Doomed to use stainless

[Greymoor]

Hi Fella's,

My "left pocket" knife is usually a slip joint of some type to use on little things like fruit and letters and such. I get up in the morning pop it in the pocket and it is with me all day until I take it out before bed. My pocket gets hot and sweaty during the days work and the knives there are in a high humidity environment. My body eats up cheep jewelry and plated metals so I must be on the acidic side of the pH scale. (This explained my humor at times). This acidity is spotting the hell out of my carbon and D2 blades. I noticed it more profoundly when my D2 Queen canoe which was heavily coated with tuff-glide and allowed to dry had spots in less than a week. Next I took a brand new Shrade 33ot trapper and coated it Militech after heating it with a hairdryer as suggested. It also developed spots in less than a week. Since I simply do not have the time or desire to maintain a knife everyday, (I'll never remember to ), or leave so much oil on them they feel like they are rolled in butter. I guess it Rostfrei for me. My Henckels Whittler has never spotted (stainless).

I was thinking of one last try by buying a new schrade stockman or trapper and giving it the lemon / lime juice treatment and then oiling it and seeing how long it could survive in the pocket of doom. If this fails it would seem that I am doomed to always carry a stainless slipjoint as my "left pocket" knife.

We shall see . . .


Greymoor the acidic one

 

[Ed T]

What is wrong with the spotting? If you like the performance of the carbon, stick with it. Sounds like you really want to stick with the carbon. Have a stainless for show, but carry and use what you like.

BTW, if you think this is a bad idea and you can't stand the spotting, go ahead and box them up. I will help you get rid of them. My address is....

 

[Bastid]

I would not worry about the spots as a matter of fact when I look for a "new" carry slipjoint many times I head over to one of the many antique shops in this area and look for an "old so-spotted that it is gray" one to use for just a few bucks.

Now if those suckers start to pit and rust that would be another story. (Then one would definitely be emitting some caustic stuff
).

Thank goodness there are some good stainless ones out there so we can have a few choices.

 

[Don Luis]

I agree with others that spots aren´t at all wrong in a working knife.

I´d like to add that I don´t mind carrying my old Uncle Henry stockman in 440A, though it has darkened and spotted springs. My Buck stockman does seem to have stainless springs.

You may want to try the mustard treatment to simulate damascus, as mentioned on this thread:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=264005&highlight=mustard+damascus

I´ve been thinking of getting a new Old Timer to try that, but it´s often hard to find them in Mexico, perhaps I´ll try it on a cheap local knife first.

 

[yobbos1]

I have the same problem.(imagine building and testing gas fireplaces for a living in the middle of summer )So I went with the stainless for a while but the performance of the carbon was something I missed so I still carry a small stockman in carbon and learned to like the "patina".

 

[guy g]

I recently bought an Old Timer 34OT and the first day I carried it outside working ,it showed some bad rust even though I had oiled it before I carried it. So now it gets carried at home which is ok.