Sanitize Knives and Knife Sharpening

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Who the hell cares...Germs are everywhere, an invisible cloud of them even follows you around no matter how much alcohol you use.

You don't need to sanitize your knife before sharpening. You just need to clean it when it looks dirty. You only need to santize it if you plan on doing surgery with your knife. Do many field tracheotomies?

Don't be afraid, embrace the world. Anything you catch just makes your immune system stronger...if you die? So what, it's our destiny.

Ever watch a kid, they eat dirt and survive, even cigarette butts. Same with dogs.
 
I've never sterized a knife. Perhaps one of those in the medical profession(s) can correct me if I am wrong, but I think there is only two germs/viruses that can survive out of a host for any significant length of time. Therefore, I don't worry about it.
 
If you want to destroy Prions , then you're whole sterilization proceedure will have to change !!!
 
mete said:
If you want to destroy Prions , then you're whole sterilization proceedure will have to change !!!
Click to expand...

Forget alcohol wipes! Soak in bleach or hydrogen peroxide, or use a plasma-gas (peroxide) sterilizer, or a longer (30 minutes -1hr at 121'c) or hotter (20 minutes at 135'C) autoclave cycle. Those bastards refuse to denature :mad:
 
Use ballistol (german made and safe for woods and natural materials - I wouldn't use it on ivory though)
Hoppes Weathergaurd is another great one.
This is what I use.
Both are great and don't collect lint and residue like Rem Oil. Rem Oil leaves a slick of silicon and collects lint. For lubrication on your knife pivots, use tenpoint rail lube (for crossbows). This is what folks that know what they are doing use to lube 1911 rails and pistol contact points from frame to slide.
 
brownshoe said:
Who the hell cares...Germs are everywhere, an invisible cloud of them even follows you around no matter how much alcohol you use.

You don't need to sanitize your knife before sharpening. You just need to clean it when it looks dirty. You only need to santize it if you plan on doing surgery with your knife. Do many field tracheotomies?

Don't be afraid, embrace the world. Anything you catch just makes your immune system stronger...if you die? So what, it's our destiny.

Ever watch a kid, they eat dirt and survive, even cigarette butts. Same with dogs.
Click to expand...


Hey,that's quite funny ! Liked the humor !
 
chiral.grolim;15644333]Forget alcohol wipes! Soak in bleach or hydrogen peroxide, or use a plasma-gas (peroxide) sterilizer, or a longer (30 minutes -1hr at 121'c) or hotter (20 minutes at 135'C) autoclave cycle. Those bastards refuse to denature :mad:
Click to expand...


Although it seems easy to be glib about prions (not that chiral.grolim is), your perspective can change once you've been involved with some cases personally. 100% fatal of course, and a grim neurodegenerative way to go....


Buying or borrowing a knife from a deer hunter? Better have a bit of knowledge to make an informed choice about cleaning/risk etc. What if the risk were 1%, but the outcome would be 100% fatal? No harm to sanitize, eh? Maybe you bought a powerball ticket with astronomically smaller odds of being a life-changer...

This post should crossover with Kwon Kang's post on pineapples and HAP40, as (one) effective sterilization process involves proteolytic enzyme treatment incl. papain, cousin of bromelain, (thiol peptidase in pineapples that will remove your fingerprints r tongue papillae) in an enzyme/detergent process. In fact his post on pineapple/HAP40 had me thinking about bromelain, peptidases, oxidation etc, and prompted my response here when I read the OP.

Prions can and should be a real concern, not only where North American cervids (deer, elk, moose) are hunted and may have CWD, but also because plants are an important reservoir and vector. (PSA---most folks are unaware of the prion/plant reservoir and vector)

USGS map of CWD distribution
USGS-map-of-CWD-distribution.jpg

Distribution of chronic wasting disease in North America, May 2015. Credit: U.S. Geological Survey.

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2015/...very-about-spread-of-chronic-wasting-disease/

The question then became: Can these prions bind to plants?

“Surprisingly, we found that they do bind to plants very efficiently,” he said. “Even more surprisingly, plants infected with the prions were able to transmit the disease when animals were fed the contaminated plants.”




And why do you think so many pathologists had infections?



Journal of General Virology (2005), 86, 869–878
An enzyme–detergent method for effective prion
decontamination of surgical steel
(excerpts):
"Prions, transmissible agents that cause Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) and other prion diseases, are known to resist conventional sterilization procedures. Iatrogenic transmission of classical CJD via neurosurgical instruments is well documented and the involvement of lymphoreticular tissues in variant CJD (vCJD), together with the unknown population prevalence of asymptomatic vCJD infection, has led to concerns about transmission from a wide range of surgical procedures.

"Surgical stainless steel is capable of binding prions avidly
and acting as a remarkably efficient reservoir of infectivity
(Flechsig et al., 2001; Zobeley et al., 1999)."

...."The prion-degrading reagents identified in this study are readily available, inexpensive, non-corrosive to instruments, non-hazardous to staff and compatible with current equipment and procedures used in hospital sterilization units."


(results and discussion are too soporific for here.....heh)
---------
As for "germs" in general, I'd much rather get tularemia from rabbits or brucellosis from bison or bubonic plague from squirrels or Lyme disease etc etc etc than any prion infection...


You can read a bit about prions and CWD here:

http://www.cdc.gov/prions/cwd/index.html

good luck
 
I'm not sure sanitizing a knife before sharpening would do any good, as sharpening by nature removes metal so any 'sanitized' surface would be removed due to sharpening. Think about it for a minute- should you choose to sanitize after sharpening, that sanitized blade would only be sanitized for a certain amount of time and certainly not last.

Only way to absolutely prevent contamination, would be to sanitize before cutting yourself, like the alcohol swab before the nurse hits you with the injection needle. But really,...who plans on cutting themselves beforehand? Maybe I'm not understanding the original question.
 
nickedone said:
Although it seems easy to be glib about prions (not that chiral.grolim is), your perspective can change once you've been involved with some cases personally. 100% fatal of course, and a grim neurodegenerative way to go....


Buying or borrowing a knife from a deer hunter? Better have a bit of knowledge to make an informed choice about cleaning/risk etc. What if the risk were 1%, but the outcome would be 100% fatal? No harm to sanitize, eh? Maybe you bought a powerball ticket with astronomically smaller odds of being a life-changer...

This post should crossover with Kwon Kang's post on pineapples and HAP40, as (one) effective sterilization process involves proteolytic enzyme treatment incl. papain, cousin of bromelain, (thiol peptidase in pineapples that will remove your fingerprints r tongue papillae) in an enzyme/detergent process. In fact his post on pineapple/HAP40 had me thinking about bromelain, peptidases, oxidation etc, and prompted my response here when I read the OP.

Prions can and should be a real concern, not only where North American cervids (deer, elk, moose) are hunted and may have CWD, but also because plants are an important reservoir and vector. (PSA---most folks are unaware of the prion/plant reservoir and vector)

USGS map of CWD distribution
USGS-map-of-CWD-distribution.jpg

Distribution of chronic wasting disease in North America, May 2015. Credit: U.S. Geological Survey.

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2015/...very-about-spread-of-chronic-wasting-disease/

The question then became: Can these prions bind to plants?

“Surprisingly, we found that they do bind to plants very efficiently,” he said. “Even more surprisingly, plants infected with the prions were able to transmit the disease when animals were fed the contaminated plants.”




And why do you think so many pathologists had infections?



Journal of General Virology (2005), 86, 869–878
An enzyme–detergent method for effective prion
decontamination of surgical steel
(excerpts):
"Prions, transmissible agents that cause Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) and other prion diseases, are known to resist conventional sterilization procedures. Iatrogenic transmission of classical CJD via neurosurgical instruments is well documented and the involvement of lymphoreticular tissues in variant CJD (vCJD), together with the unknown population prevalence of asymptomatic vCJD infection, has led to concerns about transmission from a wide range of surgical procedures.

"Surgical stainless steel is capable of binding prions avidly
and acting as a remarkably efficient reservoir of infectivity
(Flechsig et al., 2001; Zobeley et al., 1999)."

...."The prion-degrading reagents identified in this study are readily available, inexpensive, non-corrosive to instruments, non-hazardous to staff and compatible with current equipment and procedures used in hospital sterilization units."


(results and discussion are too soporific for here.....heh)
---------
As for "germs" in general, I'd much rather get tularemia from rabbits or brucellosis from bison or bubonic plague from squirrels or Lyme disease etc etc etc than any prion infection...


You can read a bit about prions and CWD here:

http://www.cdc.gov/prions/cwd/index.html

good luck
Click to expand...

WOW ! Very informative ! Thanks
Great Steel
 
stog75 said:
I'm not sure sanitizing a knife before sharpening would do any good, as sharpening by nature removes metal so any 'sanitized' surface would be removed due to sharpening. Think about it for a minute- should you choose to sanitize after sharpening, that sanitized blade would only be sanitized for a certain amount of time and certainly not last.

Only way to absolutely prevent contamination, would be to sanitize before cutting yourself, like the alcohol swab before the nurse hits you with the injection needle. But really,...who plans on cutting themselves beforehand? Maybe I'm not understanding the original question.
Click to expand...

Hi Stog

I was thinking about handling knives that I did not know the history of (meaning what and where they had been used before) and possibly sustain a nick or cut before sharpening them. Am I making sense ?
 
Fellas

I think a couple of you that replied to this thread might be Meatcutters or Butchers or have been in the trade . I started a thread in the Maintenance Tinkering and Embellishment Forum concering sharpening knives for that trade . Please have a look if you like .
Thanks
Great Steel
 
Last edited:
mete said:
If you want to destroy Prions , then you're whole sterilization proceedure will have to change !!!
Click to expand...

chiral.grolim said:
Forget alcohol wipes! Soak in bleach or hydrogen peroxide, or use a plasma-gas (peroxide) sterilizer, or a longer (30 minutes -1hr at 121'c) or hotter (20 minutes at 135'C) autoclave cycle. Those bastards refuse to denature :mad:
Click to expand...
The last time I checked, there were 3 different protocols for denaturing prions, one was a hydrogen peroxide solution with other chemicals at a certain temperature and pressure, and one was a sudden blast of pressure, can't remember what the third was. That pressure was like setting off a bomb in an enclosed space, I would have loved to seen how they eventually released that pressure.... :D I'll see if I can't dig up the third one.

Stay away from the brains and spinal cord!
 
Clean the knife with a spray cleaner ( I use 7th Generation or Windex) to remove gunk, then clean with alcohol. I think this would be "good enough." Ymmv.
 
The only time I've ever cut myself sharpening is with a stone. Well, not so much cut as inadvertently abraded the skin away until I started bleeding. No, this has not happened recently. It was during my first time using a 150 grit water stone, years ago, and it only happened once.

As others have said above, the thought of catching a disease from a knife I'm sharpening has never even crossed my mind.
 
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