Sog Salute bead blasted maintenance question

[kneejo]

Hey all, I'm new here. For 25 years I've had a Swiss army pocket knife. It has never developed rust. I have cleaned it a few times in soapy water and oiled the pivots, but never needed to oil the blade.

Now I have acquired a Sog Salute because I wanted a decent, not too pricey, simple folder with a lock and I came across this one. The techy look, 20% discount, steel liners and shape of the blade and handle sold it for me. It's in my opinion much quality for the price. Decent build and well, simply more than I expected for the price.

So I went to the Sog website and read through the maintenance section. Contrary to the swiss army knife, it does seem to need good cleaning and oiling after each use and they warn about fingerprints possibly causing rust. Now I do have sweaty fingers, and after having the knife for a couple of weeks the bead blasted finish has developed some lighter marks where I have touched it when closing it.

So my question is: aren't modern steels used for knives supposed to be stainless? I know a Katana from ancient times will be destroyed when it is touched with greasy fingers and not cleaned and oiled, but I don't expect this from a modern steel. My swiss army knife is spotless. Is the lighting of the finish a result of the bead blasted finish? I have some schooling in precision engineering (many years ago) and know that a sandblasted finish on brass will give this same effect when touched with sticky fingers due to the fact that it is not a smooth finish.. there are millions of tiny dimples in the surface, which when filled with fat from sweat give a more shiny look than the clean parts of the surface.

How would you recommend I clean this and do I need to oil the blade to prevent rust?

Thanks in advance for thinking with me.

EDIT: I said it had no blade play, until I read some other thread in this forum about how to check for that. Didn't know I had to disengage the lock It does have significant play, so I'll have to get me some small tools

 

[Bill DeShivs]

Not all modern steels are stainless. If yours isn't, the blade will need to be oiled periodically.
If the knife has no play when it is locked open-then it has no play. Of course it will be loose when it's unlocked-that's how the blade moves.

 

[kneejo]

Thanks for the reply. It's made from 8Cr13MoV steel. This is a modern stainless steel according to wikipedia, which I should have been looking up in the first place. Sorry for being a total newb in the materials department. I haven't been in the engineering industry for more than 15 years, as I've chosen to become a musician

I might need the professional experience of members in this forum when it comes to sharpening the knife. My compliments to the extensiveness of the knowledge and professionalism in this forum!

To express my opinion on the lower priced state of the knife: I don't mind that it's made in China to reduce production costs. From what I can tell with manufacturers in general; if they are a big name company like SOG and they also sell high end equipment, they can't risk making anything that will fail. I have had the same experience with Nike running shoes for example. Even their lowest priced models are better than any shoe from non-brand shoes in the same price range. It's still their tested design, and is made according to their standards. This is reflected in the relative high quality for the price range.

Anyways, I'm getting a bit off topic here. Have a good day!

 

[Eytan (Ethan) K]

Hello and welcome.

Fingerprint sometimes causes oxidation stains, clean it with cloth and oil (only a bit! dont soak it); do you live in humid environment? This steel should not rust so easily, anyway make sure you stoarge the knife in a dry place.

All steels can rust, even stainLESS, as the name suggest; only small number of blade steel types are rust proof (H1 and a few more I cant remember, they use nitrogen in the compesition.)
BTW
The 8Cr13MoV is nice stainless steel for folders, If heat treated well it can hold edge satisfactorily, and I guess sog make sure the heat treat is good.