Spyderco Forums

I was working on a scale mod for my Southard (that was coming along great until I screwed it up :mad: ) so when I was putting it back together I decided to try some Phil Wood bearing grease on the pivot bearings. I've been using this grease on my bicycle bearings for decades with great results, but I was worried it would be too thick and would slow down the action. Boy was I wrong. My Southard now flips open light lightning and swings shut with gravity (well, as far as the blade will go before it hits your thumb) and I'm able to tighten the blade down so there isn't a hint of blade play.

So, I got curious and decided to use it on a few other knives that I've already had apart for mods, and sure enough I'm able to tighten them all more than I've ever been able to and have eliminate blade play even in my 20CP Para 2 which has always been plagued with a tiny amount of play. All knives I tried it on swing shut with gravity (a couple with just a very slight jiggle of the wrist to start the blade in motion). I also put some on the detent balls so opening is silky smooth. Lastly, the grease seems to muffle the clicky clacky opening sound and now has a more satisfying "solid" sound when locking up.

Anyway, I should've known it would be good for blade pivots. When you grease wheel bearings with this stuff they spin practically forever. The only down side is obviously you'll have to take your knife apart to grease the pivot, so take that into consideration. Most of the knives I've kept for long periods of time have been taken apart for mods anyway so I'm cool with it. The other potential down side is getting crud in the pivot...which would require taking it apart and greasing it again, rather than just washing the pivot out and lubing it like you can with wet lubes.

Just on my CRK's. :)

I've used grease on the detent of my Yojimbo's with great success. It makes them open much faster as you described. That was actually suggested to me by Michael Janich. I've never tried that on a pivot though. I did find lint to be a problem over time on the detent. It would be worse in the pivot I'd imagine.

I'll be heading to the bike shop in Asheville tomorrow to get some Phil Wood grease.

Yeah, I don't know how pocket lint will effect it over time, but as Jim pointed out, CRK has been suggesting grease forever so it can't be all bad.

On the occasion I have had to dissemble a knife, e.g., rehabilitating a used knife, I use Super Lube synthetic multi-purpose grease. Just in case, it is food grade so you don't need to worry about use on food prep knives.

I get it here: http://www.bettymills.com/shop/product/ ... 41160.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I've only used Grease on a couple of my folders>> and the only grease I've ever used is the "MILITEC" Synthetic grease. I've had excellent luck with it not only on knives but on many other mechanical devices as well. I've also used it on a couple of my old German made D.A.M. Quick fishing reels with great success as well.

What I really like about MILITEC grease is that it is not sensative to temperature changes. It works as good in the cold as it does in the heat from all I can tell.

Now there is a brand of white lithium type grease I've also had great luck with>> it is QMI brand grease. The "QMI" company makes a lot of automotive products and I've found all of their stuff to be top quality. I've yet to try QMI on any of my knives but I might someday.

I have the philosophy that I adapted many years ago>> and it simply says "WHATEVER WORKS" and those two greases work very well IMO.

JD Spydo wrote:I've only used Grease on a couple of my folders>> and the only grease I've ever used is the "MILITEC" Synthetic grease. I've had excellent luck with it not only on knives but on many other mechanical devices as well. I've also used it on a couple of my old German made D.A.M. Quick fishing reels with great success as well.

What I really like about MILITEC grease is that it is not sensative to temperature changes. It works as good in the cold as it does in the heat from all I can tell.

Now there is a brand of white lithium type grease I've also had great luck with>> it is QMI brand grease. The "QMI" company makes a lot of automotive products and I've found all of their stuff to be top quality. I've yet to try QMI on any of my knives but I might someday.

I have the philosophy that I adapted many years ago>> and it simply says "WHATEVER WORKS" and those two greases work very well IMO.

JD, was it TW25B?

Hey, some good ol' Phil Wood! Never thought I'd see that mentioned here!

I can't say I'd see it being great for a regular carried pocket knife though... I know I end up with some nasty stuff in my pockets sometimes, and a lot of that stuff does end up in my knife, and if grease were in there it'd be harder to blow it out.
The Phil Wood would do great in situations where it sees moisture or gets wet though... or possibly if you did regular rebuild intervals, and often. Just my outlook on it though, maybe you'll be alright.
Atleast you didnt use Phils Tenacious Oil, lol, that stuff is like honey!

I use slide glide when I use anything at all.

GB/Techno/Tuff/Military/Caly3.5/Air all have grease, next will be trying it on the Southard since you've brought it up. Daiwa "space age" reel grease for my Zillions is whats handy usually, or Moly graphite lube from the garage.

chuck_roxas45 wrote:I use slide glide when I use anything at all.

Yup. I've got some medium slide glide.

I've had good results using a bicycle chain lube on the pivot washers, I think it was Finish Line Teflon Dry Lube.

As far as the southard it totally makes sense to use a bearing grease on a bearing pivot. I might have to give that a try.

senorsquare wrote:I've had good results using a bicycle chain lube on the pivot washers, I think it was Finish Line Teflon Dry Lube.

As far as the southard it totally makes sense to use a bearing grease on a bearing pivot. I might have to give that a try.

I agree. Heading out today to get some.

SpeedHoles wrote:Hey, some good ol' Phil Wood! Never thought I'd see that mentioned here!

I can't say I'd see it being great for a regular carried pocket knife though... I know I end up with some nasty stuff in my pockets sometimes, and a lot of that stuff does end up in my knife, and if grease were in there it'd be harder to blow it out.
The Phil Wood would do great in situations where it sees moisture or gets wet though... or possibly if you did regular rebuild intervals, and often. Just my outlook on it though, maybe you'll be alright.
Atleast you didnt use Phils Tenacious Oil, lol, that stuff is like honey!

Yeah I'm not sure how the crud build up will go, I don't think it'll be any worse than using a wet lube. I had previously been using a wax based lube and it was nasty in the pivot..far worse than I expected or could see from the outside. The action is also far better than pretty much any lube wet or dry lube I've used so far. I don't think it's a miracle grease, probably just a sign that what I've been using isn't that great of an option.

Evil D wrote:

SpeedHoles wrote:Hey, some good ol' Phil Wood! Never thought I'd see that mentioned here!

I can't say I'd see it being great for a regular carried pocket knife though... I know I end up with some nasty stuff in my pockets sometimes, and a lot of that stuff does end up in my knife, and if grease were in there it'd be harder to blow it out.
The Phil Wood would do great in situations where it sees moisture or gets wet though... or possibly if you did regular rebuild intervals, and often. Just my outlook on it though, maybe you'll be alright.
Atleast you didnt use Phils Tenacious Oil, lol, that stuff is like honey!

Yeah I'm not sure how the crud build up will go, I don't think it'll be any worse than using a wet lube. I had previously been using a wax based lube and it was nasty in the pivot..far worse than I expected or could see from the outside. The action is also far better than pretty much any lube wet or dry lube I've used so far. I don't think it's a miracle grease, probably just a sign that what I've been using isn't that great of an option.

Yeah, I've tried a few different bicycle type wax lubes (white lightning, Finishline, Pedros, T9, WD-40 bicycle dry lube (smells like cologne!) and also some slightly wetter styles too like Prolink and Triflow, among others...) I thought the wax ones were going to be the ticket because they were oh so smooth when first applied... but then all of them would slightly stiffen back up to how they were before lube after drying and not being used. Atleast they are all very easy to clean later though.
I do like the Triflow still though and currently use that on a few of my knives (I don't lube all of my knives).
I also have some cable lube called Bike-Aid Dri-slide, which I may try next. Has a very small needle type applicator that might help in applying it more precisely. Definitely don't want to get any of it on any G10, because I know it spreads and wicks into skin super fast and doesn't come out for a few days!

I have all of these just sitting around from cycling, so cost was kind of a moot point. But, I haven't tried any of that "nano-oil" or Tuff-glide, or anything more knife specific to compare, but I don't think I'll bother dropping the money to find out anytime soon. :)




oh, and I see you're in northern KY. Are you into cycling much? Or more specifically mountain biking? I have been wanting to get down to that Caverns Bike Park in KY but haven't had the time to escape. Have you heard much about it, or by chance been there?

Wow, gotta publicly thank you David!
My Southard now rivals my Domino for speed and smoothness. And, she's dead nutz centered.
Before, she was just a little - just a hair off center, and flipped well. Lol, now........its all good now :spyder: :spyder: :spyder:
Lol, gotta amend my post to say that I reckon I just got the centering right this time by the screws. The grease had nothing to do with it. But, man did it make it faster.
I'm still learning fellas :)
With Spydies, there so good out of the box, there's really no reason to tinker with one- hince learn.
Oh well, I'm learning :)

SpeedHoles wrote:

Evil D wrote:

SpeedHoles wrote:Hey, some good ol' Phil Wood! Never thought I'd see that mentioned here!

I can't say I'd see it being great for a regular carried pocket knife though... I know I end up with some nasty stuff in my pockets sometimes, and a lot of that stuff does end up in my knife, and if grease were in there it'd be harder to blow it out.
The Phil Wood would do great in situations where it sees moisture or gets wet though... or possibly if you did regular rebuild intervals, and often. Just my outlook on it though, maybe you'll be alright.
Atleast you didnt use Phils Tenacious Oil, lol, that stuff is like honey!

Yeah I'm not sure how the crud build up will go, I don't think it'll be any worse than using a wet lube. I had previously been using a wax based lube and it was nasty in the pivot..far worse than I expected or could see from the outside. The action is also far better than pretty much any lube wet or dry lube I've used so far. I don't think it's a miracle grease, probably just a sign that what I've been using isn't that great of an option.

Yeah, I've tried a few different bicycle type wax lubes (white lightning, Finishline, Pedros, T9, WD-40 bicycle dry lube (smells like cologne!) and also some slightly wetter styles too like Prolink and Triflow, among others...) I thought the wax ones were going to be the ticket because they were oh so smooth when first applied... but then all of them would slightly stiffen back up to how they were before lube after drying and not being used. Atleast they are all very easy to clean later though.
I do like the Triflow still though and currently use that on a few of my knives (I don't lube all of my knives).
I also have some cable lube called Bike-Aid Dri-slide, which I may try next. Has a very small needle type applicator that might help in applying it more precisely. Definitely don't want to get any of it on any G10, because I know it spreads and wicks into skin super fast and doesn't come out for a few days!

I have all of these just sitting around from cycling, so cost was kind of a moot point. But, I haven't tried any of that "nano-oil" or Tuff-glide, or anything more knife specific to compare, but I don't think I'll bother dropping the money to find out anytime soon. :)




oh, and I see you're in northern KY. Are you into cycling much? Or more specifically mountain biking? I have been wanting to get down to that Caverns Bike Park in KY but haven't had the time to escape. Have you heard much about it, or by chance been there?

Same here, most of my lube experience comes from my bikes or cars. I've also tried all those same bicycle lubes, and I too really like Triflow, it's probably my favorite aside from Phil grease, I just wish it was food safe (not a good idea to ingest teflon). I do have a bunch of Tuf-Glide that I use on my non stainless blades, and it's decent for that use but not the best lubricant IMO.

As for the Caverns, I've heard about it but never been. My bike history is in BMX/freestyle/dirt, and those days are long gone for me so my riding is mostly recreational now. I have about a dozen bikes in my garage ranging from some old '80s-90s freestyle bikes, to a '52 Schwinn lowrider, to a '81 Schwinn Voyageur that I bought from the original owner, a couple old Lotus road bikes, etc. I mostly ride a very rare 99% original '87 Lotus Leger, but I also ride with the kids/family so we're cruising paved paths most of the time, though we do ride long distances (20+ miles most times). I've been wanting to get a Surly for some time now but just can't budget the cash from other hobbies.