How do you keep that carbon steel slippie clean.

K

kidwholaughs

Joined
Jan 17, 2004
Messages
1,189
Hey guys,

The reason that I don't use my slippies with carbon steel blades is maintainence. When I peel an apple or slice a pear, the juices gum up the pivot. Everything becomes a big mess then. Any advice on keeping the carbon slippie in working order will be greatly I apprieciated.

Thanks.

Kidwholaughs
 
A liitle dish soap on a sponge with some H2O works for me when I finish my patina-building apples.

Wipe it off with a paper towel, blow on it, leave it open a while to air dry...no rust, just deepening silvery gray...mmmm...patina....

Note added upon reflection: I would think fruit juices would gum up the pivot on a stainless knife just as much as a carbon steel knife.
 
kidwholaughs said:
When I peel an apple or slice a pear, the juices gum up the pivot.
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You must be related to my wife! :D After years together I finally have her trained to not just grab a folding knife and use it on food like she would a kitchen knife. With a little finesse, there's no reason the juice from your fruit or veggies ever need get into the pivot at all.

I have two little kids and seem to always be slicing up apples for them to eat or - at picnics - cutting up tomatoes, melons and what not, and spreading stuff on bread. Of late, the only knives called to duty for these tasks have been my old Old Timer two-blade jack and a Boker trapper (both are carbon steel). When I'm done I give the blade a quick wipe with a tissue or paper towel or on my jeans and that's it. My deepest fear is a slipjoint smeared with cream cheese or peanut butter half way up the handle and all up in the pivot joint. The horror. The horror. :p
 
I blast 'em out with hot water and dish soap, and apply a little mineral oil to the joint.

I do admit I prefer fixed blades for food prep for this very reason. It's not enough to keep me from using a Laguiole folding steak knife, though. The handle materials used today are usually stabilized enough that getting them wet isn't going to ruin them. Oh the other hand, I wouldn't leave a wooden handled slippy soaking in water...

-- Sam
 
My deepest fear is a slipjoint smeared with cream cheese or peanut butter half way up the handle and all up in the pivot joint.
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Stop it mnblade!!! You're givin' me the heebie-jeebies!
 
Just wash it off, wipe it and leave to dry. If you use olive-oil on the joints and blade of knives used exclusively for food prep, then you should have no problem. Of course, stainless is the way to avoid all this worry over rust & the like, D2 could be alright here too I think. Just get a Case sodbuster in stainless, use that for apple cutting and cheese paring:thumbup:
 
Just wash it out good with warm/hot water and Dawn dish soap. Dry real well, and put a drop of Hoppes gun oil in the joint.

Its all I do, and they've survived just fine. :thumbup:

Don't baby your knives, use them as real tools and you'll apreatiate them even more.
 
Yep, stainless knives get gunked joints too. Despite how folksy it looks (just had to throw that in) to have the handle down with the blade angling up as you peel an apple, it really works better to keep the blade tip down a little as you peel. It keeps the juice from running into the joints.
 
Yup, its all been said here by these good folks already.. And I do the same routine basically when at home for food prep. I have even got my kids trained so well on this point that they rag on my wife for me now if'n the process slips her mind.

1-Cut fruit for family to enjoy.
2-Run warm water and dish soap with sponge thoroughly into open slippy.
3-Set on the dry rack to drip dry for several minutes.
4-Oil the joints, blades and backsprings very lightly with any quality machine oil.

Now, if I am outside the bounds of my property while working or playing, then its a swipe on the jeans and back in the pocket she goes until later on that evening where 2-4 is repeated. In fact, I've done this for so many decades now that I don't discriminate between the Carbon or the Stainless. They all get the same treatment. It has become I ritual I really enjoy. It's no sweat really.
 
Mmmhh! Why peel them anyway? There's pectin and minerals in there and if you are worried about pesticides and toxins, no point in bothering as the peel lets all that stuff right into the flesh-systemic.

Keep the blade down though when quatering:thumbup:
 
I'm with willgoy...Momma always told me that's where all the vitamins are!

I'll take it a bit further...and this may be irrelevant...call me crazy...but if I weren't patina-izing my slippie...I'd just bite the apple. I enjoy that much more. Give those choppers a workout.
 
Awesome guys, these days, I am edcing an A G Russell Grandad's toothpick. The blade is 154 cm. I try to use the tip of the 4" blade to peel fruits. The length of the blade is a real big help. If i manage it right, I don't have to cut anything wet with the first inche of blade from the handle. I can manage to keep it clean by rinsing the blade in water and coupla quick wipes on the jeans.

I agree with jacknknife though. I am going to quit babying my slippies. Got too many knives never been anywhere but the shelf and the pocket.

I appreciate y'all's advice.
 
There have been a few times at work when I've needed to clean a slippy after some messy food prep. We have the commercial coffee machines that have a tap for hot water. With my CV yellow handles I've sometimes just filled a throwaway cup from that tap. After a quick rinse under the tap, I'd just stick the knife in there and swish it around. Ya better have a towel or something handy though to handle the knife as it gets VERY hot! Just like when cleaning a muzzleloader with soap and boiling hot water, the heat of the water quickly transfers to the metal and acts to dry the knife. I'll carefully work the blade to let the joints dry out, then a little wipe out with a paper towel if there's a drop left. Usually there isn't. Then when I get home I dip the blade in mineral oil and wipe the excess off, adding a tiny drop to the joints. Never a problem with rust.
 
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