custom knife care

L

Lou Tirona

Joined
Apr 7, 2004
Messages
27
My apologies if this has been discussed before...but what do you all recommend for knife storage? Aside from display boxes, I store my knives in those zippered pouches with a coating of FP-10 oil on the blades. Seems to work well, but I'm curious as to how others store their knives. Most of my custom knives are carbon damascus and straight carbon steel. Thanks for any advice.

Lou
 
Please disregard my thread...I found a bunch of previous discussions on this topic. My apologies.

Lou
 
No apology needed. It doesn't hurt to rehash things every once in awhile. New people come along that might have different ideas or ways of doing things.
 
I have a lot of knives that would be considered rust prone.

I also have a lot of them with ivory, wood and stag handles, so, I'm very concerned with shrinkage too.

Maybe 2-3 times a year, I take all of them, rub a liberal amount of mineral oil into the ivory/stag/wood etc, let it soak in for 3-4 hours, wipe it clean, then I coat the blade and handle with a quality wax, Ren Wax is the best I know, but I bought some good wax from Flitz a while back, so Ive been using that for now, I have yet to see a single knife shrink at all, nor has anything rusted. And, I do live in a VERY humid area, South Florida, which probably helps with the shrinkage, but hurts with rust, yet, again, no problems yet since using wax.
 
Do you put Ren Wax on stag? I've never heard that.. it seems like it wouldn't do much good unless it's a smooth stag. I made the mistake of putting Ren Wax on leather once, which never cleaned off.. gets in all the cracks and won't come out.

Camellia oil is used by Bladegallery, for just about everything. Bladesmith Murray Carter told me it's made from about 2 % camellia oil and 98% parrafin wax (petroleum based). My question is are there any ill-effects (to epoxy?) caused by longterm storage, kept coated? Instead of wiped occasionally.
David
 
Once it sets, it is pretty well set, and relatively impervious. There ARE SOME solvents that are not great for epoxy, but I do not think that you would be putting them on your blade.

Ari makes some very valid points about maintainance, but he does not mention the cloth that he uses to rub off oils or RenWax.

I would say that this is the single most important item. Chamois, and perfectly clean Chamois at that. There are those of you that use your knives, and those of us that use some, and keep the others pristine. Pristine means as few scratches as possible.

I like to get pre packaged chamois from the hardware store or auto parts store. Some people are particular about the brand, I am not. I only buy the stuff that is cod tanned in England, that is still readily available.

I touch the chamois at the store, working over as much of the cloth as possible, looking for hard spots. Once I find one that I like, I cut it up into 9" squares. I buy the largest piece available, paying between $22.00-$30.00 for the big piece and usually get about 6-10 squares out of that piece. I keep them in a Ziplock bag, and start a new piece when the last one gets moved to the dirty pile. Dirty chamois is used for applying preservative oils, I prefer TuffGlide, or Clove Oil. Dirty is also used to apply and rub Flitz on tarnished nickel silver. Before the last polishing is done, I introduce a brand new, clean chamois, and finish the last of the polishing with that. It allows me to observe any scratches, it is also important to have good lighting.

Using just about any other cloth than chamois increases the chances of scratching the steel. If anyone has information that runs counter to that statement please let me know. I would hate to have wasted the money that decent chamois costs for the last 15 years, if there is a suitable alternative.

Best Regards,

Steven Garsson
 
Only thing I could add is using those things that absorb air or o2.I do'nt know what their called but they put small packets in new shoe boxes,or boxes with new electronics in it.I know there a web site that sells them and calculates the sq.feet of the area you're storage is and sells small canisters accordingly.These are especcially important in humid areas.
 
Steven,
I have always just used old t-shirts to wipe oil off the blade. I can't say I've examined minute details, but it seems hard to imagine that soft cotton would leave any tiny scratches.

Also, none of my blades have a mirror finish... maybe that's an issue/reason for the extra soft chamois. Are there any residual chemicals or acids in chamois? I heard of a person who had stored a bowie knife wrapped in one and it had stuck to the blade, causing pitting.
David
 
Ren Wax is a MUST. Any wood or stag will benefit from using Ren Wax on it. I try to keep my carbon steel blades coated with Rem Oil. Stag handles get a mineral oil soak every once in a while. I don't keep my knives in pouches either. Mine are all layed out on a table for my viewing and knifesturbation pleasures. :)
 
Sorry to sound so naive (but I am). What EXACTLY is Ren Wax and Ren oil?

Is it commonly available at hardware stores? What really makes it superior to carnauba (sp?) wax? (I was told by Ed Cafferey that that's what he would use for ivory).
 
Rem oil is "Remington oil" sold at many places that sell firearms. It's good but not too friendly on leather, if accidentally gets on it. I had a leather handle damaged from it. Ren Wax is "Rennaisance Wax" which is used by museums for preservation. I can't remember where I got mine, but it's not cheap.. around $20 a small can.

Wayne Goddard did a good study on the effects, how long-lasting several different waxes were.. As I remember Ren Wax didn't fare to well against a couple of others, after the knives were subjected to harsh climate conditions. Does anyone have that Blade article? It must have been a few years ago.
David
 
is a microcrystalline wax designed for archival storage. That is it, pretty much nothing else. I use it, but others use Carnuba Wax. Heck, some people swear by bear grease, but I am not one of them. Ed Fowler recommends nose oil, but mine would etch a blade like Ferric Chloride.

A number of knifemakers that I know use RenWax on Carbon blades that will be on display at shows, helps keep the fingerprint acid from eating into the blades.

David, T-shirts are terrible for blades. I cannot even begin to list the reasons why, but some of them include cotton fiber bonding to any grit it comes in contact with, and the fibers being somwhat abrasive in and of themselves.

We are not talking huge damage here. I simply pointing out the BEST cloth for blade maintenance, mirror finish or not. I have seen an awful lot of Randall Knives subjected to a variety of "home brewed" cleaning and maintenance schedules, and some of them looked like steel wool was used. I offer about 1/3 of the $$ for recent Randalls that have been used, in relation to minty knives, as an example. If you want to use a knife, use whatever method of cleaning makes you happy, and don't worry about the resale value.

Chamois is not for blade storage, only for cleaning. It has no moisture repellant properties, and contains oils that may trap a moisture layer between steel and chamois. The ONLY storage medium that I use for my knives are Bill's Custom Cases, but I have a friend who swears by felt as a storage medium. YMMV.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson

Best Regards,

Steven Garsson
 
The whole idea is to soak in Mineral Oil, wipe it off, and use something like RenWax to try and keep the oil in place. I works well, for what it is, requires redoing the whole process about 2x per year.

What can I say Joss? Some people use t-shirts, some people use paper towels, some people use newspaper. Paper towels contain some small degree of abrasives, and the lint problem always drove me up a wall. When I clean my knives, I want them CLEAN, and chamois works well for that purpose.

I don't consider myself the last word in cleaning/maintaining cutlery, but prepping knives for sale around this time of year has been an annual occurence for the last 10 years. No one ever said that any of my knives for sale looked like anything but mint, and that is good enough for me.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
Wood is the one that gets me ...... it can shrink and crack, but applying any form of oil tends to darken most of the woods I have come across. I have therefore been reluctant to do this. How do other collectors approach this situation - do you use oil anyway? I do apply Ren Wax but as far as I am aware this will not put any moisture back into the material, only provide a very good barrier.

I use chamois for handling and wipe downs, but use a high grade polishing cloth from AutoGlym for buffing the wax, which I tend to apply with the tip of my finger (please remember to wash before scratching your eye, nose or any other sensitive part of you anatomy ... unless you want to protect it from corrosion :p )

Stephen
 
Steven,
Wow, I'm surprised to hear that about cotton cloth.. it seems to make sense, I've never thought cotton might pick up grit. Oh well, I've been using paper towels, toilet paper, and cotton cloth. Maybe I'll get a chamois. Would a silicone cloth work just as well?

For preventing rust, has anyone tried Duralube? I remember seeing it offered on t.v., it claims to bond with the steel on a molecular level... leaving the steel impervious to moisture. Or Pro-lube? It has been a few years since I saw these advertised but wondered if these would be good for carbon steel knives.

I think I remember Wayne Goddard's tests showed that "Bri-Wax" did a good job against the competition, including Ren Wax... Does anyone remember that?
David
 
Kohai and others,
thanks for the info in this thread. I like to carry my customs, and knowing how to protect the ivory is most helpful.
 
I generally use 100% flannel cotton cloths, either untreated, or silicon cloths, to wipe down knives after handling them. I'm not sure why a chamois cloth would be easier on steel than 100% flannel cotton, I recall using a chamois once on a mirror finished knife and noticing very light scratches, the fact is, I don't think there is any way to avoid putting very light surface scratches on certain types of finishes, which is one good reason to only buy damascus knives. :) And, I also rarely if ever buy knives with mirror finishes for this reason.

Some people suggest that instead of wiping down knives after handling them, you wera special gloves instead, gloves that are designed to not affect sensitive items that you are handing with them. Personally, I like to touch my knives and wipe them down though. I suppose one could wear a body condom while playing with their collection... :)
 
Yeah, if you can't enjoy them what's the point.. I have to shine the brass on some of my guards occasionally, to keep them purdy. Camellia oil lessens the need for this, if left coated with it. (Ren Wax doesn't do much for keeping brass untarnished.)

On an etched blade, I have to think tiny scratches aren't a big deal.. on the other hand, with mirror polished blades I can see how it might be.
David
 
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