Olive oil for knife maintenance?

Vasoline petroleum (jelly) is made of crude oil, refined into mineral oil with natural wax additives.

Suggested types of machine oil are petroleum oil or silicon oil, as it's doesn't leave gunk. Petroleum can also be used to rehabilitate plastic.

It's also fairly common in a lot of our consumables but not too good when consumed in its more unrefined state. It's crude oil.

Vaseline is also available pretty much everywhere. Lube of choice for SAKs.
 
It will go rancid as others have stated. I use Ballistol on everything metal I own. As soon as I buy a tool it gets a Ballistol bath. The main ingredient in ballistol is medical grade mineral oil. Also use it to condition all my leather and wood among many other things. Would highly recommend it or medical grade mineral oil from your pharmacy. Or Japanese camellia oil, it is a bit more viscous.
 
Mineral oil labeled as safe for food-prep surfaces includes:
- Oil intended for treating cutting boards. Howard Cutting Board Oil is one of these, available from at least one large hardware store chain.
- Oil intended for knife sharpening stones. Norton Honing Oil is an example
- Mineral Oil USP intended to be used as a laxative, available at most pharmacy chains and grocery and department stores that have sections with health care products.

In short, if you live near any town or city in the US, you can find food-grade mineral oil under some name or another almost everywhere.

If you want to use olive oil on reactive cooking knives that get used pretty often, so that it doesn't stay on them for long times, then you're probably OK. I wouldn't put it on a folder where it could get into the pivot and inside the liners, though.
 
Olive oil will NOT NOT NOT go rancid in your knife. First, you won't use enough of it to last long on the surface or in the joints to spoil. Second, olive oil can sit out for a long time and not spoil. Consider bottles or jars or pitchers with pour spouts in people's kitchens. The reason they don't spoil is the reduction of air at the surface. The same is true of the small amount on your knife.

I use olive oil on all my folding knives that need lubricant. The only concern is that it loses its lubricant quality faster than a petroleum based lube. But it never smells like a petroleum product.

Zieg
 
Olive oil spread thinly on a surface exposed to oxygen will go rancid in a matter of hours. I figured this out in trying it (once) as a moisturizer for my face one morning, per interweb 'wisdom' I got suckered into. The little bit that remained in my moustache, under my nose, began to STINK by early afternoon. I didn't waste any time washing my face and giving up on that treatment. That experience firmly cleared up any lingering doubts in my mind, about whether it goes rancid or not.

A little thicker application on oxygen-exposed surfaces will also become sticky as it goes bad. Not good for knife pivots, as it'll attract a lot of dust & lint in your pocket.

Use some mineral oil. It's dirt cheap, food-safe (USP grades like the laxative type, or that made for servicing food processing equipment), ubiquitously available, and it never goes rancid. It's a no-brainer.

(and the USP grades are completely odorless as well, BTW.)


David
 
Obsessed with Edges said:
Olive oil spread thinly on a surface exposed to oxygen will go rancid in a matter of hours. I figured this out in trying it (once) as a moisturizer for my face one morning, per interweb 'wisdom' I got suckered into. The little bit that remained in my moustache, under my nose, began to STINK by early afternoon. I didn't waste any time washing my face and giving up on that treatment. That experience firmly cleared up any lingering doubts in my mind, about whether it goes rancid or not.

A little thicker application on oxygen-exposed surfaces will also become sticky as it goes bad. Not good for knife pivots, as it'll attract a lot of dust & lint in your pocket.

Use some mineral oil. It's dirt cheap, food-safe (USP grades like the laxative type, or that made for servicing food processing equipment), ubiquitously available, and it never goes rancid. It's a no-brainer.

(and the USP grades are completely odorless as well, BTW.)


David
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YMMV, as the saying goes. But this is apples and oranges. I've never put it on my face, so I can't attest to that experience. Sounds like you've never used it on a knife, so same goes for you. Care to try it?

Zieg
 
The Zieg said:
YMMV, as the saying goes. But this is apples and oranges. I've never put it on my face, so I can't attest to that experience. Sounds like you've never used it on a knife, so same goes for you. Care to try it?

Zieg
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I HAVE used it on a knife (mistakenly in the pivot, per my comment). Never again.

A litte bit of info, re: testing olive oil for quality, which includes stringent requirements for maintaining freshness of it (preventing or minimizing rancidity, in other words):

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/08/05/olive-oil.aspx

(quoted from article linked above)
"Rancidity

Olive oil is highly perishable, but is generally said to be ‘good’ for two years from the date it was bottled (this will usually be the ‘Best By’ date). However, a better indicator of freshness is to go by its harvest date, which will tell you when the oil was actually made. Only select oils that have this information on the bottle.

So the first step is finding an oil that was harvested as recently as possible. From there, many other factors, including storage temperature, exposure to air and light, the level of antioxidants and chlorophyll content in the oil, will also influence how resistant it is to going rancid.

All olive oil will get rancid eventually, but if you're like most people, you're probably leaving your bottle of olive oil right on the counter, opening and closing it multiple times a week (or even a day). Every time the oil is exposed to air and/or light, it undergoes oxidiation and will get rancid quicker.

Extra-virgin olive oil, in particular, also contains chlorophyll that accelerates decomposition and makes the oil go rancid even faster than semi-refined olive oils, according to oil expert Dr. Rudi Moerck. So how can you tell if your olive oil is rancid?

It smells like crayons or putty
It tastes like rancid nuts
It has a greasy mouthfeel

Unfortunately, as The Olive Oil Times reported:

“The sad truth is that most people in the US… are accustomed to the flavor of rancid olive oil.”

"
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David
 
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Oy vey. None of the above. And Italians and Spaniards must also be suffering. But you have your convictions. S'ok. Mineral oil works just fine, too.

Zieg
 
Thanks for the replies everyone, I appreciate it. I do live in Australia, and I believe mineral oil is labelled as parrafin oil here so I'll check my local supermarket to see if they sell oil under that label.
 
BITEME said:
hey dude,
Its the same oil they use for treating the wood on cuttingboards(food grade mineral oil) Ikea sells a good size bottle for about $9,it will last you forever-if that doesn't work send me a PM and I will ship a small bottle to you for free.Just checked looks like Ikea MO can be ordered online,my original offer still stands if you cant get some for some reason
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Thanks for the offer BITEME, I searched Ikea's website and I found a bottle for treating wood accessories in the kitchen (chopping board etc.) so it should be safe for knives that are going to be used for food prep. Thanks again for your offer, I really do appreciate it and if I can't find any suitable oil for whatever reason, I'll be sure to PM you. :)
 
olive oil will get rancid and mineral oil is most definitely obtainable. drug store, grocery store, hardware store, walmart, etc. buy it online too. its super cheap as well. you dont want to be cutting stuff up with rancid olive oil. seriously avoid this. some people just dont care.

you could also try fluid film which works WAY better than anything else. you can get it at Lowes hardware store. its lanolin (sheep) based, so you just have to make sure your not allergic. it says its food safe. its more expensive but will last longer and protect better, look it up, a few reviews here on bladeforums where they stuck high carbon knives in salt water after being applied with different oils, fluid film lasted the longest. tho you wouldn't want to use this to lubricate the pivot at all, mineral oil would be idea since its food safe, if you dont use it for food, any reel oil, machine lube or synthetic oil will work for the pivot for folders. avoid nano oil, as its completely snake oil, misleading advertising and expensive without any measurable differences between the rest.
 
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dudethatlikesblades said:
Thanks for the replies everyone, I appreciate it. I do live in Australia, and I believe mineral oil is labelled as parrafin oil here so I'll check my local supermarket to see if they sell oil under that label.
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https://www.researchgate.net/post/Whats_the_difference_between_mineral_oil_and_paraffin_oil

On the other hand, Paraffin oil, known as kerosene in Australia and the United States and stove oil in Canada, is an flammable liquid hydrocarbon burned as fuel.
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the wiki for Mineral oil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral_oil
you can find some terms in here that might be useful. mineral oil USP for an example or, "paraffinum perliquidum", "Paraffinum liquidum" or "Paraffinum subliquidum"
 
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