Best way to clean inside a knife?

Luckypaul777 · Post by **Luckypaul777** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 3:34 am

I have bought several old knives; the outsides looks fine. But inside there is a lot of crud or rust on the springs and liners; what's the best way to get it out? I have tried to flatten q-tips; with Simichrome but it is hard to get it down into the knives. Thanks.

Luckypaul777

justacowboy · Post by **justacowboy** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 3:38 am

blast it with wd40 to get the lose stuff ,then try a popsickle stick with fine sand paper .

jonet143 · Post by **jonet143** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 4:01 am

popsicle stick, oil and 0000 steel wool.

orvet · Post by **orvet** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 6:57 am

I use a dental pick to get out the big chunks.
Then I will use Birchwood Casey's Gun Scrubber. It blasts out the gunk & crud and leaves the inside nice & clean. Rarely does it leave any crud inside a knife. It is safe with synthetic & natural material. I have used it with bone, wood, & Delrin with no observable side effects. I don't know how it would work on celluloid, as I have not tried it on celluloid.

Just my method,
Dale

Luckypaul777 · Post by **Luckypaul777** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 4:50 pm

Looks like today; is a good day for eating some Popsicles.

I also ordered some Birchwood Scrubber; just as a back-up. Thanks for the help; q-tips wasn't getting it done.

Luckypaul777

orvet · Post by **orvet** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 5:08 pm

There is a tool? (I guess you would call it) that I use to clean inside of medium to large knives.
It is the foam rubber looking thing that looks like a flat Q-tip that my wife uses to put on some make-up (for eye shadow I think). Not sure what they are called, but I saw some at the Dollar Tree (where I buy soda pop) and picked them up. They work good to polish the inside of the liners on medium to large knives.

Dale

gringo · Post by **gringo** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 7:52 pm

toothpick....

Diligence · Post by **Diligence** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 11:48 pm

I use old toothbrushes that I sand down to the right shape.....and bits of wooden stir stick from my favorite coffee shop....

D

TomH · Post by **TomH** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 4:21 am

I usually use the end of a large paper clip and nevr-dull or fine steel wool and oil. If there is rust, I sometimes use 400 or 600 grit sand paper, folded to make a tight fit. A good spraying with wd-40 also helps.

glennbad · Post by **glennbad** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 4:48 pm

I sometimes use dental picks or the small jewelers screwdrivers to loosen up the hard stuff. They can get right down in the springs. (be mindful what you do to a knife if it has collector value. Any "alteration" could reduce value) If there is evidence of rust inside, I'll put a drop or two of rust free inside and wipe the springs and the liners down.

Glenn

justold52 · Post by **justold52** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 6:59 pm

Some times I use my wifeys old nail file with a old t-shirt around it.

I use it with some FLITZ METAL POLISH.

Makes the brass shin up real good.

UP DATE --------

OLD wifey too

knives4sale · Post by **knives4sale** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 7:45 pm

I do quite a lot of knife cleaning and repair. I use the stir sticks from Starbucks, WD40, and in some difficult knives, I use a dremel tool with a long brush bit. You can also use a small file and a variety of metal picks (from Harbor Freight Tools). A product called Goo Gone from the paint dept. of Home Depot can also work wonders on built up dirt - apply with q-tip or standard Shot Nneedle type Syringe. Be careful with this, because it can also loosen up the glue holding the handle scales. Precision application is the key. Hope this helps!

gcrinnion · Post by **gcrinnion** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 11:49 pm

I use a toothpick to knock off the major crud then I put it into my medium sized ultrasonic cleaner for a few cycles.

greyelm · Post by **greyelm** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 1:17 pm

For the inside I follow the toothpick method. For a quick cleanup of nailpicks and around the tang & stamp I use a soft pencil (HB or B), it gets rid of the crud from the stamping and makes it more visible. The pencil also helps with tiny pitting on blades. It can be easily polished off with a dry kleenex. It shouldn't harm patina.

Owd Wullie · Post by **Owd Wullie** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 4:53 pm

I've found that No-2 lead pencils work very nicely after you get the big chunks and fuzz out. I squirt it down with KROIL or WD-40 or whatever is handy and let it soak for a little or a lot. I then take an old No-2 lead pencil and sharpen it up and get after the rust. It will remove the oxide but not any metal. The graphite seems to help make things a little slicker in the working bits as well. Been using this trick on guns for years. It will not remove the bluing but it will get the rough spots to feel smoother. It doesn't remove pits but it does get out the red stuff. Sounds silly but don't use the eraser, just the lead part.

I wore out a pencil cleaning up this lil dumplin
BEFORE;

I'll try to get an "after" pic up if somebody wants one.
It is a lot happier now. Still has the stains and the etched out areas where the rust was but it looks and open and closes a LOT better now.
AFTER the pencil treatment;

bladeguy58 · Post by **bladeguy58** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 2:40 pm

I had already used most of the methods recommended here but I did find a couple of new ones, the best being the pencil for rust. I absolutely love how a pencil work like magic in taking small amount of rust and stains off. The other one was about using a dental tool so the last time I was at my dentist they gave me one which I just used last night to clean a load of rusted fuzz and gunk out of a knife. One other thing that I didn't see mentioned which I just tried last night but only works on larger knives is those Scotchbrite type pads but this one was rated like Steel wool with a 0000 coarseness. It's like a pad that you can squeeze down to fit inside of a larger knife and it really cleaned up the inside of my knife. I didn't notice if this is a Stick note or not but it should be with all the great information on how to clean up a knife.

fergusontd · Post by **fergusontd** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 3:43 pm

I use a cottonswab with some Benchmade knife cleaner solvant and then oil the joints with a little Benchmade oil. ftd

jerryd6818 · Post by **jerryd6818** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 3:56 pm

Start-up price is kinda steep but I'm in love with my sonic cleaner. Couple of drops of Dawn dishwashing detergent in the water, two or three cycles (4½ min. each) in the sonic cleaner and you should see the crud that it "digs" out. It even takes some of the oxidation off the bolsters and liners. A little go juice (machine oil) on the joints and it's about as good as it's going to get. I've lost count of the knives that came to me with no snap or slow blades that have been "cured" by this treatment.

As a side note, I wonder where some of the people that first posted in this five year old thread are these days. Luckypaul777 and justold52 are the two that stand out for me.

IMBand · Post by **IMBand** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 4:38 pm

I have a couple backsprings removed from parts knives and they work extremely well for the initial cleaning of crud in a blade well. The are plenty hard, and have nice square edges that do a great job of cleaning the liners without leaving scratch marks like some of the other methods will. As far as polishing in the blade well, other posts in this thread have that well covered.

IM

orvet · Post by **orvet** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 6:06 pm

Just to update the Burchwood Casey Gun Scrubber info.
I got brave and used it on celluloid.
It cleaned the knife nicely and didn't bother the celluloid.

tjmurphy · Post by **tjmurphy** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 7:34 pm

[quote="jerryd6818"]Start-up price is kinda steep but I'm in love with my sonic cleaner. Couple of drops of Dawn dishwashing detergent in the water, two or three cycles (4½ min. each) in the sonic cleaner and you should see the crud that it "digs" out. It even takes some of the oxidation off the bolsters and liners. A little go juice (machine oil) on the joints and it's about as good as it's going to get. I've lost count of the knives that came to me with no snap or slow blades that have been "cured" by this treatment.

As a side note, I wonder where some of the people that first posted in this five year old thread are these days. Luckypaul777 and justold52 are the two that stand out for me.[/quote]
Can't speak to LuckyPaul, but JustOld52 stops by occasionally, though he doesn't post. If you remember he had a house fire over a year ago that wiped out his knife collection. That was really a sad day. He had some of the nicest knives on the forum.

glennbad · Post by **glennbad** » Wed Apr 02, 2014 12:09 pm

Yeah, I think that took a lot of the wind out his sails.

Ken was pretty passionate about his knives, yellow ones especially IIRC.

jerryd6818 · Post by **jerryd6818** » Wed Apr 02, 2014 12:17 pm

I stopped at his house one time when I was down visiting my daughter. Ken had a ton of knives and has been said, some very nice ones.

Wendelin · Post by **Wendelin** » Mon Dec 20, 2021 9:58 pm

A great tool to clean inside the handle where the blades lay is a proxibrush. They come in several sizes and you can get them at the drugstore and discount stores by the toothbrushes.

cudgee · Post by **cudgee** » Tue Dec 21, 2021 1:26 am

Wendelin wrote: ↑Mon Dec 20, 2021 9:58 pm A great tool to clean inside the handle where the blades lay is a proxibrush. They come in several sizes and you can get them at the drugstore and discount stores by the toothbrushes.

Proxibrush, inter dental cleaners, whatever you call them are designed for cleaning knives. Great advise for those who don't know about them,

i have been using them for years.

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