Can you maintain a carbon steel knife with only materials from the wilderness?

[T.M.A.]

You must have forgotten that humans have been using iron & steel for over 3000 years before stainless steel was introduced. They managed to keep their tools in working condition.

Honestly, I did. Yes...

Thank you for the reminder!

 

[T.M.A.]

I wish I could take credit, or blame, for the rust myth, but it's just not so. It was our collective tendency to only add bits and pieces of information to our internal storage as we see fit.
Once upon a time, rust was just a thing. You had to take care of all your gear, rust was just another thing you dealt with it. Then stainless steels came along, and people began to forget how to care for their gear, it just wasn't needed.

But it was about the time that people started calling rust a cancer that things got totally whack. Because we ALL know about cancer, and how quickly it eats its host. And if a single spot of surface rust means your knife's days are numbered, several spots must mean that the cancer has metastasized, and failure is imminent. The structural integrity of the steel will be forever in doubt, because most cancers kill from the inside.

A little bit of surface rust is easily dealt with. It's a freckle, a beauty mark, perhaps a small scar, on on otherwise pretty face. If that's all it takes to turn you away, she didn't really need you in the first place. Perfection of form is a concept for artists, or car designers. It's not within the purview of working tools, at least not after their removal from any packaging.....

Love it!

 

[T.M.A.]

rust - it's so easy to fix - put the blade in some boiling water... you have wilderness camp fires right?

rust (ferrous oxide) turns to black (ferro-ferric oxide) aka magnetite in boiling water

this is literally 'gun bluing' or 'rust bluing'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron(II,III)_oxide

I'm surprised more of us don't talk about it or mention it...

and of course the only other thing is sharpening on any good piece of flat rock

Never heard of this! SICK! Thank you!!!

Could the heat from the boiling water potentially damage the temper of the blade??

 

[T.M.A.]

Yep. Sure can.
Smooth rock to sharpen if necessary, your belt or boot top to strop. (I dunno about you, but I ain't nekked and/or bare toed in the wilderness.)
Wipe and dry the blade on a rag or your pants leg, or bit of hide/fur from the critter you gutted, peeled, and may have portions of on a spit over the fire, or in your cooking pan/pot.
To prevent rust, wiping off and drying after each use goes a long way. If you must use oil or something, wiping the blade with a piece of the fat obtained from the wild critter you have cooking over the fire works. You can render it to grease, by putting some in a pan or pot you ain't using to cook with at the time. Letting a patina form also protects against rust, by the way.

If you're worried about the blade not being shiny enough to use as a signaling mirror if it has a patina, some lensatic compasses have a mirror, or you can always super glue a bit of mirror to a piece of equipment you always have on you when afield, not just in your pack, you can always add a woman's pocket makeup mirror or (empty) compact to your pocket ... or a 2 inch x2 inch x 0.125 inch polished stainless steel plate in your wallet.
One of my classmates in High School machine shop brought his Estwing belt axe/hatchet in, milled a 2x2x0.125 deep square on the side, over the eye, (well away from the cutting edge) and silver soldered a piece of mirror polished stainless steel to the hatchet as an inlay, the next period in welding shop. he didn't affect the temper/heat treat of the
He always carried that belt axe/hatchet on his belt when he went hunting, fishing, camping, and canoeing, or any combination thereof.

Awesome advice from a Man who's done it!

Thank you!

P.S. I ain't goin' NEKKED in the wood neither!! Ha!

 

[T.M.A.]

If you get stranded in the wilderness fully prepared with some kind of survival kit and a stainless blade then you are breaking some kind of survival laws, you know the rules, if you get lost in the wild you are only allowed 1 carbon steel knife, then you have to create a small village using only that knife, get with the program.

My thoughts EXACTLY!!!

 

[dirc]

Never heard of this! SICK! Thank you!!!

Could the heat from the boiling water potentially damage the temper of the blade??

no worry, since boiling water is only 100C or about 212F ... and most knives are tempered over 300F (typically 400F)