Hi! I am a new to the forum and have enjoyed following the discussions. I have learned much!

I received my Ritter RSK Mk 1 today, and you all are right - it is a fine knife. Occassionaly, I am on small sailboats on saltwater and usually I get wet in in those circumstances. Will this knife be okay with occassional dunkings in seawater? I have been unable to find anything on exposure of this knife to saltwater and care of it after such exposure.

Thanks!
Randy

Here is the Benchmade link to Doug's RSK knife. I don't have the RSK (yet) but I do have one of their Mini-Griptilians.

Here is the Benchmade link to their knife care.

DISREGARD THIS PARAGRAPH - SEE DOUG'S RESPONSE.
Not very descriptive of exactly what to do, but I'm guessing with salt water you'd want to rinse/clean the knife in tap water, dry it, and lubricate it with something like WD-40.

I've found the cans of compressed air at the computer stores work great for blowing out the crap and dirt that accumulates in the knife that is hard to reach.

The RSK Mk1 and Mini are not totally impervious to saltwater, such as an H1 or X15TN steel or titanium, or even cheaper grades of high chromium content stainless as used on may yachting and dive knives. It is not specifically designed as a yachting knife. Having said that, S30V is more corrosion resistant than any of the other high carbon stainless steels and the stonewashed surface treatment also improves on that. Other boaters have used the RSK Mk1 and Mini with no problems, rinsing with fresh water and drying after use. I just spent an afternoon in a very wet life raft off the coast of California, my RSK Mk1 was immersed in salt water for a few hours and was not rinsed off until later that day. The only indication of any corrosion was some very slight discoloration of one of the laser markings, which makes some sense as that penetrates the stonewashed surface.

If you are at all concerned, wipe the balde down with some Tuf-Cloth or Marine Tuf-Cloth see: www.sentrysolutions.com

Hope this answers your question.

NEVER USE WD40 as a lubricant. It is a lousy lubricant, was never designed to lubricate and basically sucks for that purpose. WD stands for "water displacement." Here's a discussion: http://yarchive.net/chem/wd40.html

The recommended lubricant for the RSK Mk1 is MILITEC-1 http://www.militec1.com/
They will send you a free sample which will last years for most folks.

Would gun oil work? Lots of us have that stuff lying around, which is much better than having to wait for something to get shipped.

Define "work"

Seriously, you can use any lubricant, and many knife users have their favorite, but we recommend Militec-1 for a number of reasons. In our experience it lubricates better than others we've tried, doesn't attract dirt, lasts a long time and doesn't wash out easily. YMMV.

Personally, I wouldn't use a traditional "gun lube" except if I had no other choice.

Doug,

Thanks for the thorough reply. I think I will leave my RSK on the beach when I am on saltwater - I kinda like the way it looks esp. since it's new! You have designed an excellent knife; while I've got you "on the phone" so to speak, many thanks and congratulations for creating this site and for the useful (esp. in these troubling times) information you've collected here.

Randy

"I think I will leave my RSK on the beach when I am on saltwater"

I'd encourage you to take it with you. A 1 oz bottle of Militec is available on-line for just $7.90 including shipping from http://www.militec-1.com/ . That should last you a good long time (use it sparingly).

The most important thing to do is to thoroughly rinse the knife in clean fresh water as soon as reasonably possible to remove the salt. If available I'd use the hotest water your hand can comfortably tolerate to facilitate disolving any dried salts. The lubrication is somewhat secondary, so long as you lubricate it before frequent use.

That knife is just too good to leave behind!!!

Thanks for your quick response Doug -- I will be getting some Militec-1 and a Sentry Tuf Cloth ASAP.

How do you get the free sample? I couldn't find any info on their website.

Thanks.

hmmmmm, it appears that the page is gone. Perhaps they've had too many requests, what with supporting the military with free as well. A cached version of the page is on Google at: http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:h_S...x-a%20target=nw
or
http://tinyurl.com/7dyv8

Suggest you just email them, which is all that did anyway. Worst they can say is no. In that case, invest a few bucks and get a small bottle. It's worth it.

The only synthetic handled Benchmade I have is a Mini Ambush, and it's documentation is silent as to lubrication. As for their alloy handled knives, the policy is, don't. Their bearings need no lube, and attracted grit just advances wear on the alloy. What does Chris say about the titanium Sebenzas?

CRK sells their own brand of lube for their knives. CRK also provides specific disassembly and cleaning instructions which is a pretty rare thing in the knife industry when it comes to folding knives.

Brian,

A definite change of subject but ...

Having never handled a Sebenza before I always wondered what the locking mechanism was. From the cleaning instruction pictures it looks like they use a VERY beefy version of a liner lock. Is that right?

It would probably be more accurately described as a "frame" lock since it is a part of the Ti frame slab itself. The function is however the same as that of a liner lock and it is quite beefy.

Not sure where you got that from. Benchmade's specific recommendation for ALL their folding knives is: "Lightly lubricate the pivot of the blade periodically to keep it operating smoothly." The lubricant they endorse and recommend is Militec-1.

With a spyderco military, sebenza, and now my Ritter grip I swim in the ocean, swim in the pool, wear them IWB against my skin on extended mtb rides.

After the bike rides they come out with sweat beaded on the blade, even inside the handle. I just rinse them out with tap water, wipe them dry with a towel, and then try and blow out as much water as I can with my lungs.

For the sebenza and military it has worked for 4+ years w/o a problem. I bought the Ritter when it first came out (over a year now?) and it hasn't had any problems either. I rarely lube them.

Is tuf glide any good as an alternative ? This because, I can't find militec-1 on any online store here in Europe. I also can get
MD Labs XF7. Is that any good ?

I have used Tuf-Glide in the past on other folding knives with good results and many knife owners swear by it. I have not used it on the RSK series myself. It claims similar properties to Militec-1. I am not familiar with MD Labs XF7, but I'd be inclined to think that a "grease" might be difficult to apply to the joint without disassembling the knife, which would void the warranty.

FYI, I emailed them using the link above and received a sample in the mail two days later. Excellent service.

Thanks for all the info.