Rem oil, 3in1, mineral oil, and celluloid oh my!

J

jor fly

Joined
Dec 19, 2014
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Hey folks. I inhereted my dads knife collection which is extensive (old callimus, case, boker, schrade, Hagar, and others with everything from wood handles to bone and aluminum). I recently segregated all the celluloid knives to themselves in a non enclosed area after learning about gassing. Much to my horror I found out that using rem oil or 3in1 oil can cause the gassing process to accelerate (which is true as I now have a Carl Schlieper that has pitting on the engraving on the blade where a few weeks ago it was fine). So i have removed all petrolium products from those knives. I also wiped down many others with a dry polishing cloth as i am now CONFUSED after reading somewhere that rem oil and 3in1 can potentially damage delrin handles as well. So my question becomes, WHAT is a safe, non damaging, and easy to obtain lubricant/protestant I can use on my dads collection?
 
Try a good gun oil, never had issues with this one

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What about my other knives: bone, antler, delrin, other synthetics, rubber handles, etc, is there any danger to them from rem oil or 3in1 on the blades?
 
jor fly said:
What about my other knives: bone, antler, delrin, other synthetics, rubber handles, etc, is there any danger to them from rem oil or 3in1 on the blades?
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I am not a expert by any means but I would keep any petroleum based oil away from all synthetic handle material. I have used mineral oil on bone,stag and wood handle materials with out any problems.
 
Thanks for all the answers concerning celluloid folks. As far as keeping oils away from ALL synthetics, I don't know if that's possible considering so many knives today are made with things like G10, micarta, and rubberized handles like on not as. Live used petrolium based oils on many of the blades on these knives with no ill effect. I would like to ask one more, more specific question: what were the old made in the USA Old Timer handles made of? Is it delrin, and if so what us the danger to delrin from petrolium based oils?
 
flatblackcapo said:
I am not a expert by any means but I would keep any petroleum based oil away from all synthetic handle material. I have used mineral oil on bone,stag and wood handle materials with out any problems.
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I don't think mineral oil will hurt micarta, at least not in my experience. A little dab of mineral oil on canvas micarta will usually bring the color and sheen back. Canvas micarta does tend to "dry" out slightly.
 
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jor fly said:
Thanks for all the answers concerning celluloid folks. As far as keeping oils away from ALL synthetics, I don't know if that's possible considering so many knives today are made with things like G10, micarta, and rubberized handles like on not as. Live used petrolium based oils on many of the blades on these knives with no ill effect. I would like to ask one more, more specific question: what were the old made in the USA Old Timer handles made of? Is it delrin, and if so what us the danger to delrin from petrolium based oils?
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I actually found a thread on here that answered my question about delrin, so thats solved lol.
 
After reading some articles about rem oil, and considering it's widely used for guns, both wood and synthetic stock, is imagine it's fine to protect knives as long as it's only a very thin coat and ONLY on the blade. I was worried that my previous use of it might damage some of the blades on my dads older knives, but it looks like as long as I've separated out the celluloid it should be fine, thanks for all the help folks!
 
I can't help with anything other than what i use for my high carbon steel blades. Ive used waxes like renaissance wax and fluid film. the wax is probably the longer lasting of the two. the fluid film is Lanolin based (comes from sheep) and some people are allergic to lanolin, but I use that on my M4 blades that I edc since its food safe and I'm not allergic to it. the wax is great for storage. these two options are far better than anything else I've used and seen tested. tho a very few others come close.
 
JB in SC said:
I don't think mineral oil will hurt micarta, at least not in my experience. A little dab of mineral oil on canvas micarta will usually bring the color and sheen back. Canvas micarta does tend to "dry" out slightly.
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I think you are right. I should have been more clear that I was talking about old traditional knife handle materials. I have even used Tri Flow ( a bicycle chain lube ) on Micarta without any ill effects.
 
jor fly said:
Hey folks. I inhereted my dads knife collection which is extensive (old callimus, case, boker, schrade, Hagar, and others with everything from wood handles to bone and aluminum). I recently segregated all the celluloid knives to themselves in a non enclosed area after learning about gassing. Much to my horror I found out that using rem oil or 3in1 oil can cause the gassing process to accelerate (which is true as I now have a Carl Schlieper that has pitting on the engraving on the blade where a few weeks ago it was fine). So i have removed all petrolium products from those knives. I also wiped down many others with a dry polishing cloth as i am now CONFUSED after reading somewhere that rem oil and 3in1 can potentially damage delrin handles as well. So my question becomes, WHAT is a safe, non damaging, and easy to obtain lubricant/protestant I can use on my dads collection?
Click to expand...
6 year old post but still relevant. I seen a guy test multiple oils and waxes on carbon steel knives, outside for 21 days. The 3 and 1 oil had the least amount of rust on the blades. So now I'm confused man haha
 
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