Cleaning a Benchmade Bugout Knife

 This post is not about disassembling a Benchmade Bugout knife.  That video is here.  Nor is this post about how to modify your Benchmade Bugout knife to make it function even better.  That video is here.  And since those already exist, why do I have to post about it?  Glad you asked...

Yesterday we ground 250 pounds (114 kg) of deer meat.  Some of it was cut into pieces too large to fit into the grinder.  And thus, I used my clean Benchmade Bugout knife to cut the venison into smaller pieces. All good, right?  Not if you add seasoning to the deer and also use your knife to clean the grinding plate.  Your knife then becomes a holy mess.  Next year I'm taking a straight blade!  Lesson learned.

Even after hand washing my knife, there were still bits of venison and lots of seasonings stuck in all the cracks, crevices, and screw heads.  So much crap, in fact, that the next day, my knife refused to open once all that junk had dried.  Que disassembly and modification to my Benchmade Bugout...

This is not a paid advertisement by Benchmade, Knife Pivot Lube, or anyone else.  This is just me telling you how I went about getting my Benchmade Bugout in top condition after being totally pitted out.

My first task was using a 1D common nail (very small) to get the grit out of the screw heads.  I think dental tools would have worked great here.  Then I used a T6 bit to get out the small screws and a T10 bit for the blade nut.  FYI - T6 bits are small and not normally included in any of your general purpose bit kits.  You will either have to buy a kit or just the T6 driver.  Trust me here.

I then followed the second video above, using the pause button frequently, to disassemble my Bugout.  I then cleaned it thoroughly with hot water and CLP.  I went ahead and polished my brass washers like in the video, but I had no other modifications to perform.

I also found that disassembly was more difficult than reassembly.  In the second video above, the author states that Benchmade Bugouts "can be a little bit fiddly" to take apart.  Those are kind words.  I found it to be frustrating.  You really need more information than what was provided and the process was hidden by the author's hands.  What you learn later is that the blade nut is in the shape of the letter D - to keep it from rotating.  Thus, parts will not just "roll around" letting you disassemble the knife easily.  The good news is that when you put everything back together, the knife snaps together very easily.

Do yourself a favor, watch the entire second video or all the videos you can before you tackle taking your Benchmade Bugout apart.

My Bugout is now clean, oiled, and ready for a quick touchup to the blade.  I'm back in business!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cleaning Winchester SX3 / SX4 Shotguns

Image
The Winchester SX4 is my Go To shotgun for everything - clays, doves, ducks, geese, pheasants, whatever.  It is an awesome firearm.  The drawback?  There are multiple moving parts and a few of them like to collect carbon.  And this carbon sticks as if it were put on those parts with super glue! Specifically, the magazine tube and the gas piston are the main carbon collectors.  Those parts come out more black than silver & gold. The inner components of an SX3 / SX4 with highlights where carbon will form So what is my trick for cleaning those bits?  I drop the gas piston into my Hornady sonic cleaner.  Inside the cleaner I put in about a cup of Hornady's One Shot Sonic Clean Solution for gun parts, add some DI water, a couple squirts of Dawn liquid dish soap, and then top it off with a dash or two of the citrus version of Dr. Bronner's pure castile liquid soap.  I have found that the citrus Dr. Bronner's is awesome at removing grease and oil.  All of that bakes in the son
Read more

Winchester SX4 Trigger Assembly Update

Image
First, you need to read the post immediately before this one to understand why I had to take my Winchester SX4 shotgun apart - all the way apart - specifically the trigger assembly. Second, my bad.  I had neglected to clean the gun after returning from last October's pheasant trip.  I had about one bale of grass seed inside that gun, which in the end, may have kept the #8 pellet from getting out on its own.  Shame. Finally, I did not give up.  I watched four different YouTube videos on how to disassemble and reassemble the trigger group.  Sadly, no one did the SX4, only the previous version, the SX3.  Close enough.  Why did it take 4 videos?  Because no one explained HOW the damn sear goes back in.  Everyone either ASSUMED we all know how OR in two cases, the reassembly process was out of the camera frame.  Aggravating! The key, and this is more for me to remember, was on the fourth video, the author said, "The sear kinda slides down into a channel in the housing."  Bam. 
Read more

Determine Sex of Deer from Tracks

Image
It IS possible to determine from a set of tracks whether the deer you are tracking is a doe (female) or a buck (male).  And, it's actually pretty simple if you know a few facts about deer. First, you have to know what a deer track looks like.  Deer leave a track that looks like the outline of a heart. Next, you have to know the direction of travel.  Deer are moving toward the "pointy" end of the heart.  So in the above example, the deer is traveling toward the top of this post, or up. Here is an actual photo of deer tracks in the wild so you can get a better idea.  Again, this deer is traveling up, or towards the top of this page.  (It is also clear that this deer was STANDING, not walking - well clear enough to me.  Read on to find out why I know that). Sometimes if the ground is soft or if the deer is traveling really fast (jumping), the track left will show the deer's dew claws at the rear of the direction traveling, like so: The two little "
Read more