Carbon Steel Knife questions?

[Irishbushcraft]

So I have a Mora Carbon Steel bushcraft knife and I have a few questions to ask if anyone could help. They are mostly about maintanence on the knife as I am quite new to this.
1. How do you maintain a Carbon steel knife?
2. How do you properly oil the blade of a Carbon steel knife and also do you dry te oil off after oiling?
3. How do you properly sharpen a Carbon Steel knife and with what whetstone would be best recommended?
4. To get rid of rust should you use a very fine sandpaper of about 400 grit or will this ruin the blade?

If anyon could help me it would be much appreciated and if you have anything to add it would be great! Thanks!

 

[Ernie1980]

Check out this thread for a test on oil to put on the blade:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...-a-not-so-little-rust-prevention-test-round-2
As for taking care of it, just wipe it off after you use it and don't store it in a damp area. They are not as delicate as people think, they won't rust unless you neglect them
If you do get rust, some fine steel wool will remove the rust, but fine grit sandpaper works well too. The difference is that sandpaper will scratch the blade where steel wool usually won't. If it's a user knife use whatever you have around.
As for sharpening, most anything will work on simple carbon steel. I use waterstones usually, but I use diamonds also and they both work very fast on carbon steel.

 

[awestib]

I guess your Mora is a scandi grind type knife. Generally yes, you can use literally anything to sharpen simple carbon steel like your Mora which is likely 1095 steel. So it is iron plus carbon plus a small amount of other ingredients. There are no crazy "carbon-other element" compositions in there that may prevent it from getting very keen at lower grits. So bottom line is it is easy to sharpen.

The only "advice" I could give is that sharpening mediums that produces some slurry/mud (many waterstones, Norton crystolon) work way better than a diamond plate for instance IMO. The slurry produces a more uniform scratch pattern on a large surface like the scandi bevel. That is if you maintain the whole bevel every time. Some folks like micro bevels and maintain them until they become macro bevels and then regrind the whole bevel. You could also just strop the apex on hard backing (denim with compound on wood for instance) until you feel the apex gets too round/obtuse. Then you would have to regrind the bevel also. Regrinding the bevel is easy - or not, depending how flat you want to get it. If you do a careful grinding motion you will get good enough result but you will always end up with a slight convex bevel.

 

[Fanglekai]

Use higher grit sandpaper if that's what you choose. 2500 to start. 400 is going to scratch the blade. You can make a paste with Barkeepers friend and a cloth to remove rust as an alternative to steel wool or sandpaper.

I use an oily cloth to apply mineral oil to the blades once in a while. I use a q tip to put a small drop in the joints and the work the blades. I dry off the excess with a rag. I think rust is not really an issue most of the time. I do maintenance most often in summer when it's humid.

I like a Norton fine/coarse India stone and Sharpmaker for sharpening and touchups.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

For most red rust removal, I've liked using a 'slurry' of baking soda + water, as a paste, to scrub the rust off a blade. Red oxide isn't very tightly-bound to the steel, and also not very hard; so, it doesn't take much abrasion to scrub it off. The paste of baking soda also works well if the blade is deeply pitted, as it more easily gets down into the pits to scrub the rust out. Can even use the baking soda dry; dab a bit onto a damp paper towel (just damp enough to make the baking soda cling to it), and scrub the blade with that.

I wouldn't use sandpaper just for rust removal, unless you also want to remove the pitted steel itself. As mentioned, the sandpaper will scratch the steel, or polish it (much finer scratches) at higher grits above 2000+. If preferring to preserve the patinated character of the blade (including clean, rust-free pitting), I'd avoid the sandpaper altogether.

Metal polish like Flitz or Simichrome will also remove red rust, and will also shine up the steel (by very fine-grit abrasion).


David

 

[Pondoro2310]

Carbon steel seems like a great steel to learn on. I've got a thin cleaver and an Old Hickory paring knife that both are really easy to get scary sharp.

 

[Bo T]

It kind of depends on the use. If you are going to be doing food prep, then mineral oil is the protectant of choice. If you are out using the knife a lot for bush crafting then I wouldn't worry about some scratches on the blade. I usually use 00 or 000 steel wool to remove rust. The Norton stones are good.