INFI steel and corrosion

[Ken Cox]

I have not heard anyone address the corrosion resistance of INFI steel.
Input, please.

 

[Ralf]

I don't own one yet, but I can tell you so much that it ain't stainless.

 

[grnamin]

I brought my Battle Mistress with me on a winter camping trip in the Adirondacks. I had done some wood chopping for firewood and laid the knife in the snow. I placed the knife back in its kydex sheath while still wet. When I drew the knife out the next day, I found a small patch of rust on the blade. I didn't clean it up until I got back home two days later. I found a slightly pitted area when I cleaned out the rust spot. The blade edge wasn't corroded and that small rust spot was the only one I found. Here's an excerpt from what Mike Turber posted on Jerry Busse's own description of INFI's corrosion resistance:

Stainless? Not supposed to be. However, INFI has demonstrated very high
levels of stain resistance in many different climates. Uncoated blades have been tested for more than a year in Alaska and have made their way into the wilds of British Columbia, the High Sierras and the tropical rain forest. No rust in Alaska or British Columbia! No rust in the High Sierras, even when exposed to great quantities of blood and left in the wet grass overnight. The tropical rain forest, which has been known to rust plastic (just kidding), did offer the toughest of the environmental exposures and a light speckling of oxidation did occur but was easily removed in the field with a hand rubbing of sand and water. No pitting was reported. Now I'm sure that salt-water exposure would offer some different results. The point is that although INFI is not a stainless it is certainly not a rust aggressive steel as many of the high carbon steels have proven to be. Couple this with our coating and you've got yourself a fairly maintenance free knife.

The full post can be found at http://www.knifeforums.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000442.html.

-Greg

[This message has been edited by grnamin (edited 02 January 1999).]

 

[Ken Cox]

Thanks.
I don't mind a trade off.
IMHO, a little corrosion resistance helps, not so much cosmetically, rather it helps maintain the integrity of the blade over time.
I suspect corrosion runs deep and can weaken a blade, and in this case one pays a premium for strength and should have some reasonable expectation of endurance.

 

[m]

grnamin- Can you tell us how your Battle Mistress performed on your trip? How did it cut and chop wood and other items and how did it do compared to other knives you have used in the past?
Thanks m