I did this to my Free P4 today (had stiff jaws). Worked great! I used 1.5 micron paste from my kme sharpener. I didn’t mix it with oil, as it was already pretty non-viscous and flow-y. Took about 45 min of working the action while watching a movie, but now it’s super smooth. I washed out the pivot with soap and water and relubed the whole tool with ballistol. Great discovery man!

Joe, thank you for sharing this! Just used this method and my new(ish) SS Wave+ is now drop open smooth. I appreciate your content, please keep sharing.

Congrats on the new tool! Enjoy!

I love the blk oxide finish. If I wanted to remove it, I think sand paper or a wire Dremel brush would do it. I agree some of the LM tools are too stiff, but I see it in the stainless models too.

:))) I'm glad you succeeded!

Got a ''used'' BO Surge dated 0322. Was stiff but only for few days. Used regular gun oil (balistol like) on it and it is super smooth now. I guess it all depends from piece to piece

Yes it's working, just 15 minutes and stiffness is gone, thanks )

I just got my surge black oxide replaced through warranty and the new one they sent was stiff as hell. Literally all you have to do is open and close the pliers while applying 10-15lbs of lateral force. Do this in both directions. Took about 5 minutes and now mine falls open. Lubing doesn’t work you’re right about needing to grind down some material but it won’t happen truly unless you put some tension on there to actually bite the excess material.

I would have bought the stainless if I had to do it again

Hey Joe - given your early concerns about the wax (which I’m guessing correlates to the yellow observed later in the vid), do you think you’ll dunk your supremely stubborn Surge in DCM again?

Thank you for your excellent video! But what is the stainless-looking Knipex pliers thingy shown at the end of this video? Thanks.

Have you tried backing off the pivot screws just a wee bit? I have a Extrema Ratio Glauca B1. It wouldn't flick open trying to use the flippers so I backed of the pivot screw by a couple of degrees and I can just flick it with my wrist and the blade deploys. It's probably as close to a switch blade as you can get for blade deployment.

you did it, nice. Funny thing, my swisstool x is stiffer with oil, works best when nothing is in it:P my surge is now at least closing smoother after using it for a while, but these tolerances are all over the place.

I believe strider knives tiger stripes are often done over their black oxide, so if media blasting doesn’t work I’m sure you’d have to destructively remove it. You could potentially run garnet or glass bead media. Maybe electrolysis.😂 idk

I hope they will make surge with that diamond black coating like garage charge series has, aslo tryied wd 40 specialist hp dry lube and it works fine for me.

Joe, I'm planning on trying this with my Arc because the pliers randomly stiffen up just whenever. Not even just when I cut hard wire. Even just from opening and closing the tool. My question is how did you flush out all the diamond paste from the pivot after you were done? I don't want to have any stuck in there. Did you just blast the heck out of the pivot with WD-40 afterwards?

once I soaked blackoxide tool ( USSR made ) in white vinegar to remove some rust. two days later I removed it to wash with soapy water and brush it , I found it completely matt silver metal color. after brushing and cleaning. I used gun blue to give it black color again and wipe it with oil. so in my personal experience white vinegar can remove blackoxide

My black rebar came really stiff. Worked it with Ballistol and its fine now. Are all black Leathermans just naturally more stiff because of the black oxide?

A good alternative to this if you're out in the field and don't have the diamond paste is to soak your Leatherman in diesel fuel...... Doesn't take long, just pour some in a jar or cut the top off of a pop bottle and drop it in..... I guess there is just enough oil in diesel fuel to clean every millimeter of the tool even in between the tools.... The plier head will work smooth as silk again. Just dry it off with a rag and go for it....... WD40 and Blaster attract dirt particles and are not the best thing to use in a pinch......

Mother‘s mag and aluminum wheel polish will do this in about half the time.if you wanna get reql crazy about it and disassemble the tool you can polish any metal that touches other metal and it will work significantly smoother. Dremmel will make this process faster

I think Ballistol and a few drops of water would carry the diamond paste well

Seems to me that the black oxide is more of a military option where the "shine/reflection" is not so visible.

Hi. Thank you for this video. I haven’t carried my black surge much and also have an original that i used to carry more often. Now i carry my wave but i do like the idea of that pocket clip-didn’t know it could go on a surge-so do you pocket carry this tool and who’s clip is it? Thank you for any information. Have a good night

I use W40, I add the oil, let it act and then clean them with a cloth. Then I wash them with soap and water, dry them well to remove any traces of water. Next I put Singer oil and with a clean cloth I remove the excess oil and they are very thin to work with.

I had a steel blast that lm sent me for a broken pst and I tried to loosen it up by, oiling with mineral oil and opening and closing it in one night. It ended up grinding a valley in the frame itself. I meant to try and send it back to LM, but I think it was possibly stolen from my car. (or it got lost somehow)

Hey Joe, Where'd you get the diamond paste?

There isn’t any additional rust resistant with black oxide. If anything it just makes it harder to spot rust when it forms

Broke in my black oxide surge pliers on its first day of my job👌

mine wore in relatively quickly but i like the resistance as it feels more solid and less slack

Did you try to remove the diamond paste afterwards with just wd40? The diamond paste is not a lubricant, its the opposite, if you dont remove it afterward it will cause increaed friction and will never break down because... well diamonds. After as much paste is removed as possible use lubricant made for metal on metal. Lithium, graphite, dry ptfe, gun oil are all good options.

I’m with you on black oxide finished multi tools… not for me. I’ll stick with stainless steel unless it’s a special edition Leatherman in black oxide, then I purchase for my collection, but not for daily use.

I got 3 and 5 micron paste.. is that to much you think? Dont want it all loosy goosy

I have two "hybrid" versions of the Surge - one with black handle and stainless steel internals, the other with stainless steel handles and black oxide internals. Both were a bit tight in the pliers. I loosened them both with a single tap on the "fixed" side of the plier head pivot with a hammer and flat punch, with the plier head resting on a socket. There's a few videos around showing this method - it is very quick and has worked well for me on 2 x Surges and also on my new Wave plus (which is also black oxide). Link to method I am talking about is - kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Z7SGhLiolbeuooE.html

wd40 bath didn't work?

Personally I just like the look of black oxide, especially after it's been worn in, polished in the places it needs to be. I'm not sure how practical it really is.

if you want to strip the coating, dump the tool in a bucket of coke (preferably off-brand) for 24h

Have u tried to just soak the whole thing in wd40

Evapo_Rust. Rust remover will take the oxide right off

i'm sure some WD-40 or Lanolin would have done the trick ......but it gave you a 10+ minute video I guess

How to put 10 years of wear in two hours

I would buy stainless lol same. Mines a bitch and stainless going to give it a go talk about expensive tools and leatherman dodgy quality control 😂😂👍

Victorinox is so mutch better.

Could have used Lucas gun oil with the pin top bottle the green works perfect