Once upon a time in the Wayback Longago, I (as a foolish teenager) carried what we called a "grav blade" knife in my pocket. Italian stiletto-type folder, it could be flicked out & locked one-handed. Never cut anybody but myself with the thing.
One night in a previous life as a highly skilled & exhorbitantly paid theater movie projectionist jockeying a matched pair of hot 1948 rod-burners, I got bored watching the same movie for the umpteenth time. (People often used to view us with envy and adulation, not realizing that being a motion picture projectionist was not entirely the adventurous & glamorous life it appeared to be.
)
For some reason, I decided my knife was getting a little sluggish on the flick & needed oiling. For some other reason, it occurred to me that the high quality oil used to lube the projectors' gears would be equally good to use on my knife joint. Working a couple drops of the stuff into the pivot point and then testing for function immediately caused great consternation when I discovered that oil formulated for the high temperatures of the projectors' motor environments essentially coagulated into a less-than-slick glop inside my much cooler knife joint & gummed it up sufficiently to seriously impact my lightning draw & flick.
To the point where it took two hands to open it, a severe disadvantage in the event (never realized) of sudden need.
I walked the streets in trepidation for weeks until I was finally able to get that damned stuff outa my knife & return it to its former high state of combat readiness!
The rambling point being that there are numerous oils & lubes specifically formulated for grav blades...er, guns, that work just fine, why go looking for exotics and take foolish & unnecessary risks in doing so? I learned a valuable lesson with that old knife, and one that's stood me in good stead to this very day.
Denis
