neatsfoot oil on steel?

[cmurphy]

Anyone have any experience with this? Ive got a ton of neatsfoot and was wondering if we can put it on a high carbon blade like mineral oil.
Thanks all

 

[knarfeng]

I assume you are talking about increasing the rust resistance of non-stainless steel blades.

"Can." It will repel water just like grease, so it will help. Certainly I wouldn't expect it to hurt the blade. There are better things to use for rust-proofing, so maybe not "should".

According to Wiki, a lot of compounds labeled "neatsfoot oil" have mineral oils mixed in, so I'd not want to use a blade treated with such for food prep, if that's an issue to you.

 

[j_d]

I have used it on leather (i prefer a beeswax compound as it seems to soften it less) and cant see how it would hurt your steel. As far as mineral oil goes i use it on my food prep blades as it is food safe. You can actually use it in a larger dose for a laxative. Thankfully wiping a small ammout on a blade has never had this effect on me or mine.
Regards,
Josh

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

There's 'food-safe' mineral oil, and then there's 'mineral oil'. The food-safe stuff is more highly purified and specifically labelled as such, as is the 'laxative' variety. But the distinction of 'mineral oil' (generally) can be applied to any distilled by-product of oil that originally came from the ground (hence, 'mineral'), and therefore shouldn't automatically be assumed safe for food prep.

 

[cmurphy]

I've got pure neatsfoot oil for leather work, I mix it with beeswax for the leather treatment. But for steel im just thinking about putting the neatsfoot on it for rust resistance like we would with mineral oil. Im a geeky minimalist and I am all out of mineral oil, I should probably just fork out the 5 bucks for another can.

 

[grizzled gizzard]

You could fork out $5 and get some really good rust preventative and a pretty good lubricant in BreakFree. That's what it is actually made for.

 

[cmurphy]

Thanks Grizz, sounds good.

 

[cmurphy]

Thanks Grizz, sounds good. I'll hit it up.

 

[grizzled gizzard]

Thanks Grizz, sounds good. I'll hit it up.

You are most welcome of course. I'm sure you will like the results. I use it on ZDP, M4, and D2. No stainless steels among them, but you would never know it by looking at them. :thumbup: