Do you "sanitize" your knives?

Chlorine or chlorine wipes work and rinse afterwards. Just be careful with chlorine. Powerful stuff.

Other than occasional use in a warehouse, I suspect I would be carrying a utility knife for the majority of my job related cutting. The serrated blades seem to work pretty well.

I hand wash my dishes a lot because the volume doesn't justify using the dishwasher in my mind. I don't get overly concerned about germs or bacteria as long as there is no disease issue inside the house. I mostly just want "clean" and nothing turns me off more than reaching for a "clean" fork and finding a hunk of dried food on it whether it be in my house or some one else's home.
 
I use a special formula of a heated substance called H2O, followed by a careful drying on a space age anti microbial material called denim.
 
Cardboard has such a bad name ! However corrugated cardboard boxes ,almost every one of them has been treated with a pesticide ! 20 years ago only about 15 % were treated now almost all are !!
Remember that chlorine bleach and peroxide bleach are strong oxidizing agents .Too long in the solution and it will corrode the blade !!
 
mete said:
Cardboard has such a bad name ! However corrugated cardboard boxes ,almost every one of them has been treated with a pesticide ! 20 years ago only about 15 % were treated now almost all are !!
Remember that chlorine bleach and peroxide bleach are strong oxidizing agents .Too long in the solution and it will corrode the blade !!
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Mete, is correct about full strength bleach being hard on all steels. cutting it 10 water to 1 bleach and let it soak and move the pivot if you are using a folder.

while this could possibly etch your carbon steel and can even haze stainless steels it still sounds better than all the viruses and germs that rats are known to carrie.
 
snippy said:
If you are looking to kill bacteria and "germs" - the 70% isopropyl is better than the 91%

Counterintuitive but true!
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Why would that be? What evidence do you have of this? The only difference is the lower the percentage, the more water. Why would they work any different?

I have reagent grade alcohol so that's what I use on bare steel. It will eat most blade coatings, so I use it on bare blades only. Isopropyl on the coated stuff. Doesn't seem to effect it.... And this is only if I cut something really nasty. Most of the time just dawn dish soap and water does the trick.
 
My knife has potential to be used on food; so yes the blade does get washed from time to time.
After food used it's washed again.
 
I usually only break out the alcohol if I'm going to use it for food, or if the blade is gunked up with tape residue. Other than that it's cleaned on my pant leg.
 
Rhinoknives1 said:
Mete, is correct about full strength bleach being hard on all steels. cutting it 10 water to 1 bleach and let it soak and move the pivot if you are using a folder.

while this could possibly etch your carbon steel and can even haze stainless steels it still sounds better than all the viruses and germs that rats are known to carrie.
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That would work for most knives, but my work knife is a mini grip w/ OD green micarta scales, wouldn't bleach ruin the micarta?

Or maybe I should just spray my knife with Lysol and then wipe it down...
 
As far as I know, not much will "ruin" micarta. It is very chemical resistant.
 
Blues Bender said:
So I work in merchandising/retail and I often use my knife to cut straps, boxes, plastic, and many other warehouse related items. Many of these stock rooms I work in have roaches, mice, rats, and other dirty thing crawling around them.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty, but when I'm cutting a box that clearly has rat s**t on it; that's straight up nasty. Usually when I get home, I pour some 91% rubbing alcohol on a cloth and "sanitize" my knife. I wipe down the blade, scales, liners, etc.. I usually use my knives at home as well, and I dont want to keep a filthy knife laying around.

Does anyone else do this or am I a germaphobe? :D
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I don't think so, what you did was very wise.
 
I do if there is an obvious reason to, for instance I often carry my Tasman Salt and my Kershaw/Emerson on the boat where they get exposed to all kind of nasty who knows what. On friday I took some friends and family out on the boat and we docked to grill some hot dogs, burgers and chicken at a local park, I used the K/E to cut up raw chicken (to make it into thinner pieces, easier to grill quickly), afterwards I poured some vodka over the blade (seriously) because of the obvious bacteria risk and also the propensity for raw chicken juice to smell like a dead body (especially after a few hours in 95 degree heat here in TX) and didn't use it for anything food related after that. Cleaned it thoroughly with dish soap when I finally was back home.

Watching a friends wife cut a burger with my Tasman Salt was rather amusing!
 
Blues Bender said:
So I work in merchandising/retail and I often use my knife to cut straps, boxes, plastic, and many other warehouse related items. Many of these stock rooms I work in have roaches, mice, rats, and other dirty thing crawling around them.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty, but when I'm cutting a box that clearly has rat s**t on it; that's straight up nasty. Usually when I get home, I pour some 91% rubbing alcohol on a cloth and "sanitize" my knife. I wipe down the blade, scales, liners, etc.. I usually use my knives at home as well, and I dont want to keep a filthy knife laying around.

Does anyone else do this or am I a germaphobe? :D
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I'm half Dutch, so I've got you beat by a country mile. :D I've used full strength bleach, ammonia, peroxide, you name it. Very carefully, of course, and rinsed off after half a minute or so. I'd rather ruin a knife than someone's health. Generally, I don't use folders for food prep unless necessary. If it's just in my pocket, then soap and water will do.

Rhinoknives1 said:
If you are dealing with boxes that have rat poop on them etc and you really want to disinfect them I suggest using clorine bleach.

It does a better job on Viruses from the info I have gathered talking with reseachers and MD's at UCLA.
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Absolutely, and it doesn't take a long time.

mete said:
Cardboard has such a bad name ! However corrugated cardboard boxes ,almost every one of them has been treated with a pesticide ! 20 years ago only about 15 % were treated now almost all are !!
Remember that chlorine bleach and peroxide bleach are strong oxidizing agents .Too long in the solution and it will corrode the blade !!
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Agreed, you can't leave it on overnight. I'm pretty sure that chlorine and peroxide work quickly anyway.
 
Rats carry alot of bacteria and diseases, so whether your eating with the knife or not, I don't see the harm in disinfecting it
 
I usually reserve different knives for different jobs. But warm soapy water from time to time is all I do. Of course I'm not in the business of cutting rat poo tho.
 
Ironic for me to log-on and see this thread. I had just de-funked my OHO du-jour with rubbing alcohol before leaving for lunch. For no other reason that I knew it had some residue on it, and I didn't want to use my Eezox, then wash-up from that. Ordered a fancy salad with lunch, only to have it come out with all of the toppings left long, and large, for YOU to cut-up in the bowl yourself. My g/f about freaked when I pulled out my knife, until I assured her I had literally JUST sanitized before leaving the house, LOL.
 
PFFT Im ocd as hell about this… I wipe, wash, clean, oil, every time at the end of the day after use
 
Triforge said:
PFFT Im ocd as hell about this… I wipe, wash, clean, oil, every time at the end of the day after use
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I relate well to you my brother.

I get a kick and a smile out of the idea that it is somehow more manly to NOT clean your knife.

Yesterday, I was helping make some repairs to an old rickety apartment that a man had lived in for 35 years without once using a vacuum on the floors. Puffs of dust would rise from your feet as you walked--literally. As you know a large percentage of dust can be human skin. Yuck. I had to cut a square from the carpet in order for a door to open properly. The only cutting tool we had on us was my small Sebenza Insingo. After the job was done, the blade was covered in dirt and dust that had worked its way into the pivot, etc. You can bet your bottom dollar that that knife was disassbled, sanitized, cleaned, and lubed that very night.

I wouldn't have it any other way.
 
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