My first Kershaw

jfindon

jfindon

Joined
Dec 12, 2006
Messages
967
I fell in love with the damascus Leek as soon as I saw it, and ordered it the same day from GPKnives. Ordered it on a Sunday and got it today.

It's a great feeling and looking knife, at times I get a little worried about carrying my Benchmade 710 in public because of the fools who get all antsy when they see it, but the Leek is a nice size and very slim so maybe people won't make such a big deal. Not that I care anyway. I also really like the assisted opening, it's so easy to just flip it out.

So for my first Kershaw knife, it has been a positive experience thus far. I'm sure it's been posted tons of times, but what sort of oil should I use to coat the blade? I can't search here and Google never gives me great results with this site for some reason.

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Some use gun oil, mineral oil, etc. and some use vegetable oil (much better if you plan on using it to prep food with!)

That's a beautiful blade! I hope you enjoy it. Now you really need to check out the composite blade Leek...it's a cutting machine!
 
Thanks :) I'll never cut food with it, but I'll look into some kind of gun oil. I heard some had things that would mess with the pattern or something though, some sort of abrasive maybe? I forget where I read that.

I'm now up to a whole two knives. I don't count my Gerber Paraframe because it sucks so bad.
 
Go to a walmart or kmart and get a small bottle of Hoppe's #9 gun oil. Don't get anything with a solvent in it!

Then get yourself a CB Leek! You won't regret that one either!
 
Try Ballistol. It is has no harmful chemicals in it and it is a marvelous lube. To protect the blade you can use Pam from the veg. oil dept. in the grocery store.
RKH
 
nice looking Leek man!!

be careful though.., acquiring Kershaw's can become addicting VERY fast!!..., screw it, buy 'em all!!
 
I would suggest Tuf-Cloth or Marine Tuf-Cloth.....but that is essentially mineral oil so....pretty much anything will work well. Welcome, and enjoy that new blade! :D
 
I do have one question about the blade, how is the pattern put on there? It's not "painted" on and will not come off, right? I read a subject here about someone who got a faulty one and tried using oil on it and it messed the pattern all up... I'll see if I can find the topic again.
 
Damascus is not 'painted' by any means, i'll let the experts explain it further. I find Miltec to be sufficient for my stainless knives. I also use Rem-Oil on occasion.
 
yinyang said:
Damascus is not 'painted' by any means, i'll let the experts explain it further. I find Miltec to be sufficient for my stainless knives. I also use Rem-Oil on occasion.
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I didn't think it was, but I always thought of it as being a raised surface, rather than appearing to be different metals melted together or something. That thread about how the oil screwed the finish up was really odd to me.
 
jfindon said:
I didn't think it was, but I always thought of it as being a raised surface, rather than appearing to be different metals melted together or something. That thread about how the oil screwed the finish up was really odd to me.
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The pattern is the result of the different metal alloys in the blade having different oxidation potentials. The standard way to bring out the different shades/hues/tones of the pattern is to dip the blade in a mildly corrosive fluid to "etch" the high carbon alloys dark. The high chromium stuff is comparatively unaffected, so it stays shiny and you get dark and bright patterns. If I remember the thread correctly, the theory was that the oil reduced the contrast between the alloys somehow. From a chemical/physical standpoint, I don't understand how that would work. My guess is that the owner got a little too overenthusiastic while cleaning and polished the blade up, which will remove the oxide layer from the etch and make the blade look less "damascussy".
 
rbmcmjr said:
The pattern is the result of the different metal alloys in the blade having different oxidation potentials. The standard way to bring out the different shades/hues/tones of the pattern is to dip the blade in a mildly corrosive fluid to "etch" the high carbon alloys dark. The high chromium stuff is comparatively unaffected, so it stays shiny and you get dark and bright patterns. If I remember the thread correctly, the theory was that the oil reduced the contrast between the alloys somehow. From a chemical/physical standpoint, I don't understand how that would work. My guess is that the owner got a little too overenthusiastic while cleaning and polished the blade up, which will remove the oxide layer from the etch and make the blade look less "damascussy".
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Excellent answer, Rick! :thumbup:
 
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