Humidity, my knives worst enemy!

[jbmonkey]

yes, Sir. living in the deep south and near the swamps and not all that far from two coasts...it's like 90%-95%+ humidity almost year round minus a couple months in the winter and late fall, if we are lucky weather wise.

i have massive rust problems, with most steels. massive meaning spotting mainly, and constant battling to remove them. 420 variations of stainless steels in handles and liners and blades will rust like mad, if not oiled constantly. aus 8 polished or not gets rust spots in a few hours of sweat exposure. bead blast finishes are a big no, no without oiling they rust very quickly.

this is why even though i like uncoated blades better as i like to see the steel, i find coated blades and hardware do far better with less effort. that was until spyderco brought over their h1 steel stuff. it will not rust as everyone already knows and it makes yardwork and pocket carrying effortless, even when dripping wet and your clothes are soaked from sweat, like you were out in a rainstorm.

i also switch to pocket carry coated blade or h1 when the summer hits full force. i love the humidity though and the heat. i thrive in it. maybe cause i am used to it. it's the cold i can't stand. i lived in pennsylvania for a couple years as a kid and my old man made it my job to shovel off the driveway and de-ice his car before he left for work and my hands would be numb and hurting it was so cold. my feet frozen waiting for the bus. i was cold inside with jackets and sweaters on. i vowed when we moved back to my homeland in the south i'd never live north again. love the summers and spring and fall up north, the mountains, and creeks and such, but i detest the winter and cold.

 

[cziv]

Use them and apply a small amount of lubricant. I have a couple of wipe-down cloths that have every brand of oil known to man on them (used at one time or another). I use the lubricant du jour and wipe it off with that same cloth. No problems!

 

[T.K.C.]

Get a Marine Tuff Cloth.

 

[syntaxerrorsix]

Carved two wooden spoons with this one (a big pine wood spoon and a small Eucalyptus spoon) and it was still shaving sharp...


This one has been beaten to hell... still rocking on




Sure it has LESS edge retention than good steels, but it's far from ZERO.
The only thing that is a real downside is when you beat it against hard objects (metals or rocks). If you use it on wood or other things that you can actually cut, you won't notice the lack of the edge retention. Beat it against rocks and it will ding, but the wear resistance is pretty good.

Nice spoon!

Not exactly what I consider hard use however, the only way I'd own one is if I needed a lightweight corrosion resistant knife for emergency uses only. Heck I don't even carry one for diving, I strap a couple of H1 Spyderco Salts on my deco bottles. There are far superior steels for far less money that are far more capable in my opinion. I'm glad yours satisfy your needs however.

 

[ArchAngel]

Fluid Film

​

Works for me.

Interesting product APF
Your post caught my interest and I started reading up on the Fluid Film. I ended up going to my local John Deere dealer and picking up a can. It seems like it would be especially good for my longer term storage of carbon steel knives. This stuff is thick and clings really well.
Thanks for the heads up!:thumbup:

 

[Mannlicher]

I'll be honest, this humidity and knife damage thing gets played way out of proportion.

I live in Florida, and with the humidity, salt air and heat, you would think my knives would have all rusted away years ago. To the contrary, just a little bit of care completely defeats humidity.

I keep my knives wiped down with a light coat of oil, and have never had a rust problem. Same with the guns I have. Take care of them, and don't worry about it.

 

[cziv]

I live next door to an implement dealership and thy carry JDs. I'd like to try this stuff but would like to know application directions for a folding knife if any of you guys like APF have any. How muchm how often and where to apply, that sort of thing.

 

[Jason B.]

I'll be honest, this humidity and knife damage thing gets played way out of proportion.

I live in Florida, and with the humidity, salt air and heat, you would think my knives would have all rusted away years ago. To the contrary, just a little bit of care completely defeats humidity.

I keep my knives wiped down with a light coat of oil, and have never had a rust problem. Same with the guns I have. Take care of them, and don't worry about it.

I was thinking the same thing. The humidity here in the summer if fairly high everyday, they put enough salt on the roads in the winter you can taste it in the air, and our season changes bring us a bit of all weather types.

My personal thoughts, Bignick. Your blades look neglected.

BTW, I only oil a blade going into storage all others are simply kept clean.

 

[scotyg]

I'll be honest, this humidity and knife damage thing gets played way out of proportion.

I live in Florida, and with the humidity, salt air and heat, you would think my knives would have all rusted away years ago. To the contrary, just a little bit of care completely defeats humidity.

I keep my knives wiped down with a light coat of oil, and have never had a rust problem. Same with the guns I have. Take care of them, and don't worry about it.

I agree, we dont get quite as much humidity as you guys down south but an average day in the summer still brings 80-85% humidity. I carry my delica with just a light film of breakfree on it, and I work outside for 40hrs a week. not a spot of rust

 

[cziv]

I was thinking the same thing. The humidity here in the summer if fairly high everyday, they put enough salt on the roads in the winter you can taste it in the air, and our season changes bring us a bit of all weather types.

My personal thoughts, Bignick. Your blades look neglected.

BTW, I only oil a blade going into storage all others are simply kept clean.

I live near you in OH, on the lake. Same seasonal changes and chemicals etc.. I agree that those knives look neglected. I have all of my knives stored indoors execpt for a fixed blade in my wife's and my cars and the rest are indoors but other than pivots they are wiped dry. No rust at all. I do use a coat of Militec-1 on some of my user blades.

I heat them up to simulate gun temperatures (with a blow dryer) and wipe them down, repeat and repeat until they're bone dry. Very water restistant.

See my water test on Hinderer XM-18 lube used was Militec-1

 

[BigNick]

I was thinking the same thing. The humidity here in the summer if fairly high everyday, they put enough salt on the roads in the winter you can taste it in the air, and our season changes bring us a bit of all weather types.

My personal thoughts, Bignick. Your blades look neglected.

BTW, I only oil a blade going into storage all others are simply kept clean.

Thanks for the comment, my post never really mentioned oxidation of any form, I don't have a rust issue at all, only my leather sticking to skin and pants and how I hate humidity and how it almost forces me to not wear the knives shown in my pics. I appreciate all the comments people put on here on how to defeat rust issues, that's a definite plus!! In regards to neglect, the Buck I agree, I just used it to cut a gnarled root system away from a 60 year old water spigot that was leaking like a mother humper!!! I didn't clean the knife before taking my pic. The bowie and sheath is pretty clean and regularly maintained, just old, grandpa's old huntin' knife, I do all the basic cleaning methods when putting it away or when using it, I appreciate your opinion though. The honest truth always helps. thanks again for your comment!

 

[tonijedi]

Nice spoon!

Not exactly what I consider hard use however, the only way I'd own one is if I needed a lightweight corrosion resistant knife for emergency uses only. Heck I don't even carry one for diving, I strap a couple of H1 Spyderco Salts on my deco bottles. There are far superior steels for far less money that are far more capable in my opinion. I'm glad yours satisfy your needs however.

Thanks!
This is what I consider hard use for knives, chopping, batoning. Beating with my full force on them to split wood...
I used the MPK for cuting whatever I needed and batoning fire wood for days without need of sharpening it.
On a normal side-by-side test I compared the MPK with a Fällkniven A1 and this Ti knife performed better on edge retention when cutting dirty ropes and fisherman's nets picked by the beach (full of sand and dirt inside). Again, I'm not saying Ti is better, I'm just saying besides being lightweight and corrosion resistant it has good edge retention in what it comes to wear resistance. Again, scratch it or beat it against rocks or metals and it's gonna damage easily. If I'd use them for spear fishing, which sometimes results in trying to scratch some live animals from rocks I'd use a cheap knife that I could replace easily.
No tech dive for me (yet...), I use this one and I already need to use it underwater once:


As for oils and "knife maintenance" it's just creepy for me, I don't like to have oily things on my knives, feels dirty for me.

EDIT: And yes, Ti is very expensive, if you don't need it you can get other steels. Superior or not I don't know... I see 1095 and other simple carbon steel knives costing as much as Mission Ti's knives

 

[syntaxerrorsix]

Thanks!
This is what I consider hard use for knives, chopping, batoning. Beating with my full force on them to split wood...
I used the MPK for cuting whatever I needed and batoning fire wood for days without need of sharpening it.
On a normal side-by-side test I compared the MPK with a Fällkniven A1 and this Ti knife performed better on edge retention when cutting dirty ropes and fisherman's nets picked by the beach (full of sand and dirt inside). Again, I'm not saying Ti is better, I'm just saying besides being lightweight and corrosion resistant it has good edge retention in what it comes to wear resistance. Again, scratch it or beat it against rocks or metals and it's gonna damage easily. If I'd use them for spear fishing, which sometimes results in trying to scratch some live animals from rocks I'd use a cheap knife that I could replace easily.
No tech dive for me (yet...), I use this one and I already need to use it underwater once:


As for oils and "knife maintenance" it's just creepy for me, I don't like to have oily things on my knives, feels dirty for me.

EDIT: And yes, Ti is very expensive, if you don't need it you can get other steels. Superior or not I don't know... I see 1095 and other simple carbon steel knives costing as much as Mission Ti's knives

Here's where my two ride

I can't have oil coming in contact with rubber or absorbent materials either, hence the H1 steel.

 

[tonijedi]

Here's where my two ride

I can't have oil coming in contact with rubber or absorbent materials either, hence the H1 steel.

Really nice! You use them side mount?
One more thing I'd already used my knife for was to cut boat ropes on land (don't know the exact English term for that, maybe mooring ropes??)

 

[syntaxerrorsix]

Really nice! You use them side mount?
One more thing I'd already used my knife for was to cut boat ropes on land (don't know the exact English term for that, maybe mooring ropes??)

Those two AL40's are slung from the shoulder D ring and waist D ring, one on each side. Then I back mount either double LP95's or double AL80's dependent on gas requirements for the dive. In my profile picture I'm doing a shallowish wreck penetration on the Vandenburg in Key West. I'm only carrying the 40% to accelerate an already short deco profile The pure O2 bottle gets broken out for ~200' range mix dives or to shorten really long deco hangs.

Absolutely NO oil gets near O2 cleaned equipment

ETA, yep mooring lines is the correct term.

 

[tonijedi]

Thanks syntaxerrorsix, so far I can go is only Nitrox and my max depth was around 45 meters = 147.637795 feet.
Yep, no oil near O2 cleaned equipment, even for Nitrox we've to take special care and procedures when filling the bottles.

The only carbon steel blades I use are for carving spoons and things like that:

 

[syntaxerrorsix]

Thanks syntaxerrorsix, so far I can go is only Nitrox and my max depth was around 45 meters = 147.637795 feet.
Yep, no oil near O2 cleaned equipment, even for Nitrox we've to take special care and procedures when filling the bottles.

The only carbon steel blades I use are for carving spoons and things like that:

I've been buying up Blind Horse Knives at a fairly rapid rate. You should check out some of their wood working "bushcraft" knives. They have some fine carvers. Most of them are O2 steel and you can get convexed, scandi or FFG. I've got the same Mora you have pictured.