Knives Dull in the safe?

[smcjoecohen@yahoo]

I keep all of my high end knives in my unsafe. Sometimes I won't touch some of them for months. I took out a custom Strider last night just to play w/it a little and I found that it was not shredding paper very well. I stropped it some and it was good and sharp again, I know it was sharp when I put it in there. Does anyone know if this is something that happens normally? This particular knife is a Bead Blasted DDC RC tanto. I was thinking maybe the bead blast would be more susceptible to this than stonewashed blades.

 

[dr_fosg8]

I have seen a few threads on the subject. It seems that the metal along the sharpened edge oxidizes slightly while sitting causing it to dull slightly.

 

[Ben Dover]

A tiny bit of light oil on the cutting edge should cure this.

 

[fervens]

If you bring the same subject to straight razor nuts, sometime the results are reversed. If you leave a razor after sharpening and then come back after a while, it'll be sharper. Not by much, but enough so that just stropping helps bring it back to shave ready.