Can a Rescue rust in 8 hours ?

[Lone Hunter]

On sundays I medic at my kids football games. Today I had my REscue clipped to my wasteband of my shorts for 8 hours, it was hot and humid. I used it twice once to break up chunks of ice for ice packs (used closed handle)and once to cut open a "pixie stick"for my daughter.My blades are kept clean and dry, thats how I noticed the rust before I put it away today I opened it to wipe down. It had no rust when I started out today. I know stainless is not stainfree, but I would hope it would last more than 8 hours am I wrong?

 

[James Y]

If your knife is against your skin, esp. in humid weather, it is likely to rust within several hours, because sweat is very corrosive. The Rescue, I believe, is of ATS-55 (or even the older version of AUS-8) stainless steel. These "stainless" steels actually have a high carbon content (esp. ATS-55 or ATS-34).

I've found the best thing to do is apply some Marine Tuf-Cloth to a blade you expect to have in corrosive conditions. Or, if I just want to keep the blade rust-free in non-corrosive conditions, I apply some Flitz metal polish to it.

I've had some blades (AUS-8, ATS-55, etc.) rust if I just left the knives sitting around without caring about them for a while. Not heavy rust, but little spots that were easy to remove. Also, some blades of the same steel seem more prone to rusting than others, even in the same knife model. Strange.
Jim