Storing knives in sheaths

G

Gradyw

Joined
Jan 23, 2017
Messages
450
Does anyone leave their knives in sheaths for long periods at a time? Not stainless steel but carbon steel.. i know it's bad but how much quicker will storing a knife in a sheath will it rust? I normally oil mine and throw them in the sheath but probably not for more then a couple weeks at a time
 
I've heard you shouldn't, particularly leather, so I don't. Not much of a hardship. I only have a handful of fixed blades.
 
I will store fixed blades in kydex sheaths. With leather, I sometimes do... Condors and one of my Blackjacks when I know I shouldn't. But I do wipe them down with oil every few weeks. Rusting would only bother me with the Blackjack. I store stainless revolvers in leather sheaths too.
 
I seal the pores on all my leather sheathes with SnowSeal, several coats, well melted in. After wiping the blades down with BreakFree CLP, I have never experienced a problem storing them in the sheath.
 
I have 5 carbon steel fixed blades that are all kept in their leather sheaths and none of them rust, but thus nay be due to them all having a good patina.
The only knife I don't store in a leather sheath is my Buck 110 because the brass can turn green.
 
I do, but I make sure both are completely dry. I will leave the knife and sheath separated for two days before storing the knife in the sheath. I live in a humid area, so I try my best to keep my blades up. I have not had any problems.
 
If you coat the knife blade well with some kind of protectant you can store a carbon steel knife in a leather sheath. I often use Vaseline as the paraffin in it adheres to the blade pretty well. If I am going for long term storage, I get some sort of long term preservative.
 
For long term storage, I give them a good coating of oil (I use good old LSA weapons oil) and wrap the blade in cling wrap. Works for me. :thumbsup:
 
I use Ren Wax on my carbon fixed blades, then wrap them in wax paper and store them in the sheath.
Rich
 
I store in the sheath. I used to use honing oil on the blade and sno-seal on the leather handles. Now I use Renaissance wax on everything. The worst that has happened is some green tinge to brass which comes off very easy with Flitz. I check them about once a year.
 
Another here using the oil and cling-wrap method--works fine. The cling wrap protects the knife and also protects the sheath; some of the absolute best rust inhibiting products (boeshield, eezox, cosmoline) contain chemicals which are very bad if absorbed into leather and can destroy a well-made sheath.
 
Yea I've always heard it was bad but never had any problems.. I also don't leave them in for too long nor do I put them in wet..
 
Hickory n steel said:
I have 5 carbon steel fixed blades that are all kept in their leather sheaths and none of them rust, but thus nay be due to them all having a good patina.
The only knife I don't store in a leather sheath is my Buck 110 because the brass can turn green.
Click to expand...

That's damn near word for word what I was going to say lol.
Only thing I need to add is I don't live in a very humid environment. If I still lived in Florida I'd be taking a lot more precautions.
 
jimmyd1982 said:
That's damn near word for word what I was going to say lol.
Only thing I need to add is I don't live in a very humid environment. If I still lived in Florida I'd be taking a lot more precautions.
Click to expand...
We use a swamp cooler at my house, so they'd probably rust if they weren't kept in their sheaths.
 
I use tuff cloth. I've had more trouble with the exposed tang rusting on stored knives than the blades which are always in their kydex sheaths.
 
I heard the story of the guy that had a high dollar custom knife stored in the sheath in his safe to pull it out to to show it off and uncovering a glob of rust.
Seems I have more oil on almost everything I own these days.
 
120 Acres said:
I heard the story of the guy that had a high dollar custom knife stored in the sheath in his safe to pull it out to to show it off and uncovering a glob of rust.
Seems I have more oil on almost everything I own these days.
Click to expand...

That's why I don't buy a knife I'm not planning to use.
 
Gradyw said:
Does anyone leave their knives in sheaths for long periods at a time? Not stainless steel but carbon steel.. i know it's bad but how much quicker will storing a knife in a sheath will it rust? I normally oil mine and throw them in the sheath but probably not for more then a couple weeks at a time
Click to expand...

Storing a knife in a sheath as a method of long term storage is not what I would recommend. I spray my knives with Breakfree CLP and store them is a sealable ziplock bag for long term storage, keeping the sheath separate. Easy, and have never had corrosion issues with a knife.
 
Last edited:
jill jackson said:
I have a Blind Horse fixed blade, in O-1 tool steel that's been in it's leather sheath 10 years with no damage.
Click to expand...
Honestly, though, before I was "educated" about knives I stored them in their sheaths and I never had a problem.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top