CV Soddie vs. SS Soddie

ElCuchillo said:
Did I just say I fondled a knife?
Can you SAY that here?
Well, I just did, and I do.
Often.
;)
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Nothing wrong with fondling a knife, most of us here do it every day. It just puts you in good company. :D

Besides, life's too short for an ugly knife!
 
Not to get off of the subject but what it the significant difference if any between carbon steel and chrome vandium? Just curious it was something I'd never thought of much till now. thanks-Joel
 
Chrome and vanadium are aloys added to carbon steels. There many different mixes of carbon and stainless steels.
 
Not to stir the pot, but I was suprised a stainless user was found in Florida. I figured stainless users were mostly in San Fransico. Carbon steel is for real men.
 
My family had a fishing/marine/seafood store in Tallassee FL back in the 80s. We had a very large knife display (largest in the state at the time) and I did all the buying for the store. Our best selling knives were carbon steel pocket knives, most new (some old) Case knives in CV and German made carbon steel slips. Our best selling knife was the Case yellow handled trapper with CV blades, I used to order 500 at a time. We also fished 2 to 3 days a week, year around in salt water with carbon steel knives. Stainless steel knives were slow to sell in our store.

Now I live in the Ozarks and make knives for a living :D
 
Don,

Out of curiosity, what steel do you use (primarily) for your fine knives?
 
Never made it there, unfortunately. Sounds like a great store. I didn't put in much fishing time while in college, sad to say now (if you'd sold beer there and hadn't been too picky about checking for a legit ID, well ... :D ).

Did you sell many Old Timers? I once went to a Leon County Sheriff's auction, where they were selling off stuff that had been confiscated in the course of arrests or investigations or whatever. I was struck by the fact that a good chunk of the knives they were auctioning off were Old Timers. Not sure what that says about those knives, LOL.
 
mnblade said:
Never made it there, unfortunately. Sounds like a great store. I didn't put in much fishing time while in college, sad to say now (if you'd sold beer there and hadn't been too picky about checking for a legit ID, well ... :D ).

Did you sell many Old Timers? I once went to a Leon County Sheriff's auction, where they were selling off stuff that had been confiscated in the course of arrests or investigations or whatever. I was struck by the fact that a good chunk of the knives they were auctioning off were Old Timers. Not sure what that says about those knives, LOL.
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No Beer but a lot of bait :) Don't think very many collage students where into fishing:)

We sold a lot of Old Timers and Uncle Henrys but not as many as the Case and Germans (Boker, Kissing Crane, Eye Brand Hen-n-Roster, etc.)
 
Yeah, given the price on a Case Soddie Jr. I say good call to let it go overboard instead of you given the local inhabitants. Hey, maybe the gator bumped the boat with the full intention of getting that knife!
 
sunfishman said:
Ya can't run fast enought to give me a stainless steel knife :D

and I spent 29 years in Florida around the north gulf coast. 10 years commercial fishing in saltwater.

When you first start toten a carbon steel knife it will look bad for a while, get spoty and discolored here and there but if you keep using it and wipe it down every day or so, the blade will develop a nice even dark color almost black. May take 3 months, may take a year. This natural aged patina will also protect the blade better. Don't give up on the carbon just yet :)
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OK, I'll stick with the carbon a bit longer.It's just it gets sticky and unpleasant when cutting up apples etc, then leaves this stink all over your hands....I have a couple of unused carbon knives simply because of the chore of getting this patina thing.

Any more care tips? Like accelerating the process? should I wipe with oil or just let the blade get sticky and 'odd'?

I'm grateful for the replies and glad nobody took offence, it's just my incompetence at getting this patina going. Modern stainless offers a lot of choice but I admit the sharpening can be a lot trickier. VG10 and 154 seem strong enough to me,never had any breaks or bad luck. How about D2? That seems corrosion resistant but sharp.
 
willgoy said:
Any more care tips? Like accelerating the process? should I wipe with oil or just let the blade get sticky and 'odd'?
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When you're trying to accelerate the patina process, make sure your blade/s are free of all oil before cutting up that apple or lemon or potato or whatever.

Based on stuff I've read here on the forum, I washed my Boker trapper down with hot water and soap, dried the blades then wiped 'em down with some rubbing alcohol. Only then, with no oil to protect the steel, I got after a large apple as a way to start knocking that shiny mirror-polish "new knife" look off the blades and kick start a protective patina. I ate that apple over the course of an afternoon here at my computer. I'd slice off a thin piece, then do some more work on the computer, then slice off another bit, all the while letting the juice get all over the blade and even letting it get dry and sticky. When the apple was gone, I let the juice stay sticky and dry all over the blade until I couldn't stand it any more. :) Then I washed the blade and then put on a little oil.

This past weekend, we took the kids on a three-day road trip to do some hiking up in the hills. The newly patinaed trapper rode in my back pocket the whole time and did picnic duty twice, cutting up bread and tomatoes and smearing cream cheese all over bread - plus cutting up loads of apples for the kids to feed to horses and a pot bellied pig (hungry little muther!). I gave the blades minimal maintenance by way of wiping them down after use on food and had no problems at all with rust of any sort.

BTW, some guys prefer to develop a patina by soaking their carbon steel blades in warm vinegar or slathering them with mustard for awhile (search the archives here for posts on that).

I definitely don't recommend Grandpa's method of sticking the blades in a potato over night. I tried that once with an Old Timer and it resulted in a really uneven patina - the wider top part of the blade got really dark, which was fine, but the thinner part down near the edge got almost no patina at all. YMMV.
 
That's some excellent advice thank you! I started off with the potato trick and maybe that's WHY I've had such poor results?

Maybe I'll start it again and see what happens with a clean-up and alcohol swabbing.
 
willgoy said:
Maybe I'll start it again and see what happens with a clean-up and alcohol swabbing.
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Yeah, you definitely need to get the oil off, both actual oil and also the stuff your fingers leave on the blade.

With that Old Timer I mentioned, I "undid" the splotchy, uneven patina with a Miracle Cloth and then started over.
 
I don't oil my carbon blades that I use, I don't let them get all sticky and nasty either. I just use them and wipe them off, sometimes rinsing with warm water and dry. I've never had a carbon steel blade rust, they just turn dark with use but I don't put one up wet. With a new carbon blade the patina will start off uneven and ugly but with time will even out and turn a nice dark color. If ya don't like rusty blades just take care of them and don't put em up wet. A dry blade wont rust.
 
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