I'm pretty new to nice knives. I don't really have any yet, but ever since the hacksmith announced the Smith blade I've been interested in them.
I did a deep dive on what M390 was and learned all about different blade steels and then went down the rabbit hole.
Fast forward a bit, and a few cheapish knives later, I found a benchmade 556 in our junk drawer. No one knows how it got there, possibly left by a guest years ago or something my dad forgot about completely.
It was in REALLY rough shape when I found it. I disassembled it and cleaned tons of crap out of it, and then got to the washers.
They seem to be corroded and scuffed up, as well as the blade surface they ride on. I tried using WD40 Specialist gel lubricant on them, but they still bind up very badly if you even slightly tighten the pin screw.
I use this same lubricant on brass bushings on rc cars, and it works extremely well. It also worked very well on my gerber pledge's plastic washers lol. It flicks open like it's on bearings now.
I've seen people talk about polishing their washers, but with the blade also being marred slightly I'm wondering if I need to do both surfaces.
Sorry for the long post, just wanted some advice on how to go about saving this old benchmade someone forgot about years ago.
by MrJelly007
3 Comments
Just clean it up and run it or send it into Benchmade.
The blade looks fine. As for the washers get some leather and some stroping compound. Light pressure and use a figure 8 pattern on each side. Probably 5-8 passes per side. Assemble the knife and adjust the pivot until there’s no side to side play(rarely fully tightened down). Use blue lock tight and let it set for 1-2 days. A little kpl light lube or knife pivot lube will make it nice and smooth.
Also Benchmade knives come with a lifetime sharpening/cleaning warranty. Only have to pay shipping.
One other thing to note: when it comes to reassembling the knife, the pivot does NOT need to be tightened all the way down. In fact, you’ll want to play with it to get the action you want. Tight enough to not wobble when open or closed, but loose enough that it opens and closes freely.
Sometimes, depending on how the liners are, you can even adjust the pivot tension by adjusting the body screws (ie: if the back is tighter, it might align the liners around the pivot more squarely)
Locktite is good for this, the blue stuff (or even purple if you can find it). Just strong enough to hold the screw exactly where you want it, but still able to break it loose the next time you need to disassemble.