face.
The chamber of a rifle must be cleaned with nitro solvent and oiled (or even better greased)only if the gun is to be stored for a prolonged period of time, after which the chamber must be thoroughly cleaned.
A simple pass of nitro solvent is all that's needed for normal storage and even that should be cleaned away prior to any shooting.
I don't Know remington CLP, so I can't say nothing about it.
Break free is used by the U.S. army as main cleaning and protective oil.
This, and more than ten years of use without a single problem make it good enough for me and I hearthily recommend it to anybody. The only other oil that I found on par with Break Free as a protective oil si the Italian Army special protective oil, which was as good as Break Free in a washer test (put some oiled steel washers in harsh environment and watch which rusts first) but that doesn't provide the same lubricating performances as BF does.

As for petroleum distillates, there are broadly speaking two types of oils (mineral lubricant oils): natural oils and synthetic oils. The first are derived from distillation of petroleum, the others are obtained by chemical processes. Both of them are dangerous for human health and should be handled with care. Always wear latex surgeon gloves when doing any firearm maintenance as nitro solvents and other similar product contain benzene and / or other dangerous substances known to cause leukemia and other such nasty illness.