How many of you practice good knife "hygiene"

How often do you clean your edc blade?

  • More than once a day regardless of use

  • At least once a day regardless of use

  • Only after it gets obviously dirty

  • Only after I have noticed it's been dirty for a while

  • It's gotta be a filthy mess before I even consider it

  • I think wiping it down with oil once in a while is good enough

  • Can't remember last time I did

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ElementalBreakdown

ElementalBreakdown

Gold Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2020
Messages
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How many clean their edc knife blades with alcohol and /or soap/water at least daily? I used to just wipe down with oil once in a while but foundt. that alcohol or soap/water at least once a day, followed by stropping on a clean bath towel keeps my knives shaving sharp exponentially longer.

I usually do it twice a day and don't have to properly strop more than once every 2 weeks at most.


But...
I have a specific cheap DA OTF with a tanto that is next to box recycling that is the only knife I use to open boxes /packages which obviously helps keep my edc in much better shape.

I like to be able to use my edc to cut food and as a little bit germophobe I also like knowing it's relatively clean.

Just curious if most people clean blades daily.
 
I flake off loose stuff that might make its way into the locking mechanism or assembly, otherwise I leave them dirty
My 110 has some dried tape "leftovers" and residue on it. I don't care.
It took a long time to not care about the tape stuff, it's one reason why I would use a butter knife or something else to open a box because I didn't want to have to clean off the leftover tape funnies.
I use to obsessively spit shine and polish the knife to remove as much evidence of use as possible. But now;
it's liberating to leave them dirty.
 
Generally speaking, the things I cut with my pocketknives are dry items. As a result, it really doesn’t get dirty enough for a good cleaning very often. Just a quick dry-wipe of the blade is all that I usually need to do.

Packing tape goo is a whole different story. I clean that stuff off as soon as humanly possible with an alcohol based adhesive remover called Goof Off.
 
I have an alcohol spray bottle in the bathroom because I wipe my phone screen off same deal like once a day alcohol with microfiber after. Now that I think of it, that's when and why I started cleaning the knife.
But like I said, I am admitted clean freak.
ESPECIALLY the bathroom. But like ignored content, I hear you about being liberating.
 
I keep a large bottle of CLP near where I cut up boxes, and I generally only use my smallfly for that so CLP cleans off the tape gunk when I'm done. The EDC gets cleaned once I get home if needed with the same CLP. I usually don't use my EDC for food though. A little CLP never hurt anyone!
 
ElementalBreakdown ElementalBreakdown No, I've realized that we are the freaks of the community. I do the same thing as you. I work with electrical parts like conduit that is lightly greasy, as a result my knife handles and phones get lightly greasy throughout the day. Everyday, when I get home, I wipe the phones and knives I carried down. I used to use rubbing alcohol on a paper towel and rub down the entire knife, however I noticed 2 or 3 of my knives developed some light rust spots. So now days I don't wipe down the blade unless it's super nasty (I don't want to degrease it everyday because it leaves the steel too exposed without any protection), I just wipe down the handle/scales. I also mainly switched to window cleaner instead of alcohol, I think it's a little bit less potent, but still does a great job. It also doesn't evaporate off your rag so quickly either.
 
I only wash the blade if I'm doing food prep, otherwise the blade has gunk most of the times, and if there is too much, only then it gets washed
 
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