Tools require maintenance and cleaning — this is a fact of life. You wouldn't drive your car for 100,000 miles without changing the oil, and your guns would surely jam and malfunction if you fired them every day for years without disassembling and maintaining the moving parts. It's also common knowledge that a knife is one of the most important tools you can have in a survival situation. So why not maintain it accordingly?

Jake Hoback Knives maintenance cleaning kit oil knife blade 6

To most of us, knife maintenance means maintaining the cutting edge. That's obviously an important element, but there's more to it than just keeping the edge sharp. For folding knives, it's important to remove grit, dirt, and pocket lint from the handle cavity, lock, and pivot. In order to retain smooth opening and closing motion, oil should also be applied to the bearing and pivot. Finally, if you care about keeping your knife looking good, a solvent should be used to clean off grease, adhesive, and other gunk. These steps will keep your folding knife looking and feeling like new.

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Jake Hoback Knives simplified the knife maintenance process with the release of the F23 Knife Maintenance Kit. This kit was developed in conjunction with Breakthrough Clean Technologies, and includes a proprietary lubricant designed especially for folding knives. Hoback and Breakthrough Clean reportedly spent months testing different formulations and additives in search of an effective, long-lasting lubricant that won’t evaporate when used on an every-day carry knife.

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The Formula 23 Knife Oil lubricates and protects steel, with a special “boundary additive” which repels dirt. Hoback writes, “Special attention was also paid to the capillary effect that is present when joining two pieces of steel together; it is critical to provide and retain sufficient lubrication in those capillary spaces.” This sounds technical, but it's important to choose the right lubricant for a tool as essential (and expensive) as your knife.

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Each Jake Hoback Knives F23 Maintenance Kit includes the following items:

  • Black MOLLE-compatible zippered storage pouch
  • Jake Hoback Knives velcro patch
  • Soft foam-backed knife cleaning mat with Hoback Knives lubrication diagram
  • Formula 23 Knife Oil
  • Breakthrough Clean Solvent
  • Allen wrench set
  • Double-sided cleaning brush
  • Microfiber cleaning cloth

Jake Hoback Knives maintenance cleaning kit oil knife blade 1

This is everything you'd need to disassemble and clean one of Jake Hoback's folding knives, although we'd recommend picking up some Torx keys if you plan to use it on other knives you own. Fortunately, there's plenty of space in the kit for these and other tools you may need, including a small whetstone and even spare parts.

The F23 Knife Maintenance kit will be available to the public in March 2017, but is currently available for pre-order at $35. For more information on this cleaning kit and the knives seen here, visit JakeHobackKnives.com.


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