Rust...Who cares, right?

Wildewinds said:
So is there any way to prevent rust, aside from wiping it down with some oil every now and then?
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CPM154 :D
Sparljo said:
EDIT: is cold blue really just a deep etch? How does this stuff work anyway?
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Cold blue is a not very deep etch, I think. The Casey Perma Blue stuff is just dilute selenium dioxide. I've used it several times and have come to the conclusion that it's meant mainly for touch-ups. Their Super Blue is supposed to be better but I haven't tried it.

You can have lots of fun with brown mustard, vinegar, lemon juice, and so forth. It may depend on the particular alloy of course, but it seems like the mustard protects better than cold blue does.

There are also solutions for putting a more permanent/protective black or gray oxide layer on both carbon and stainless steels. I haven't tried it but it looks promising.
 
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RescueRiley said:
a carbon blade that is not stained... is the either a safe queen, the blade of a woodsman with OCD or the knife of a poser.. just my 2 cents
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Here Here! well said John.
 
I do not like scotchbrite for this application, it is too aggressive. I would suggest Steel Wool, it will cut the rust off without cutting into the steel too much. And if you get the finer grades, it will not cut through your bluing, so you can just cut the rust off, and then re-blue where the rust has removed the bluing.

To those who dislike cold blue.... Do you neutralize it after every coat with cold water? Do you clean off the excess stain with steel wool? Do you apply it in multiple coats? Do you oil it after you apply?

I would like to summarize my thoughts...

1) You cannot always count on a rust inhibiter; lacquers, waxes, Tuff Cloth, and oils will all either wear off or be cleaned off.

2) Corrosion/Oxidization will take place from time to time. Then the issue becomes dealing with it effectively. Cold Blue can be put on in a variegated pattern which can look quite nice, will not show scratches and use badly, and will still look good once it is touched up, as you will most certainly have to touch it up.

3) Very few people do it... But, storing your knife out of the sheath will also help.

4) Oiling the inside of your leather sheath and making sure that there is a drain hole, will encourage water to leave the sheath and not soak into the leather, so that you will not have wet leather against your knife blade.

Marion
 
Surface rust on a user? No problem. If you're using it it'll get scraped away with use. And what you're left with is probably the start of a nice, protective patina. It stinks to get that first bit of surface rust on a new knife, sort of like that first tiny scratch on a new car, afterwards, you get desensitized to it.

Rusting and pitting from general neglect, now that's a whole other story!
 
Yeah my procedure for applying was pretty similar to what you describe.

I don't have any problems with the application or the product itself, I just found it to be poor rust prevention.

Boiling a blade in vinegar seems to give a similar effect.
 
Sparljo said:
Yeah my procedure for applying was pretty similar to what you describe.

I don't have any problems with the application or the product itself, I just found it to be poor rust prevention.

Boiling a blade in vinegar seems to give a similar effect.
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Does the vinegar patina give any better corrosion protection?

Under what conditions did you find rust on the blued blade?

Marion
 
I'm not sure if the boiled vinegar patina has rust prevention properties or not.

I found that 3 out of 3 blades I cold blued seemed to develop excessive surface rust under wet conditions. No deep pitting, just orange rust, nothing major. I didn't find that it prevented the rust from occurring, which was what I was after. I havn't messed with it since, and I don't miss the smell of it. :)
 
revolution13 said:
I see what you guys are saying, but i wanted to focus more on what i said on the original post (no drawer of knives, no "when i get home", no unlimited supply of oils). Just you, your knife, and the bush. Now, re-evaluating what i'm looking for here, what do you think?
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If I am out hiking or camping, I actually clean my knives when I am done with them. When I did a simulated survival exercise, the blades were lucky to get wiped off on my jeans. I personally don't care. I won't intentionally neglect them just because I am in the field, but I won't baby them either. I keep oil in my pack more for my MT than cleaning my blades...
 
A few camping trips ago, I switched my pocket knife from a SAK to a cheapo carbon slipjoint I picked up at the last knife show. The cheapo knife is a 3 bladed stockman which I'm pretty sure is 1095 or something similar. Anyway, it ended up raining the whole three days and that stockman ended up locking up so tight that by the end I couldn't get blades to open at all, there bye making it useless. Yeah, I could have kept it nice and oiled the whole time but when your pants are soaked all the way through for three days straight oil probably wouldn't have helped much. On the same trip, my KaBar kukri got equally soaked. The kukri was still usable though. A little surface rust doesn't bother me on a fixed blade, or a slipjoint's blade for that matter. My big thing is with the mechanical part of them. I switched back to a SAK as my deep pocket carry blade. On a side note, I also had my Benchmade Griptilian on that trip and the moisture was enough to rust the blade on that too and that is stainless. I think its worth mentioning too that the higher the polish, the more rust resistant it is as well. Just for fun, I sand-blasted the blade on that griptilian and now it rusts like crazy all the time. The nice thing now is that I can just reblast it to clean off the rust. Too each his own I guess.
 
Garrett, one of my favorite knives is an OLD Kutmaster stockman I picked up for around 10 bucks at a flea market. I overpaid for this knife. It was covered in rust then. I use it in the summer time when I am cutting grass and working outside. Before a quick dip in the pool, it goes on the patio table, then back in the pocket of my wet shorts. It rusted closed once, a little Militec and it was good as new. Tuff Cloth, NevrDull and a little elbow grease make it look presentable.
 
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