Rust after regular pocket wear - Kershaw Knockout

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Hey there,

I'm newly taken by the blade-bug and this is my first post to the forums, so please forgive me if I am outside of the social contract somehow in asking this! (Wrong place, wrong question, etc)

I got a Kershaw Knockout with the black scales and Sandvik steel yesterday from Amazon. Other than what I figured was normal stiffness that would go away, I was quite please with the knife. UNTIL I took it out of my pocket this morning:


BEHOLD INSTA-RUST!

IMG_3117 smallr.jpg

Full size image: http://z.nx.is/EOtm1/IMG_3117.JPG

I have been carrying a Spyderco Sage 3 for almost two weeks day and night and have had no such problems. Is this rust expected based off the steel used? What should I do about the rust and handling it in the future?

Cheers!
 
yep. i can make any knife steel, stainless or not(except h1), look worse than that in a day of sweating in the swamps. the rust should rub off...if not try flitz.....i've had good luck with minor rust spots using it. try one of the many products until you find one you like. lately i'm liking wax over oils and silicones, etc.....
 
jbmonkey said:
yep. i can make any knife steel, stainless or not(except h1), look worse than that in a day of sweating in the swamps. the rust should rub off...if not try flitz.....i've had good luck with minor rust spots using it. try one of the many products until you find one you like. lately i'm liking wax over oils and silicones, etc.....
Click to expand...

Ha! I'll definitely check that out. Just so odd that this steel reacted so quickly with my sweaty pocket versus the spyderco's I've been wearing before it. (Cat2, Sage 3, Tenacious) - Maybe I just shouldn't stray from Spydies! LOL
 
Hey man, welcome to the forums. A perfectly acceptable first post, but make sure to hang around and learn much more!

I'd hit it with some rem oil/wd-40 and a stiff toothbrush or something. It looks like your blade is stonewashed so you could possibly
even use something harder if the rust won't come off, just make sure it doesn't leave any scratches that you might be unhappy with.

Once you get it clean you will need to put something protective on it. I prefer Sentry solutions marine tuff cloth. It's a great product.
Everyone has their own favorite products that they will recommend, but just make sure that you use something. When I lived in Florida
I even tried car wax for a while, and it worked great.

Plain oil on the blade is ok, but it attracts more dirt and will wipe off with cutting, you want something that will stay on the blade long term.
Best of luck,
-L2g
 
The kind of finish on the blade sometimes affects rust resistance as well. I can make almost anything that's sandblasted look like crap in record time. Superficial rust should be easy to clean up with some polishing compound, Flitz or something like that. If that isn't enough, try some super fine steel wool with a little oil.

I usually give my sandblasted (and some stonewashed) blades a gentle polish with 1500 grain sandpaper and a bit of oil, it seems to make the surface less prone to rust. It takes a couple of minutes at the most.
 
Sandblasted does react the fastest due to the larger surface area. Polished rusts "slowest".
 
What a great knife, the knockout. I have had good luck with any of the tuff glide products but I live in a very dry environment.
 
Thanks everybody for the tips!

Despite my strong desire to upgrade to the ELMAX version to fix the problem, I guess I should stick with this knife a while given the advice here. :D
 
It may be indicative of improperly heat treating. At lower hardness or an annealed state, steel rusts easily.

I think you should call Kershaw and discuss it, with one day of carry I wouldn't see how that would be expected.....unless you were in the desert at 120 degrees all day?
 
jbmonkey said:
yep. i can make any knife steel, stainless or not(except h1), look worse than that in a day of sweating in the swamps. the rust should rub off...if not try flitz.....i've had good luck with minor rust spots using it. try one of the many products until you find one you like. lately i'm liking wax over oils and silicones, etc.....
Click to expand...

You sir need to find someone who will make you a nice knife in Z-FiNit ;)
Super corrosion resistant nitrogen stainless steel, with excellent figures in toughness, edge retention, and it is very good at making an insanely stable edge for itslef, especially when you consider that you can place a well-made and treated blade od this steel in acid for several hours and have virtually no change to the steel at all from what I've seen in testing. A little hard to find someone who uses it (and don't bother asking for an acid wash ;)) but it sounds good for you!

For the OP, Welcome!

I have had mixed experiences with Sandvik steel, but mostly possitive. I have steered clear of Amazon though honestly, as they sometimes stock knives that are older and specs/condition might not be up to par all the time. Check out one of the authorized dealers here on the forums for future purchases honestly. Saves you money in the longrun.

And if you ever really worry about staining or find it just becomes a problem, then look at getting something like Aegis EDCi solution. Excellent stuff, and keeps your blades in great shape and safe from water and sweat.
Once you start to get into higher levels of knowledge on steel (if you choose to), you won't have this problem much, trust me ;)
 
Oh, and I will mention that the Aegis EDCi is also food-safe, and applies in less than 5 minutes too :D

Not sure honestly since I haven't used all of the products here, but I know most of them at least are not food-safe. Not a huge concern most of the time, but it's also nice to have that option when you need to use your knife that way, or it becomes something convinient.
I never thought I would care, but then I found myself using my Shirogorov 95T to make dinner one night when I was helping a friend move and we realized none of the kicthen knives had made it over yet :D
Worked much better than I thought it would ;)
 
I am wondering if the rust is more of a result of the finishing media being contaminated. for example if the ceramic that was used in the stone wash was also used to treat carbon steel parts and resulted in the blade being imbedded with little pieces of the the carbon steel, as I would not expect that blade to rust so quickly. The only reason I say this is it reminds me of a mistake I made one time working as a welder building stainless steel hydraulic tanks, I had welded a few one day and cleaned them up with the same grinding wheel I used on other carbon steel set them outside and a few days later they were covered in little speckles of rust every where I had touched with the grinder, and looked very similar to the rust on that blade
 
I've had a number of Kershaws that did that. Their bead blasting and stonewashing does something to make the knives rust really easily. You need to polish the blade with some Flitz or similar and that will help remove rust and prevent it from happening again. Whether it's because the knives had some kind of residue or if Flitz helps polish the surface a little and that helps it I have no idea. That seemed to work a little better for me.

I don't know what they're doing but the Sandvik steel they use is very similar to Sandvik's razor steel used in actual razors. It's not supposed to rust. In reality it shouldn't rust without a lot of effort to make it rust. They're doing something improper with it to make it rust that way, most likely a problem with their blade finish. Bead blasting is known to cause rust, but it's cheap so manufacturers like it. Something with their stonewashing process speeds up rusting too.
 
poleclimber that is a very good example. It is also most likely what the problem is. I have many 14C28N Sandvik Kershaw knives. A couple of them, one uncoated the other coated, start showing little rust spots with little use. The coated knife is the OD green black bladed Knockout. I carried it in my back pocket one day and pulled it out and opened it and there were little rust spots all over the top of the blade where it is exposed when closed. Mind you these rust spots came right through the coating! It was not hard to remove them though all it took was a Tuff Cloth and some 0000 steel wool and it came right off. The other knife is a plain jane red Blur without any coating or stonewashing. I barely used this knife at all yet little specks of rust all up and down the end of the blade. For some reason the rust spots on the Blur wont come off. Highly disappointing. I am very good about keeping my knives clean, lubed and oiled. At some point during the manufacturing process something was not done right. What that is Idk.

I do know that Kershaw wants to replace 14C28N with BD1 steel. From what I know BD1 is made in the US and features higher rust/corrosion resistance than the Sandvik steel. Just looked and now I have a couple of tiny rust spots on the 14C28N portion of the blade in my JYD 2. I have several Elmax Kershaw knives and had zero issues whatsoever with any of them. The Elmax Speedform 2 I have has been through quite a bit and has yet to even need a touch up on the edge. I am a big fan of Elmax. I feel it is superior to S30V and so far the S35VN in my ZT550. Would love to get an Elmax Knockout but want to wait a bit and read user reviews as time goes on.
 
Yo Mama said:
It may be indicative of improperly heat treating. At lower hardness or an annealed state, steel rusts easily.

I think you should call Kershaw and discuss it, with one day of carry I wouldn't see how that would be expected.....unless you were in the desert at 120 degrees all day?
Click to expand...

Unlikely. Kershaw is not heat treating individual blades, they process hundreds at a time through a set, defined process...
 
CelticCross74 said:
poleclimber that is a very good example. It is also most likely what the problem is. I have many 14C28N Sandvik Kershaw knives. A couple of them, one uncoated the other coated, start showing little rust spots with little use. The coated knife is the OD green black bladed Knockout. I carried it in my back pocket one day and pulled it out and opened it and there were little rust spots all over the top of the blade where it is exposed when closed. Mind you these rust spots came right through the coating! It was not hard to remove them though all it took was a Tuff Cloth and some 0000 steel wool and it came right off. The other knife is a plain jane red Blur without any coating or stonewashing. I barely used this knife at all yet little specks of rust all up and down the end of the blade. For some reason the rust spots on the Blur wont come off. Highly disappointing. I am very good about keeping my knives clean, lubed and oiled. At some point during the manufacturing process something was not done right. What that is Idk.

I do know that Kershaw wants to replace 14C28N with BD1 steel. From what I know BD1 is made in the US and features higher rust/corrosion resistance than the Sandvik steel. Just looked and now I have a couple of tiny rust spots on the 14C28N portion of the blade in my JYD 2. I have several Elmax Kershaw knives and had zero issues whatsoever with any of them. The Elmax Speedform 2 I have has been through quite a bit and has yet to even need a touch up on the edge. I am a big fan of Elmax. I feel it is superior to S30V and so far the S35VN in my ZT550. Would love to get an Elmax Knockout but want to wait a bit and read user reviews as time goes on.
Click to expand...

My speedform 2 showed rust spots on the bead blasted portion after carrying it once. Pretty impressive to see elmax do that.

somber said:
Unlikely. Kershaw is not heat treating individual blades, they process hundreds at a time through a set, defined process...
Click to expand...

Then they're making hundreds at a time that will rust easily.
 
IMO this is not normal for 14C28N.

McCullen did some tests on AEB-L and 14C28N.

[video=youtube;xMDf2OqFEhw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMDf2OqFEhw[/video]

If the steel does not clean up and continue rusting send it back because that means there is something wrong.
 
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