Cleaning and caring for your OTF knife is a very important part of owning one. A clean and well maintained OTF is a functional and useful tool. A dirty OTF knife can misfire and be unreliable. The good news is that cleaning and caring for an OTF can be very easy and fun. Now, before we go any further we must put this little disclaimer out there:
“We understand that OTF knives come in all different shapes and sizes. So, when discussing the caring for and cleaning of your OTF we are going to assume that you own one of our fantastic knives.”
If you don’t own one of our OTF knives then I would really recommend getting one.. They are awesome and we guarantee your satisfaction…
But seriously if you own another brand I highly recommend reading their warranty details to make sure that opening up your knife doesn’t void the warranty. Now, if you are allowed to open up your knife without voiding the warranty I recommend going to YouTube and doing a search for “cleaning and caring for a (“enter your knife name here”)”. Chances are someone out there made a video showing you how to properly clean your knife. If you do own a knife that has a stipulation against opening it, I recommend contacting that manufacturer to find out how they recommend caring for their product.
BASIC STEPS TO CARING FOR YOUR OTF KNIFE:
1. Discharge your Knife: This step was not in our video, but we highly recommend performing this step before opening up your knife. To discharge your knife simply fire it at close range against something that is not human, animal, or valuable. We recommend a phone book or even a piece of paper will do the job. Once fired at close range, the blade should discharge from it’s mechanism and slide freely in and out of the handle. If the knife has been properly discharged, the trigger will not eject or retract the blade.
2. Prepare your Tools: To properly open and clean your OTF knife you are going to need a few items. First, you will need a 2 mm metric or 5/64th standard bit. Then you will also need a light lubricant and a rag.
3. Open the Knife: Use your desired bit to unscrew the 6 screws that hold the handle together.
4. Remove the Inside Components: Once the screws are removed, it is time to disassemble the knife and separate the individual components. The main internal components are the slider, the main spring, and the blade. For this step just worry about getting the handle separated as well as separating the spring and slider so that they can be cleaned.
5. Remove the Blade: The easiest way to explain this is to watch the video attached to this post.
6. Clean all Parts: We have tried many different kinds of light lubricants, and the one that seems to work out the best for us is the WD-40 rust proof spray as seen in our video. If you have a light lubricant that you would prefer please feel free to use it. If the lubricant is too thick it is going to restrict the blade path and keep the knife from firing properly. If this is the case simply re-clean all components and either use no lubricant, or try a different type of lubricant that will not restrict the blade path. And if that still doesn’t work, give us a call and we will get your knife back to working order.
7. Reassemble and Enjoy your OTF: Go there and hunt bears, cut cheese, save damsels in distress or whatever it is that you use your Ravencrest Tactical OTF Knife for. Just do it safely and in good health!
We hope that this article has been useful (and hopefully somewhat amusing). If it has been, we ask you to please share it somewhere.
Next week we are going to go over how to properly sharpen and maintain the edge of your blade. Stay tuned….
