Storing blades

udtjim

udtjim

Joined
Sep 4, 2007
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I know this has been talked about before but maybe once more. Like many of you, I have more knives than I ever get around to use on a regular basis. I wondered how to treat the blades that are not being used? Some oils will stain carbon blades won't it? I have heard that mineral oil works well. What do you folks use?
 
this might not be a popular suggestion but with cheaper fixed knives of carbon steel like moras, i like to lightly coat the blades in red grease. this is because everything from slip 200 to break free will evaporate over time leading to rust. especially in wet weather. works great for truck knives

the stuff they pack bearings in is what i like best.
 
Mineral oil for me :thumbup: Food safe, it's cheap, and I haven't had a problem yet. I store my most of my knives in a plastic container out of their sheaths. If I haven't used any particular one in more than a month or so, then I wipe it down again with Mineral Oil. I don't know anything about oil staining though.

ETA: However, One of my favorite go-to knives is in O1 and stays in a kydex sheath on my nightstand. I usually oil it before putting back in the sheath. I took it out last weekend after not using it for 2 or 3 weeks, and rust had developed on one part of the blade. Some of the rust had dissolved into the surrounding mineral oil, and there was even a little bit of pitting. I'm guessing that the knife wasn't completely dry when I oiled it and put it back in the sheath...or the sheath itself rubbed some of the mineral oil off somehow, allowing some rust formation. I don't know what else it could have been since mineral oil seems to protect my other knives just fine. Looks like I'll start storing that one out of the sheath too....
 
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I'm really bad in this regard. I oil the pivots on my folders with Chris Reeve's oil (good stuff), but the blades are all dry in sheath. I even store them in their leather sheaths. I have one Western W49 that I got in 1985 whose brass guard has a little green on it, but other than that, never had a rust issue here in Colorado. I'm lucky, I know.

I did have a Dozier in D2 that I forgot and left some hog blood on after butchering a hog, and it had some very minor rust the next morning, but easy to remove.

That's it for me. Some of the guys who live on the coast can probably chime in better than I can.
 
Coastal guy here, been using 30wt motor oil since crawling out of the primordial ooze.

Parker
 
treat your blades right and send them to me! i promise i'll whisper sweet nothings to them every night before bed time and apply warm oil along with cookies...use your favorite oil and stick the knife in a zip lock bag to prevent evaporation. or use a dry film lubricant such as tuf-glide.

on the rare 1-2 knives i don't plan on using, i have a thick coating of slip 2000 (i use the 30 weight) sitting inside the sheath for close to 6 months now without reapplication that still shows no rusting.

rksoon...your avatar - i've seen that painting/art work somewhere before but can't put the finger on it, maybe the metropolitan museum of art. pm me if you'd like. thanks.
 
rksoon said:
The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai :thumbup: You probably did see it (or a copy probably) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Click to expand...

ah yes, mt. fuji in the background! saw an example over 2 yrs ago at nyc's met. figures, once a gf turns into an ex-gf, everything else that goes along with the memories tends to be forgotten. thanks!
 
just remembered...how about covering it with oil and then use one of those diy vacuum seal food gadgets? or use cosmoline?
 
For anything you're going to be storing for a long time, I'd suggest Rennisance Wax. It's museum grade stuff and is designed for exactly what you're talking about. It's not cheap, but a little goes a long way.

LINK
 
Renaissance Wax does go a long way and is an excellent product. I use it on all knives with the exception of kitchen blades. It is not food safe per the manufacturers Product Safety Data Sheet as it contains about 80% White Spirit (Naphtha/Petroleum). I use mineral oil on kitchen blades.

Interesting idea about vacuum sealing a knife for long term storage. I did the same for a survival kit for a salt water fishing boat to protect the contents from rust & corrosion as well as keep them dry.
 
i store mine in a cardboard box, lightly oiled, with a few moisture obsorber packs.
 
Long term storage .First wipe the blades with alcohol, then coat them with Boeshield:). Put them in a vacum sealer bag, then vacum seal the bag. Short term wipe them down with Boeshield. It dries to a waxy film. never has any rust. Works on fishing reels also.:thumbup:
 
I process food with my fixed blades and recently acquired a Gayle Bradley Spydie with
M4, I've used mineral oil and now use Vaseline, mineral oil in a grease form, it works great, no evaporation and is food safe.
 
A bf member did a test a while back and found Rem oil to work best even when the blade was left out in the rain. If your storing in a ammo can or safe a old trick is to put a piece of copper in the bottom, never tried it myself but know others that say it works.

Have you thought about a Pelican case?
 
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