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KC Tool Knife Maintenance Kit – Drop Exclusive

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KC Tool Knife Maintenance Kit – Drop Exclusive

Hatuletoh

850

Dec 5, 2018

Nice kit, no doubt. I haven't tried Wera drivers, but I HAVE tried a handful of others that did indeed strips screws, and themselves. Looking at you Kershaw Torx Tool, you cheap piece of crap...but ZT sent new screws, and since both Kershaw and ZT are owned by the same company, I guess we're square. I finally found a very good one, though, with an attached storage rack that you cant loose: Kobalt, from Lowes. No strips since I picked up that Torx driver, plus it comes with T5, which is unusual, and a couple of Phillip's and flat head drivers. Cost: $8 To ensure I dont lose parts (done that too) I have two magnetic trays from Smith n' Edward's Country Store, a local yee-hah Wesrtern/cowboy/huntin' finshin'/mil-surplus super store. Cost $0.99, BOGO. For a mat I bought a cheap kickboard, as is used to aid swimming instruction, and carved out pockets on the sides to hold the magnetic trays, then shaved the middle so there was a depression to work in, like a shallow bowl. Or more aptly, like a rectangular dinner plate. The foam was a bit soft I thought, so I used a torch to gently toast the depression, which formed a tougher top layer; I then smoothed it with a mounted razorblade tool. What's great about the board is I can jam stuff in it anywhere to keep track of it for a min, like a Torx bit or second knife. Cost: $7.99 at Big 5 SG. I should probably add something to the bottom to prevent it sliding. Most blades dont need too much oiling up here on the arid steppe, but it never hurts and it keeps fingerprints and dust off. For that, I like a classic: Tsubaki oil, derived from the Japanese hinoki tree. I hate people who think that whatever samurai were doing in 1550 was the best blade practice and can never be improved upon, never, ever, ahmen, but in this case, the oil used by samurai for centuries on their blades really is great. Its light, mostly odorless, totally non-toxic (it's also used for cooking, and as a hair tonic, though get the ones labeled food/cosmetic grade if you do that), and if applied lightly, left for a bit, then gently wiped, the oil leaves a perfect, ultra-thin layer that repels prints and light dust. Cost: $13 on Amazon for bottle that might outlast you. And it comes with some sort of little Japanese magic eraser for steel--gently removes rust and not blade steel; a must-have for satin CPM M4 owners. Lastly, the lube. I've tried everything, and I'll tell you my conclusion: you dont need it, and probably shouldn't use it. There are some exceptions, like Sabenzas, which are actually built to hold lubricant around the pivot, and are torqued down as tightly as they are with the expectation they'll remain properly greased up. But most well-built knives dont need it, and if fine dust gets inside a knife's moving parts, lubricant becomes the glue holding the sand on the paper, which scours the knife's hardware, or worse. And I've learned its definitely a mistake to grease up a brand new knife just because the detent feels too strong, so the blade hard to deploy. The parts need to wear and break in, which is only hampered by making said parts slicker. Give a knife a chance, like a cpl weeks, at least, before you grease it up. That said, I still keep a bit of lubricant on hand, just in case. Nano is great, no question; I like CRK (speaking of Sabenzas) fluoronated lubricant, and hate Sentry Tuff-Glide. BladeHQ swears by that stuff, but it's supposed to repel dirt but...it doesn't. At all. For me, anyhow; maybe I had a bad batch. What I use these days is Blaster PB-50 Multi-Purpose Lubricant with Teflon fluoropolymer. A poor man's CRK lube. Cost: $2.79 for the small can, $5.99 for the giant one (it doesnt come with one of those red dispenser tubes, so help yourself to one off the nearby WD-40, just turn that WD can around so its obvious the tube is gone and some poor schmuck doesnt buy that particular can if he really needs one with the dispenser tube.) Assuming the small can of lubricant is purchased, plus sales tax on everything, and that's what..?... say about $40 or $50? Theres some DIY with the "mat", but it wasn't hard and there are probably even easier ways to make something like that. I grabbed what was in front of me. Or get a branded one for free with purchases over certain amounts at knife shops. I dont mean to cast aspersions upon the new MD kit here--if you can afford it, get it. It's nice. But if you've spent so much on knives theres nothing left for knife maintenance tools, you have less costly options, so get some of those, because knives are like cars: everyone should be able to change a flat and at least know when the warning light is serious enough to warrant calling a professional.

Tigerman

412

Jan 7, 2019

HatuletohNow I'm going to try some tsubaki oil! I use hinoki drumsticks, and when they break they smell AMAZING!

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stoutdog

305

Jan 8, 2019

HatuletohVery informative post. Thanks. You must live in Utah.

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Hatuletoh

850

Jan 14, 2019

TigermanHinoki drum sticks? Fancy. Never even heard of those, and I used to play the drums all day every day. I dont think I could even hold a steady 1/8 on the high-hat now, I'm so out of practice, but back in the day I was decent enough. Drummers are always in demand, as my old teacher used to say. The tsubaki oil is is mix and doesn't have too strong of a smell, but I (and millions of Japanese people) agree--it smells great. So I found some hinoki essential oil and put a few drops in my tsubaki oil, just to make the blades smell nice. Miracle Botanicals, my friends on the Big Island. Only company I've ever seen with hinoki oil, and their prices are, well, fair market. As opposed to MLM prices. Of course, MB just sells regular essential oils with nice smells, and some antimicrobial and/insect repellent properties. They don't cure cancer, autism, AIDS, gout, goiters, gas, gran mal seizures--probably petite too--chancres, strep, shingles, sepsis, sprains, strains, stroke, shock, and sickle cell anemia. As do the essential oils of couple MLM based very near me here in the capital of MLMs. At least i think thats what they claim. At $50 for a few ml of lavender, it had better be magic. Whew, got off on an MLM tangent there, sorry. I really hate those guys though. Used to be, if you told someone they scent they liked was something you'd mixed up yourself from essential oils, the worst they'd think was you had hippie parents. But mention essential oils now and people either run screaming to avoid the expected sales pitch, or snicker and use words like "quackery" and "pseudoscience" and "fraud". And I have to try to explain, "I...uh...I just think they smell nice."

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Hatuletoh

850

Jan 14, 2019

stoutdogSort of. I live in the Salt Lake City, and we prefer to think of ourselves as the properly diverse residents of a free American city-state, separate from, if surrounded by, the weird homogeneity that is Utah. Where people are about 80% all the same religion and about 75% of them vote Republican every single time, no matter how incompetent or criminal the candidate. And I'm not advocating that Democrats are inherently better than Republicans, I'm just suggesting that things work better when the best candidate wins, and one party doesn't feel they can do anything they please w/o political consequence. Weird place, Utah. Other than going to BladeHQ and some favorite camping spots, I tend to avoid it.

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