Care of Carbon Steel Blades

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WarrenPease

Joined
Jun 13, 2014
Messages
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My wife and I are considering moving back to the humid Midwest after years in dry inland southern California. Blade care has been pretty easy here- an occasional wipe with an oiled cloth. As my knives will be seeing some more humidity in their daily travels, are there any additional recommendations for blade care?

Thanks
Warren
 
I'm in St. Louis and it gets very humid here. I typically will wipe down my blade at the end of the day and apply a light layer of oil. About once a week I will clean the blade and wipe it down with tuf-cloth. Other than a patina, I've had no issues with rust.
 
My routine is similar to M.FREEZE. When I am in a high humidity environment, a daily wipe down followed by a light coat of mineral oil or Froglube is it is a knife used for food prep. Otherwise I use those options or various gun & reel oils/wipes including Marine Tuf-Cloth. I like using Howard's Feed-N-Wax on wood handles and Ren Wax on most others.
 
Keep em clean and you can rub the blades down with some Cut Rite Wax paper, simple solution and there is always the mineral oil treatment.
 
Oil

Lots of info on taking care of carbon blades in Maintenance and Tinkering.
 
Hmmm Cut-Rite wax paper - never thought of that. I mostly just keep them oiled up with mineral oil. Been thinking about trying out Ballistol.
 
Wipe it on your pants leg after use and shove it back in your pocket.

I live in a miserably hot and humid part of the country and can wet a t shirt walking out to check the mail in the height of July and August. I do not have problems with my 1095 knives
 
If I'm working outside and my pants are likely to be soaked with sweat (a possibility in South Louisiana), a belt pouch would be good. You can wrap in a bandanna and follow up with oil.

If things aren't going to be that bad, just wipe the carbon steel down after use.
 
JustinR said:
Wipe it on your pants leg after use and shove it back in your pocket.

I live in a miserably hot and humid part of the country and can wet a t shirt walking out to check the mail in the height of July and August. I do not have problems with my 1095 knives
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Justin, Exactly what I was thinking - you just said it much better! I've carried carbon steel blades for many years - that humidity helps with the natural patina everyone here loves so much - just takes longer than using an apple or a potato! OH
 
Thanks for the input everybody. To be honest, I've only looked at the traditional knife forum. I looked over in the maintenance and tinkering area and found all sorts of interesting things.

I really liked the idea of wiping the blade on your pants and carrying on. My grandfather used to say "if you can't wipe it on your pants, it shouldn't be on your hands"
 
WarrenPease said:
My wife and I are considering moving back to the humid Midwest after years in dry inland southern California. Blade care has been pretty easy here- an occasional wipe with an oiled cloth. As my knives will be seeing some more humidity in their daily travels, are there any additional recommendations for blade care?

Thanks
Warren
Click to expand...

You sure you even need that wipe with an oil cloth in the desert there? I live in a part of norcal which is still arid by east coast/southern standards, but still more humid than where you are and never oil unless something is going into storage for a long time. Should be fine with a little denim care (wipe it on your jeans) when in use. and maybe a light coating if it will be sitting for a few days or more.
 
In a post by Jack knife he mentioned the use of chapstick to cover the blades on a carbon knife. I don't own any carbon blades so I can't comment on it but I assume this would work.
 
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