How often do you clean your SAK?

[Serena]

Since I bought my Christmas Explorer I haven't carried another knife. So it sits in my pocket every day now.
I do clean the blade after I've used it.
But… How often do I really have to clean it completely? So, soak in water, oil it etc.
Every week, month. What do you guys do?

[kottskrapa]

Not that often actually, I do clean my blade when needed and blow it off with my compressor to get   the pocket lint out. Oil once in a while when it does not feel as smooth as I should anymore.


[It's not failure if you learn something from it]

[CallsignBadger]

 

I used to clean my SAKs every couple of weeks, but I found that there wasn't much of a point to it. Nowadays, I’ll clean adhesive off of my blade, but otherwise I only clean it if something feels weird.

[Rapidray]

Because I carry mine in my pockets 95% of the time  - untill I see lint, blow air thru it or it starts to loose it’s snap, then water and oil after drying.

[CallsignBadger]

Something else to note is how you view/treat your SAK. If you have a workhorse that is definitely not new, cleaning becomes rather unimportant. But if you like to keep your SAKs looking fresh and new, cleaning can be a different story.

[MacGyver]

I clean mine every week. But it's not detail cleaning, just brush off pocket lint so it doesn't build up. If i'm using it for something that's messy i'll clean it immediately or asap.

Don't oil it much regularly, as too much oil will only attract dust and lint. I even prefer graphite oil to normal oil, cause the graphite is a dry lubricant, once the oil dries the graphite stays and it's not as messy as regular oil.

[ddogu]

I clean pieces of dust, link etc with a toothpick or something when I see any.
And I oil it, if I sense a smallest hint of friction while opening/closing tools.

Other than that, I keep the tools clean, i.e. I wash the blade everytime I use it to cut fruit, veggies (something juicy) or something oily. The blade and the scissors also get immediate cleaning after cutting sticky stuff like tape or self-adhesive bandage etc.

[Blackbeard]

never washed one, usually use Q-tips/cotton swabs and the toothpick part of those dental flossers with a tissue can get just about every interior section spotless.

like these:

[Greg Jones]

Like others have said, I keep the lint and dust out of it, and wipe any cutting edge clean right away,  I also only need to sharpen a regular user once a year, and that's when it would get a drop of oil too

 

[El Corkscrew]

I like to keep mine clean and also use them a lot for food prep, including raw meat, so I give them a good scrub pretty often.   I use oil only when necessary. As our friend ,Who, says, " A clean SAK doesn't need oil."

[Serena]

That are a lot of responses, didn't expect that. Nice!!
Obe more question. I'm using the official Victorinox oil. Is ot bad foe your health. I mean, I do cut fruit and stuff with it.

[Mechanickal]

The Vic oil is food grade oil.
Which means it's perfectly safe for your meal prepping work!

[Serena]

The Vic oil is food grade oil.
Which means it's perfectly safe for your meal prepping work!

Good to know. Thanks!

[Mactire404]

Since I bought my Christmas Explorer I haven't carried another knife. So it sits in my pocket every day now.
I do clean the blade after I've used it.
But… How often do I really have to clean it completely? So, soak in water, oil it etc.
Every week, month. What do you guys do?

It greatly depends on the way you carry your SAK. Pocketcarry tends to pick up a lot of lint and dust.
I keep a soft toothbrush near my SAK cabinet to get rid of most of the pocket-lint and dust. Perhaps once a week?
I don't have a routine for this. At work, I clean my blade with alcohol after use. It's also great to remove any sticky residue from cutting up boxes. As a general rule I clean my SAK as soon as I'm done using it.

Greater maintenance is done every once in a while. In any case after I've been in a very sandy/muddy situation or if it's been submerged in salt water (scuba diving, though that doesn't happen anymore now).
This is my 'Bacta treatment' routine. Bacta is a Star Wars reference others might call it a Spa treatment.
I call it a Bacta treatment because the blue light in my sonic cleaner resembles the blue light in a bacta tank.

Handyman in ultrasonic cleaner        Luke Skywalker in Bacta Tank

Anyway, back to my routine:
- brush off all large particles with a toothbrush
- oil all joints liberally and set the SAK aside for a while to soften dry dirt and oils
- under running luke-warm water again brush the SAK to remove loose particles and oils
- under the same luke-warm water, open and close all the tools a couple of times
- fill a sonic bath with warm water (keep temperature in mind to prevent scale damage!) and a liberal amount of dish soap
- run the sonic bath cycle about three times
- under luke-warm water, open and close all the tools to remove all soapy water
- dry the SAK and all the tools, let air dry over night
- apply minimal oil to the joints

If I need to sharpen any blades I do so before running the sonic bath. Otherwise I have to clean it twice, and I'm a bit lazy.
I'm writing a blog post about this, but it's not finished.
I did write a post about scale melting points, keep those in mind before tossing any SAK in hot water (granted, alox is pretty safe)

[ddogu]

The Vic oil is food grade oil.
Which means it's perfectly safe for your meal prepping work!

Yeah,  I use it to deepfry chips and I'm sure that's not the reason I have ulcers! 

[CallsignBadger]

The Vic oil is food grade oil.
Which means it's perfectly safe for your meal prepping work!

Oil a SAK with vegetable oil   

[Serena]

Think I'm cleaning my new SAK for the diest time tomorrow. Can't go wrong anymore…
Thanks all for the great advices.

[Rapidray]

Think I'm cleaning my new SAK for the diest time tomorrow. Can't go wrong anymore…
Thanks all for the great advices.

Nope - you can’t go wrong there.

[ducttapetech]

Does taking the few I own blowing the dust off them once a year count? 

[Sawl Goodman]

My Soldier and more recently Centurion see a lot of grubby work so I clean them frequently, often daily. A rinse in warm water normally does the job. Caked dirt - very rare because I’m usually quick to rinse after use - gets the soak and brush treatment. I oil the pivots when they get so stiff a simple clean is no longer enough.

Ease of cleaning is one of the benefits of knives with few layers and Alox in particular. My work Handyman is a sod in comparison. I think I’ve only done it once in over a year! It’s been due for a clean for ages so I’m going to get onto it now. 

[AimlessWanderer]

Had to do a couple today. My own walk and talk was better than that of the knives, and attendants of recent UK meets, will know that's not good 

My first Swiss knife was a tourist, which never gets carried, on account of it not having scissors ( a lesson I learned quickly, and have heeded ever since). That Tourist now lives in the kitchen drawer, and is my main can and food package opener. While it does get cleaned when I use it, the backsprings had started to gum up, so it needed a full deep clean. Opening and closing under hot water helped, but successive oiling, opening and closing to work the backspring, has flushed out a lot of hidden gunk that was trapped between spring and liner. It's a lot better now, but I've got it lathered in mineral oil for one last soak, to flush out any last residue before it goes back in the drawer.

The other one was my alox Rambler, which is work on a neck lanyard. Before that got a hot soapy bath, I went all round the springs and innards with a pin, to dig out the worst. That was a bit gruesome to be honest. While I'm sure a lot of it was clothing fibres, as it's worn next to the skin, a fair bit of it might have been bits of me I'm surprised how easily that cleaned up actually. Sleeveboard knives (84mm and up) and usually a lot easier to clean than lobster pattern (74mm and below) as the void between the opposing backsprings can trap stuff, and pose more of a challenge to flush it out.

I don't have an ultrasonic cleaner, so the only sonic element is me swearing loudly because the water's too hot 

[cody6268]

Regular EDCs, monthly.  If I'm doing dirty work, or cutting food, I clean it as soon as possible.  I first fill the sink with hot water, then put some dish detergent in. I then open/close the blades several times under the faucent to loosen gunk in the pivots, then give the whole thing a good scrubbing with a small brush (usually an old toothbrush). Then, I dry it off, let it air dry to clear moisture from the areas I can't dry by hand; then oil it. Traditional folders with carbon steel blades get an extra step--I wipe the blades down with oil--in most cases, the excess from oiling the pivots already on the blades.

[nate j]

With regard to a full cleaning (i.e. hot water, soap, re-oil, etc.), extremely rarely.  I would typically only do this if the tools seemed to be losing their snap, and my experience is that a knife can be carried every day for years before this becomes an issue.

I do try to minimize the amount of residue that gets into the knife.  If I use it on anything that leaves a residue on any of the blades (e.g. food, adhesive tape, dirt), I generally give the blade in question a quick wipe and or rinse before even closing it.  One of those "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" deals.

[EMZ]

My EDC Vic gets cleaned every time I stir the milk & sugar in my coffee with it...

[Mechanickal]

My EDC Vic gets cleaned every time I stir the milk & sugar in my coffee with it...

I'm not alone!

[MTFool]

   THATS ME   

[smiller43147]

I rarely clean the whole SAK, but I do keep the blade clean.  Packing tape residue is a particular issue for me.  I find a quick wipe down with alcohol cleans up the blade quickly.

[Mini]

I was thinking about ultrasonic cleaner, trying to understand if is useful. There are some cheap with about 600ml of capacity, and was looking for information.

Also for me glue and tape residue are annoying to clean.

[nate j]

Also for me glue and tape residue are annoying to clean.

Nail polish remover (acetone) works great for taking adhesive residue off the blades.  Just take care not to get any on the scales.

[MMR]

I usually only clean mine when they have seen some heavy and dirty usage where they have gotten dirt or sand in them


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