How Often to Oil?

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footballplayerchris

Joined
Jan 1, 2011
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How often should I put oil on the blades of my Kershaws? They are both 8CR13MOV steel. I noticed a little rust on my Volt II (one week old) and I have been drying it really well after washing the blade! Also, what oil should/can I use? Can I use Conola Oil? Thanks!
 
Mineral oil is often suggested as it is food safe but you shouldn't need oil on a stainless blade. If your rusting stainless steel then the plane and simple fact is you didn't take care of it as well as you think or it was exposed longer than realized.
 
Okay, thanks for the response. I will pay really close attention to how I take care of it for the next few days. It was just a little bit of rust that wiped off easily so maybe I mistook it for some random brown spots I hadn't cleaned off. Any suggestions for making sure I take good care of it? Thanks again!
 
Keep it clean and dry.

I have stainless and carbon steel of all sorts and the only time any have rusted was when I didn't properly clean them. I don't even store my carbon blades oiled and I've only had one rust and that was from leaving it in a leather sheath.

Depending on where you live oil might be required but just keeping a blade clean with hot water and soap has always worked for me.

Surface finish can also play a role, kershaw likes to use a bead blasted finish and though I've not had much issue it can become one quickly because of the open "pores" of the surface.
 
knifenut1013 said:
Mineral oil is often suggested as it is food safe but you shouldn't need oil on a stainless blade. If your rusting stainless steel then the plane and simple fact is you didn't take care of it as well as you think or it was exposed longer than realized.
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I have to respectfully disagree with this. Certain types of blade finishes -- especially bead-blast finishes -- can make even a stainless steel somewhat prone to rust under normal conditions (e.g., being in a humid climate or the humid environment of a pocket). The Cold Steel Spartan's bead-blast finish is particularly notorious for making the blade rust-prone, but there have been a decent number of reports of similar issues with Kershaws (which use bead-blast finishes extensively).

I do agree that if you're getting significant rust on a stainless blade, that's almost always a sign of neglect or long exposure, but a bit of oil can't hurt as a preventative measure against small rust spots.

(I should point out that since I began collecting, I've put Tuf-Glide on the blade of every knife I get, whether stainless or not, and have never had any rust spots at all. This, of course, isn't a particularly useful data point since there's always the possibility that my knives would have remained rust-free even without the Tuf-Glide.)

EDIT: Looks like you anticipated all of these points in the reply you posted while I was typing. :p
 
Jiggy said:
I wouldn't use mineral oil on any knife that's going to be used for food prep.
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Why not? It's completely safe for consumption -- CVS, Walgreens, and pretty much every other major pharmacy sells it as an orally ingested laxative.
 
neuron said:
Why not? It's completely safe for consumption -- CVS, Walgreens, and pretty much every other major pharmacy sells it as an orally ingested laxative.
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Lol well for I wouldn't want my food prep knife to have laxative like effects. Not just that but mineral oil stops the absorption of Vitamins.
 
Jiggy said:
Lol well for I wouldn't want my food prep knife to have laxative like effects. Not just that but mineral oil stops the absorption of Vitamins.
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Heh, you would need quite a bit of it to have any of those types of effects. A thin layer that is left after wiping the blade down will probably not even have any flavor.
 
Jiggy said:
Lol well for I wouldn't want my food prep knife to have laxative like effects. Not just that but mineral oil stops the absorption of Vitamins.
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Haha...in the trace quantities that would get into your food from the surface of a knife blade, neither of those undesirable effects would be an issue.

Edit: Probably should've read the previous post before adding my own (redundant) response. :p
 
Mineral oil as laxative is just lubrication. It also only effects fat-soluble vitamins like A/D/E/K, and it takes quite a bit to do that.

Not really a concern when just putting some on your knife blade.

Edit: Hmm, triplicate...so I'll just say bit more (...)

Unless you're in high-humid environment, oiling it often isn't really required. If you're using and cleaning the knife on daily basis, it's not really necessary in my opinion. But if you're putting it down in storage for more than a few days, a coating of oil wouldn't be a bad idea at all.
 
I've excellent results using wax. It can be Johnson Paste Wax, car wax, and even what I use, Rennesaince Wax. Key though is to keep em wiped and dry. That bead blast finish will open up tiny pores that water can hide in even when you think it is dry. Also, if you are washing them, then use as hot of water as you have when rinsing them. Letting the blade get hot from the water will not damage the temper, and it allows it to dry faster. Something else you can do for bead blasted blades is to sand them smooth, to a more satin finish. I use wet/dry auto finishing paper in 600, 1000, 1500, even 2000 grit to do this. Available at your local Walmart, or auto paint store.:thumbup::)
 
Jiggy said:
I wouldn't use mineral oil on any knife that's going to be used for food prep.
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Every restaurant I've worked in used Mineral oil for their lubrication needs. Slicers, dicers, mandolins, whatever - mineral oil was the go-to food safe lubricant. Chances are pretty good the last restaurant you ate at used the same thing. ;)
 
I never oil my stainless steel blades, just keep them clean using warm water and dishing soap. That seems to be fine. For carbon steel blades, you can call me weird, but I use olive oil for that and that works fine.
 
How much rust did you find?

Something taught to me by a custom knife maker about rust on new knives (ss or carbon) is that it could be from residue carbon steel left-over from the knife making process (filing & steel wool particles). Clean it carefully and see if it comes back. It if doesn't, then it may just be filings imbedded in the steel.

I don't use mineral oil because it can gun-up and attract dirt into the workings, but I have no concern about it safety-wise. I use mineral oil to refinish my wood cutting boards w/o any laxative effects. Personally, I prefer wax.
 
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