Carbon steel folks: leave a lil bit of oil?

I'm in the SF Bay Area of CA. The humidity stands around 60% most of the time, 100% at night for a couple of hours, and then dries off to about 60% during the day. I use carbon steel in the kitchen and carry carbon steel knives. I don't usually oil them unless I know I'm not going to be using them for a while; I just wash, dry, and leave them be. If I know I'm not going to use them for a bit I'll coat them with ren wax. For stuff I really try to keep rust free and in tough environments (i.e. my shotguns when hunting ducks in salt water) I'll use Ren Wax or WD-40 Specialist. WD-40 Specialist leaves a pretty thick film.

As for wiping off oil, if you're just using a rag and no degreasers you'll never wipe off all the oil. You pretty much always leave enough of a film to protect the blade.
 
I had put mineral oil on my 1075 machete. I kept the machete indoors, but it still rusted in some spots within a few months time. Probably was due to the leather sheath holding moisture.

After readying kane22's posts from last summer, I decided to try paste on my knives. I tried Burt's Bees, but found I wasn't easy to apply without leaving a lot on the blade. So, I bought some FrogLube paste. It's food safe, too. We'll see how this works on the K390, M4 and 1095 knives when the weather warms up, I get outside more, and the humidity kicks in here in NC.

rust preventative test
rust preventive test...the final round
 
Thanks for the really helpful responses folks. Not much to add from me, but I’ve read the whole thread. I suppose I’ll leave a coat of oil on my less used blades.
 
I’m prefacing my comment by saying:

I’ve never oiled my knives. I have no idea of what that practice’s effect has on carbon steel knives. I’m only commenting on the practice of 0 oil.

I suppose I’m a collector and hardcore enthusiast at this point. I rotate all of my carbon steel knives in and out of use. I have 4 out right now doing knife stuff. That means rub/friction on the edge. That means sharpening. It also means sweat on the butt and blood on the bevels. That’s where surface rust always forms, the butt. So I scrub that area from time to time. To this day, rust hasn’t penetrated between the scales and the tang on any of my CS knives. Is that a miracle? You tell me. Carbon steel knives require care and maintenance. That just goes without saying. If you use CS, you’re married to the maintenance.

I have other knives that are out of rotation that have been sitting for 9 months. They aren’t oiled. I’ve never oiled my carbon steel knives for storage. I always clean them, dry them before storage, and store them in a dry place. No long term surface rust from what I can tell. I’ve been doing this for 13 years now…

So my conclusion for the internet is:

Carbon steel knives require occasional inspection and maintenance. Especially before storage. As long as they’re spotless and dry before storage and they’re stored in a dry place, oiling isn’t necessary.
 
other memory said:
As long as they’re spotless and dry before storage and they’re stored in a dry place, oiling isn’t necessary.
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Not necessarily.

There is the odd but frequent phenomenon of carbon steel knives losing their sharpness over time, even when stored and not used.

It is atmospheric contaminants/humidity (there is no such thing as completely dry air) eating away at your once sharp edge. If you live near the coast, the process is accelerated even more due to the salty air. Slowly but surely, your knife edge is deteriorating. A light coat of oil prevents this when stored.

Rust never sleeps - Neil Young.
 
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shane45-1911 said:
Not necessarily.

There is the odd but frequent phenomenon of carbon steel knives losing their sharpness over time, even when stored and not used.

It is atmospheric contaminants/humidity (there is no such thing as completely dry air) eating away at your once sharp edge. If you live near the coast, the process is accelerated even more due to the salty air. Slowly but surely, your knife edge is deteriorating. A light coat of oil prevents this when stored.
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Hi Shane. Out of curiosity, what about knives with DLC or some other black coating? Can you get away with oiling just the edge? Thanks!
 
midnight flyer said:
Sorry to see this thread get moved. Probably a lot of members here that don't know the joy of a nice thin, slicy piece of carbon steel and all they know is stainless. Seemed like it did a lot of good where I was...
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It’ll still probably show up in Google searches, who knows? If it helps some dude or gal new to knives later on, then the thread served it purpose.

Now I’ve got some blades to oil, lol.
 
I handload ammo and have using the spray designed for sizing brass. It does not contaminate powder or primers. So gave it a try on my carbon blades.

Hornady One Shot case lube works well by leaving a dry film. Also it is not a petroleum based spray, so it does not discolor natural handle materials.
 
I use mineral oil on my Japanese kitchen knives. I recently just picked up Frog Lube Extreme to use on my non-stainless folders. It's a liquid version in a small spray bottle, so quick and easy to apply. I wanted something that offered better corrosion protection than plain mineral oil for my carry knives that was also still "food safe". Frog Lube appeared to be the best choice. We'll see how it holds up, only thing I can say about right now is that I love the minty smell of it lol.
 
DangerZone98 said:
Hey everyone. To the fixed blades carbon steel fellas here, do you guys leave some oil on your blades? I put singer machine oil on mine every few months, but I usually wipe the excess dry a couple of minutes after application.

Is leaving a light coat of oil better practice than keeping the knife mostly oil free and dry? Thanks folks.
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I'd rather have a good patina.
 

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I’ve never had one rust from being in my pocket or storing them. I don’t oil the blades. I will drop some oil in the pivots if they need it but that’s all I do. I don’t mind the discoloration at all, if anything I reckon it makes it truly mine because no other knife out there has the same exact patina/discoloration
 
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