Maintaining Carbon knives in prolonged wet weather

[ledders666]

What tips do you guys have on keeping rust at bay on carbon blades during prolonged wet weather?

I've recently been away for a month with a lot of rain and not much was drying was able to be done.
it seems that once the leather sheath is wet trying to keep a knife from rusting becomes pretty hard, especially when you don't have home comforts to be able to dry and oil the knife easily.

 

[Janne]

Treating the surface with a blueing product that is used for guns gives a bit extra protection.
In addition to that, I just applied a little bit of fat ( butter, oil or lip balm) after cleaning and drying.
You can not avoid a bit of rust, no matter what you do.
Gives character.

It is important your sheath has a drain hole in the bottom.
Leather sheaths are beautiful but not 100% practical. Oil the leather throughly inside, and it will lose shape.
Which it also will of it get soaking wet.

It may sound disgusting to some, but in prolonged stay outside civilisation, I have used the fat/body oil you get beside the nose wings.
It works.
As the blade will get a bit rusty, my habot was to polish off the looser rust against a tree. A few strokes cleanes off the worst.

 

[Billy-o]

Can't claim credit for this one, but a thing you could do is get a hold of one of those little aluminium spy capsules. Attach it to your sheath and put in it a small piece of cloth with a touch of mineral oil on it. Doesn't need to to be a big bit of cloth or a lot of oil. You can keep the blade flavourlessly oiled that way. Some people prefer camellia oil.

Also, various bits of your body are naturally quite oily ... hair, side of nose etc. ... that stuff works to prevent rusting ... (though some souls have an equally natural capacity to rust the hell out of carbon steel .. something in their perspiration just zaps the stuff ... so fingers crossed)

The other thing is to ditch the leather sheath .. or get it properly beeswaxed. The sheath won't get wet and, at a push, the wax can be redistributed from the sheath to the blade. Only need a tiny amount to make the layer.

 

[ledders666]

I'll give those idea ago. Yep rust doea add character, mine is a well used and travelled knife, just dont want rust to the point of pitting the cutting edge again. It was after several day of rain and being stored in the wet sheath. I'm sure the sheath is the worst offender. I may look at other materials for that.

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[Billy-o]

Staining adds character to your knife, depending on your taste. Rust just messes it up and puts pits and holes in it

 

[snappingturtle]

French polish the blade before you go, and grease from you hair if you have nothing else.

 

[ledders666]

Staining adds character to your knife, depending on your taste. Rust just messes it up and puts pits and holes in it

That is very true. And what I'm trying to avoid again

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[Janne]

I think you can buy a product called Lipsyl in UK? Wax based.
One of the great inventions of Sweden.
A better one, maybe more difficult to get these days, is the Swedish Armed Forces lip salve ( Försvarets hud salva)

 

[Robson Valley]

A nice smear of any food-grade veg oil will do. Again and again.
If a bunch of it comes off inside the leather sheath, so much the better.
Don't store the knife in the sheath. Same advice for storage of any firearms.

If things are really bad (like this western Canadian summer),I'd soak the leather sheath
with a few tsp pharmaceutical-grade mineral oil.

 

[Billy-o]

I think you can buy a product called Lipsyl in UK? Wax based.
One of the great inventions of Sweden.

The unspeakable little ****s changed the recipe. Like losing a limb, or a relative or a ... well, you get the idea.

 

[Janne]

Did they? Everybody seems to change the receipes these days.
My motto is- if it works, do not change it.

 

[Erbswurst]

If you eat bacon or cheese just don't clean the knife to much. At home I put some olive oil on the blade.

I use Opinel knifes since many years. My Impression is that the handle sucks away moisture.

 

[MrEd]

Did they? Everybody seems to change the receipes these days.
My motto is- if it works, do not change it.

a lot of recipes are changed to remove dodgy/dangerous/not environmentally sound ingredients i think.

 

[Janne]

Plus to lower the cost.
But overall, I feel that most of the time the products are not as good as before.

Good old Vaseline is a good rust preventer too, plus decent on lips and hands.

 

[Billy-o]

It is the smell/taste though ... redolent of a lifetime of bright, sparkling, winter mornings. Didn't really remind of the miserable ones so much

One particular memory, among others, is cycling down the canal path from Grace Road into town, wearing a favourite old purple fleece and torn jeans, sunbeams lighting up the mist and swans ... the memory is still there, but that smell of Lypsyl always brought it back much more vividly, somatically. I am sure it worked the same for everyone. It was good stuff Chapstick is different.

Interestingly, the smell of a slightly wet-too-long carbon steel blade has much the same effect ...

 

[Wayland]

I use Waxoyl for tools that are not used for food prep, I keep some in and old Enfield oil bottle.

For food prep knives just cooking oil.

 

[Janne]

I find that some Carbon steel knives taints some acidic foods like apples. ( I like to quarter then remove the core including those hard bits that are horrible to get stuck between the teeth.)

Camelia Oil is supposed to be the best, but I have never been able to buy it.
For lonterm storage ( months) I know people that dip the blades in Linseed Oil, then let it harden for a few days.
Foodgrade LSO, not the Boiled one. Called Flax(seed) oil in the supermarket.

 

[z_bumbi]

I just buy a stainless knife with a plastic sheath. I think it's called progress.
Yes I know that most stainless steels will still need some care but not in any way as much as carbon steel.

 

[Wayland]

Life is too short for ugly kit.

I think it's called taste.

 

[Billy-o]

I just buy a stainless knife with a plastic sheath. I think it's called progress.
Yes I know that most stainless steels will still need some care but not in any way as much as carbon steel.

I know, progress, but stainless knives either roll or chip after opening a dozen or so bottles.