Well, after a while of eyeballing a Case Trapper at Ace hardware, I pulled the trigger and bought it.
However, there are a couple of problems...
I'm not sure what to do to maintain the blade finish and prevent rust. Some have said that a nice cleaning and polish after use will maintain the shine... But then they mention 1200 grit sandpaper and confused me. By polish are they using an actual polishing compound, or some cloth, or what?
The case manual recommends using some oil, and a friend of mine even said that just rubbing it with my fingers to use the natural oil on my hands will work--since I don't really like chemicals on my knife. Hey I might want it to cut a steak or an apple!
The other thing recommending was letting a patina develop or forcing one. I like this idea since I don't mind trading the polished look for this, but I kind of wonder about whether using it as a steak or apple knife would really be a good idea afterward. Also if I force a patina, should I resharpen afterward, or is it not enough to effect an edge?
Aside from that, when I checked it in the store I didn't find any blade play in the joints. However once I got it home and cleaned out some black gunk--which is apparently polishing compound--I started to notice quite a bit of play. Is there any way to fix this? It's not really a big deal to me, but I don't want it to get worse either.
However, there are a couple of problems...
I'm not sure what to do to maintain the blade finish and prevent rust. Some have said that a nice cleaning and polish after use will maintain the shine... But then they mention 1200 grit sandpaper and confused me. By polish are they using an actual polishing compound, or some cloth, or what?
The case manual recommends using some oil, and a friend of mine even said that just rubbing it with my fingers to use the natural oil on my hands will work--since I don't really like chemicals on my knife. Hey I might want it to cut a steak or an apple!
The other thing recommending was letting a patina develop or forcing one. I like this idea since I don't mind trading the polished look for this, but I kind of wonder about whether using it as a steak or apple knife would really be a good idea afterward. Also if I force a patina, should I resharpen afterward, or is it not enough to effect an edge?
Aside from that, when I checked it in the store I didn't find any blade play in the joints. However once I got it home and cleaned out some black gunk--which is apparently polishing compound--I started to notice quite a bit of play. Is there any way to fix this? It's not really a big deal to me, but I don't want it to get worse either.
