Cleaning a folder in boiling water.

S

stridersrock

Joined
Mar 6, 2005
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I was just disinfecting a fixed blade in a pot of boiling water when I got the idea to put folders in there too.

Folders are made of many materials in one knife.
Combinations of aluminum, copper, titanium, the blade's steel and the handle material (G10, etc).

Is there any reason why I shouldn't bathe a folder like this?
 
I would avoid it due to loosening any Loc-tite or epoxy that may be used on it. This would be a concern on fixed blades as well since may makers use epoxy along with the pins to hold the scales on.

Other than that it probably wouldn't be a problem as long as you dry it well.
 
Each of those materials expands with the heat and contracts when cooling at different rates. Wood and adhesives will likely be compromised first. Why exactly are you disinfecting your knives this way? :confused:
 
Good points, I never thought of the adhesives or the expanding+contracting.

I disinfect in boiling water because it's convienent. It's effective.
 
why dont u just use denatured alcohol?

ps. boiling water will not kill all bacteria or "sterilize" a knife but alcohol will come closer, bleach is 1 of the best

medical professionals use an autoclave to sterilize their equipment, it uses extreame heat (usally 300-400 degres, water boils at 212) and extreame preasure
 
Yep, some bacteria can live around boiling range and some survive at temperatures well above boiling temperature. These bacteria aren't that common though ;) However, epoxy/loctite/lubricant will all be gone if you boil your knife.
 
an autoclave will destroy your knife.


there's no point in it anyways. medical professionals use an autoclave, but guess what, a few minutes after you open it, it becomes "unsterile" just by virture of being exposed to air
 
I just wash my knives in hot water out of the kitchen faucet and a little dish washing soap like "Dawn". After that I rinse it well and blow it dry with compressed air. Then I oil it with some Miltec. Learned this from a lot of folks here.

I don't see why you need to "disinfect" the knife. What are you cutting with it?
 
Good info against using boiling water.
For one-piece blades like Chris Reeve's One-Piece Line and Striders that use para-cord should be okay in boiling water though, right?

Boiling water is always available at a campsite. So I have always used that to get off sap, soil, tiny insects, contaminants (sewage) from the lakes/rivers and everything else. I use open flames from campfires for larger, inexpensive blades.

I also use soap and water occasionally.
I'll consider using alcohol now when possible.
 
instead of dropping your entire knife into boiling water, you might want to consider just dipping the blade into it since that's the only part that gets really dirty anyways. and it saves you the problem of screwing up every other chemical on your knife, such as the militec on the joints, or in the case of a fixed blade the glue and loc-tite.
 
It depends on the steel and the water. When I was trying to clean off some steel plate for corrosion testing I tried using boiling hot water to warm the plate for the application of militec, the water ended up rather severly corroding the surface, not rust, but really bad staining and some etching. This was tap water mind you, and ours isn't all that bad. It was also carbon steel, not stainless, but you get the idea.

I wouldn't bother with boiling water. use water from the tap (hot preferably) and some dish detergent and a toothbrush, and scrub it down periodically to get grease/oil/gunk off the handle and pivot area. The blade itself will be fine with an occational polish with flitz, and if you want to get any sort of film that leaves behind just wipe it down with an alchohol soaked cottonball. I don't really bother going that far anymore though, as I have rarely come upon a situation where a sterile blade would have done any good. I just keep it generally clean and with a super-thin layer of oil on the surface.

For fixed blades I just let em get dirty, I'll clean off sap and gunk, and wash off blood or whatnot. Then they just get a decent coating of oil to prevent sap from adhering and rust from forming when they're in storage, since most of them are high carbon steel.
 
yoda4561 said:
It depends on the steel and the water. When I was trying to clean off some steel plate for corrosion testing I tried using boiling hot water to warm the plate for the application of militec, the water ended up rather severly corroding the surface, not rust, but really bad staining and some etching.
Click to expand...

For the most part, any steel that is able to take a heat treat will increase in corrosion resistance, including carbon steel. If it was soft metal &/or pot steel it doesn't surprise me. ATS-34 will rust fairly easy prior to being heat treated.

stridersrock said:
Good info against using boiling water.
For one-piece blades like Chris Reeve's One-Piece Line and Striders that use para-cord should be okay in boiling water though, right?
Click to expand...

It should be fine, problem with getting paracord really wet is that it needs to dry and it's sitting on the steel when it does that. One of the reasons when I cord wrap a knife I also epoxy it so it doesn't absorb as much bacteria or moisture.


edited to fix typo
 
That's true about the harder steels, it's still not something I'd want to do regularly though. I figure a good swabbing with alcohol will get the blade about as sterile without the stigma of possible corrosion.
 
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