3 Ways to Bring an Old Pocketknife Back to Life

Sometimes we love a pocketknife so much that we neglect it -- seriously, a knife can become such a natural part of our day-to-day life that we forget to take proper care of it.

Hey, it happens to all of us. The good news is that there a few easy ways to breathe new life into a tired pocketknife.

1. Clean and lubricate it. Strange as it may seem, a gummy pivot on a pocketknife can be more annoying than a dull blade. Whether the condition is the result of poor maintenance or just an accumulation of pocket lint, a balky knife is fairly easy to put right.

Start by wiping the knife's interior and the pivots' exposed surfaces with the corner of a folded cloth. Use compressed (canned) air to blow stubborn crud out of the crannies.

If the pivots and backsprings are truly gummy (or even corroded), it's time to break out the soap and water. For detailed instructions, check out our primer on cleaning a really dirty pocketknife.

Once the knife is clean and dry, you'll want to apply a little light oil to the pivots and other contact surfaces. (Almost any light machine oil will do, but we prefer Benchmade BlueLube.)

2. Polish it. Lots of us consider patina, stains and tarnish to be marks of a pocketknife's character (and our own as well). Other knife lovers aren't happy unless their blades sparkle -- it's a matter of pride, after all, just the way we were raised.

If you fall into the second group, use fine metal polish (like Flitz) or a jeweler's cloth to buff your steel back to its original gleam. While you're at it, remember to shine those nickel-silver bolsters, too.

3. Sharpen it. A knife isn't much of a knife unless it's sharp. And you should sharpen your knives yourself, of course.

Maintaining your edges ought to be a regular ritual -- and if it is, you probably won't have much work to do when completing the kind of of mild restoration we're talking about in this article. Should you find yourself with one or more deadly dull blades, however, roll up your sleeves, set aside some time and do the job right.

(If you're new to KnivesShipFree, you should know that we're pretty serious about knife sharpening around here. We offer a wide range of sharpening supplies, as well as a page devoted to knife sharpening and a series of instructional videos.)