Spare screws for RAT knives

[kgd]

We don't advise anyone to strip the coating off the knife. Some users do but this is 1095 steel. If it gets moisture on it, it will rust. Simple.

Simple, buy by the same token, people seem to have this perception that your knife is just going to turn to dust because of some rust. Even with a little bit of leak, I just can't see the situation of rust creeping up on you until a point of critical failure.

Here is a good post by Jimi Wade, a CDN knifemaker, who left one of his "beater' blades of A2 exposed for 2 seasons outdoors. In the end, his knife has rust, but nothing that scotch bright pad and elbow grease won't clean-up.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=637170

Okay, not the kind of thing you want to do to your back-up/survival blade, but you guys get the picture. Rust takes a long time before it gets to the pitting stage.

Yorkshireboy - good to know you are all taken care!!!

On a related note, I lent out a little O1 blade to a student who used it on a boat to clean fish. The goof-ball stuck the blade back in the kydex sheath bloody and gave it back to me after sitting on his desk for 3 weeks. It was pretty ugly when he gave it to me (unfortunately, I didn't take pictures - I was just pissed). However, some 1000 grit sandpaper pretty much took care of if. The blade does have a couple of etching lines that I can't pull out, but it hardly makes the knife any less structurally sound.

 

[Mr .44 Spl]

Another point to take from the OP is to use a proper fitting screwdriver anytime you remove any screw. There are gunsmithing screwdriver sets available that give you a wide range of bit sizes, and they are not terribly expensive.

Anytime you remove a screw that you don't want to damage you need to use a bit that fits the snugly with the slot in the screw and spans the entire diameter of the head. If you do that, you shouldn't damage a screw regardless of how many times you remove it. The first time I damaged a screw on a firearm, I learned my lesson and bought the most complete set I could find. MidwayUSA and Brownell's are top choices if you want to go shopping.

Hope this doesn't constitute too much of a thread drift.