Lubrication to stock WE pivots vs upgraded arms

Legacy Forum Archive basic-techniques-and-sharpening-strategies
1

I found when new the stock WE arm pivots (u-joints) were rather sticky, especially when coming back up from a stroke off the end of the knife (tip end that is). I applied some SAE 30 motor oil (Mobile 1 to be exact) right at each pivot and voila, they are as smooth as butter now.

Now, I know the techies will tell me that I will accumulate a lot of metal from sharpening because the wet oil will grab that stuff like kids to cookies, but you can cover the pivots just as well like many do with the ball joints.

I am wanting to know if anyone else has lubed their basic kit arm pivots and with what, or not and why not?

Seems this keeps me from wishing for the ball joint arm upgrade too badly.

Thanks

2

Pat, you know as good as I do that you will end up w/ the upgrade kit… you may as well go ahead and get it! :silly:

I have used a ton of different oils and such and they all work about the same. Synthetic is as good as any of them since the molicules will be more uniform and lubricate better. The rubber glove finger tips over them would work just fine!

[quote quote=“wepsflana” post=20760]I found when new the stock WE arm pivots (u-joints) were rather sticky, especially when coming back up from a stroke off the end of the knife (tip end that is). I applied some SAE 30 motor oil (Mobile 1 to be exact) right at each pivot and voila, they are as smooth as butter now.

Now, I know the techies will tell me that I will accumulate a lot of metal from sharpening because the wet oil will grab that stuff like kids to cookies, but you can cover the pivots just as well like many do with the ball joints.

I am wanting to know if anyone else has lubed their basic kit arm pivots and with what, or not and why not?

Seems this keeps me from wishing for the ball joint arm upgrade too badly.

Thanks[/quote]

3

You’re right man! Upgrade is likely in Feb…might as well break in the stones on the basic pivots for now.

4

I had my WE for a month before I upgraded the arms. So, I second Josh’s comment :slight_smile:

What I used in the meantime was white lithium grease. It seemed to work great.