How NOT to Clean a Knife

S

Scott Free

Joined
Sep 15, 1999
Messages
3,319
A couple days ago I posted a thread asking about how to clean the action of my sluggish BM 940. It was suggested that I soak it in a solvent for a few days, so I did. After removing it from the solvent, I filled a cup with hot water, detergent and amonia and inserted the front half of the folded knife into the solution. When I removed it a half hour later, the half that had been in the solution was extremely faded. (The BM 940 has a green anodized aluminum handle.) The knife now looks a little weird, but is working smoothly again. I'm surprised that a detergent and amonia solution would have this kind of affect on anodizing, though.

Scott
 
Scott Ridgeway said:
A couple days ago I posted a thread asking about how to clean the action of my sluggish BM 940. It was suggested that I soak it in a solvent for a few days, so I did. After removing it from the solvent, I filled a cup with hot water, detergent and amonia and inserted the front half of the folded knife into the solution. When I removed it a half hour later, the half that had been in the solution was extremely faded. (The BM 940 has a green anodized aluminum handle.) The knife now looks a little weird, but is working smoothly again. I'm surprised that a detergent and amonia solution would have this kind of affect on anodizing, though.

Scott
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Was there bleach in the detergent? Anodizing fades w/life
 
For future, most times a knife gets dirty or sluggish, it really doesnt need amonia or multi day soaks in solvent. Most knives, as long as they dont have stag, bone, wood and other natural materials, do fine by soaking in warm water with a bit of dawn dish soap for an hour or so. If they are really dirty, open them half way and toss them in the dishwasher.
 
Live and learn. The 940 has been my EDC for a very long time. The half faded handle won't cause me to retire it. I just wish that BM still made this knife with a coated blade but without serrations for when I finally do. Oh well...

Scott
 
Did you at-least flip the knife over and stick it back in that solution to even-out the faded look?
 
glockman99 said:
Did you at-least flip the knife over and stick it back in that solution to even-out the faded look?
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I was gunna say that! Make it look like you did it on purpose. :D

.
 
sak_collector said:
If they are really dirty, open them half way and toss them in the dishwasher.
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Sticking a knife in a dishwasher will dull the edge. It could also be damaged if it gets banged around during the cycle.
 
glockman99 said:
Did you at-least flip the knife over and stick it back in that solution to even-out the faded look?
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Yes, I did. But there was a little bit of overlap so there is a very very faded band around the center. I've been using the knife hard for a long time. It was already pretty beat as far as looks go. None of this really bothers me. It did spark an idea, though. If someone were to take a cotton swab or q-tip and carefully apply ammonia to an anodized knife, you could come up with a pattern similar to that used on Strider knives. It could look pretty cool, but it would certainly be an expensive experiment.

Oh yeah-- there was no bleach in the detergent.

Scott
 
ElectricZombie said:
Sticking a knife in a dishwasher will dull the edge. It could also be damaged if it gets banged around during the cycle.
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No it wont. In all the years I have been doing it I have never had one dull from the dishwasher or get banged around. Warm soap and water is faster and easier, but dishwasher is ok...Even Sal Glesser says so :)

I would just not do it with anything natural like stag, wood, bone and so on.
 
sak_collector said:
No it wont. In all the years I have been doing it I have never had one dull from the dishwasher or get banged around. Warm soap and water is faster and easier, but dishwasher is ok...Even Sal Glesser says so :)

I would just not do it with anything natural like stag, wood, bone and so on.
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There's no faster way to jack up a knife than put it in a dishwasher unless it's REALLY stainless and not near anything else that it can bump into.

I did it recently and posted about it with an X42 Autoclip.

ESPECIALLY if you use a lemon detergent and if it's in the utencil rack along with a bunch of other metal utencils.

I GUESS, if you used a non-citrus detergent, it was fairly stainless and if you put it in the top rack with a bunch of plastic stuff you'd be OK for a few washings. But, still, if you made it through half a dozen washings without rust spots I'd be really surprised.

The edge goes dull, not through anything related to the dishwasher cycle per se, but rather from bumping into the rack and ceramic plates and other metal objects that ruins the edge.

.
 
fulloflead said:
There's no faster way to jack up a knife than put it in a dishwasher unless it's REALLY stainless and not near anything else that it can bump into.

I did it recently and posted about it with an X42 Autoclip.

ESPECIALLY if you use a lemon detergent and if it's in the utencil rack along with a bunch of other metal utencils.

I GUESS, if you used a non-citrus detergent, it was fairly stainless and if you put it in the top rack with a bunch of plastic stuff you'd be OK for a few washings. But, still, if you made it through half a dozen washings without rust spots I'd be really surprised.

The edge goes dull, not through anything related to the dishwasher cycle per se, but rather from bumping into the rack and ceramic plates and other metal objects that ruins the edge.

.
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Probably true, we dont use any lemon detergent, just whatever those little detergent packets are you toss in. Certainly banging around can do it.

The way I do mine is open the half-way and set them on the top where you would put the glasses and coffee cups. Never had a problem with any of them moving and nothing touches them.

Rust has not been a problem with aus6 or 8, any of the 440s, ats34, or anything. The only spots that have ever developed were with a bead blast CRKT and a knife with bead blast d2. The spots were minor and easily taken care of with a bit of Flitz metal polish.
 
sak_collector said:
Probably true, we dont use any lemon detergent, just whatever those little detergent packets are you toss in. Certainly banging around can do it.

The way I do mine is open the half-way and set them on the top where you would put the glasses and coffee cups. Never had a problem with any of them moving and nothing touches them.

Rust has not been a problem with aus6 or 8, any of the 440s, ats34, or anything. The only spots that have ever developed were with a bead blast CRKT and a knife with bead blast d2. The spots were minor and easily taken care of with a bit of Flitz metal polish.
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From my experience, finish has a LOT more to do with rust resistance than the chemical make-up of the steel. On a trip to AK a satin AUS-6 CRKT knife rusted while my high-polished ATS-34 knife did not in the same conditons.

Notice ya never see any beadblast kitchen knives. ;)
 
You may want to try the spray cleaner from Pasload nail guns , does a great job for my nail guns and folders.Lube afterward :D
 
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