Do you have a non-fixed blade knife like a Butterfly or pocket knife? These types of knives are also called folding knives and, unlike fixed blade knives, they have moving compartments. This means that, without proper care (called thread locking), your knife can fall apart after a lot of use. Learn an easy way to protect your knife.

Loctite 242

It is also known as Loctite blue (because the package is blue), is a glue made by Henkel that is designed to hold screws in place. Vibration, movements, and general use can loosen a screen. If left unmonitored, the screw can fall out. The cool thing about Loctite is that it is permanently temporary just like post-it notes. Once you place the glue into the hole and screw in the screw, you can easily remove the screw with manual power. Stay away from the Loctite red (Loctite 262) because it requires heat to remove the screw. It’s hard as hell to remove without heat.

If you have a $200 Benchmade Balisong, you really don’t want that to happen :-(. Even though Benchmade will mail you new screws, it is best to make sure those things don’t fall out. Also, those screws are usually really small and it takes forever to find them in carpet ;-).

So, how do you go about protecting your knife with Loctite?

1. Go to a place that is clean and well lit. You don’t want to be on carpet since you might lose the screws when your work with it.
2. Unscrew the screws. Some types of knives require special wrenches. Make sure you place the screws on something like a small container or bowl so they won’t get lost.
3. Place a drop of Loctite inside the holes. One drop is more than enough.
4. Screw the screws back in. Make sure your knife is at your desired tightness. For a Balisong, if you screw it in too tight, it’ll be hard to flip.
5. Let it dry and enjoy your protected knife!

Loctite retails about $7 for 6ml. You can also buy it in .5 ml bottles (good for one knife) as well as 40ml bottles. Amazon sells Loctite 6ml bottles for $5-ish and the .5 ml bottle costs $2 (go with the 6ml bottle since it is a way better deal and you’ll find tons of uses for this once you try it out–trust me).

Loctite can also be used to protect your pocket knife and any other folding blade knife. Other things you can do to protect your knife is to keep it dry and clean. Even if your knife is made of stainless steel, it can still rust. Ever so often, you can unassemble your knife and clean the insides. This prevents moisture from building up in the dirt.

Another preventative maintenance thing you can do is to keep your knives in a high-quality sheath. The sheath will protect it from dents, scratches, and dulling. This goes for small pocket knives all the way to large ax. You can’t use this for machetes, however.