Tell us your Post camping/backpacking/hunting Knife maint..

J

JackBauer24

Joined
Mar 13, 2006
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Being all insane knife people, we don't just get home from a trip and pitch them in a drawer or even worse leave them in the backpack. We clean/sharpen/oil. I'm curious what everyone else does. My typical carry backpacking is Kabar USMC, BM710 in D2, and a leatherman surge.

I'll get the compressor going and blow everything as clean as possible.
Then in the sink with mild detergent and clean them off/out.
One more time with the compressor, blow it dry.
Now I coat everything with rem oil. (dripping off)
leave them for 10 minutes or so
Blow all the excess off and then wipe down.
I also put a little mobile 1 in the axis and in the slip joints of the leatherman. (don't try to talk me out of mobile 1, I love that stuff)

Anyway, it was a wet nasty trip and my knives took a beating. First getting soaked in the river crossings and then in the rain. The Kabar took some hard hits as I ran quickly through building a shelter for the somewhat dry wood we had as the rain came harder and harder. It did end up quitting and we had a good trip though.

I will rant some though. My buddys, (2 brothers and my best friends) left on this 2 mile or so overnighter got out of the truck with sandles on. I simply said "I don't go camping without boots, I'll leave my sandles in the pack until later". Am I being too anal?
 
I tend to clean them up after each use and touch them up as needed, so there isn't much to do with them when I get home. On my last camping trip I brought a Bark River Mini Canadian, Swisstool Spirit, and a beater hatchet. The hatchet is the only one that ever seems to need additional care at home, since I always manage to hit a rock or something with it.
 
If I dirty a knife on a trip, I wipe it as clean as possible before putting it back into the sheath. When camping or whatever, I'll touch up edges after use or at the end of the day. This assures that the balde/tool is ready to go for the next day, or next trip. I do not clean, sharpen, and oil tools immediately following a trip. Sometimes, I don't even unpack knives, as I know they were put away relatively clean and definitely sharp.
 
Hot soapy water and a scotch brite pad, then dry it off and some 3 n 1 oil or some mineral oil
 
hikeeba said:
If I dirty a knife on a trip, I wipe it as clean as possible before putting it back into the sheath. When camping or whatever, I'll touch up edges after use or at the end of the day. This assures that the balde/tool is ready to go for the next day, or next trip. I do not clean, sharpen, and oil tools immediately following a trip. Sometimes, I don't even unpack knives, as I know they were put away relatively clean and definitely sharp.
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I keep an emergency diamond stone, but I rarely need to sharpen anything in the field. They go out scary sharp and usually come back still shaving sharp. I could NEVER leave them in the bag. Everything comes out and gets cleaned/inventoried. Even my PSK. I usually have things fresh on my mind that either need to be added or removed and I like to do it before I forget. Also replace things that were used like cotton balls.
 
Hot water and soap to clean, followed by a good bath in mineral oil for rust protection. Sharpened if needed.
 
I keep the maintenance up in the field, so the clean and sharp knives I leave the house with, are the clean and sharp knives that I return with, no matter how much they were used or what they were used for. There is an exception to that rule and that's if I use my SAK Hunter to do the field chores on game. When I get it home, it gets soaked for a few hours and cleaned real well, then blown out with some compressed air, then dried and serviced.
 
When I return from an outing, I soak / scrub my knives with a mild detergent-water mix, making sure to remove any sap, ash, or other caked on substance (wood in the file of my Leatherman, etc). Then I sharpen my blades, and apply a thin coat of mineral oil. If I'm using a knife with wood handle scales, I sometimes apply a think coat of tung oil to address any scuffing that may have taken place in the bush.

I'd also be interested to hear what others use for cleaning *during* an outing. I sometimes backpack in bear country, and I am always mindful of proper food prep and storage, and general 'scent control'. Since I often use my neck knife for food prep and eating, I clean it after each use with some biodegradable detergent and water, followed by a quick dab of alcohol-based sanitizer. This takes care of any food scent, and keeps things nice and clean. Fish is a bit more difficult, and I spend a good bit of time after cleaning a catch making sure that my fillet knife, clothing and other tools are well and truly free of any scales or fish scent. A few years back I realized - in the middle of the night, in my tent - that I still had my leatherman in my BK-9 sheath pouch, and that I hadn't cleaned it since using it to remove a hook from a trout before lunch. Terrific way to attract unwelcome fauna. Since then, I've made sure that my kit always contains appropriate cleaning fluids.

All the best,

- Mike
 
I pretty much just clean and sharpen them after each use or at the end of the day.
 
I use WD-40 to get the sap off the blades, then clean the WD-40 off, if the blades really look bad a buff them with a little Flix metal polish.
 
Gee, I guess I do the least amount of maintenance on my knives. I usually have a knive specifically for cleaning and gutting fish and left in my tackle box. Otherwise I just wipe them down clean them typically with a baby wipe in the field and that is it. Of course check the blade for sharpness and knicks if any and address as necessary.

About the sandals thing sometimes they work well. For instance my last camping trip it got real rainy not pouring rain but the irratating drizzle that made everything damp. Everyone's shoes got wet and muddy but the wife's friend wore her sandles religiously, she said that is the reason I where my sandles in camp. I guess if one was hiking in creeks etc they may prove worthy. But I'm like you I take the boots and some xtra socks.
 
Wipe them off on my pants after using them. Leave them in my pack for the next trip when I get home.

Seriously!
 
misanthropist said:
Wipe them off on my pants after using them. Leave them in my pack for the next trip when I get home.

Seriously!
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Yeah, I used to do the same thing, but now my RAT 3 and brand new Ritter RSK have rust on them from a week of being soaked in the Smokies. I guess I need to be more careful with my knives. Years of using SACs has spoiled me.
 
When cleaning fish with a SAK, I rub the messy/bloody knife under water to remove any blood, blow out the water, and that's an end of it, till I get home.

Most of my blades turned out to be stainless, and so can be easily washed with hand soap, rinsed clean, wiped dry and poked back into my pocket with scant thought.

My carbon steel blades that want to rust get a coat of olive oil(if that's all I have at the time) or mineral oil.
 
I do more witht he knives before I leave than when I get back. I make sure the knives and machetes are all sharp and the machete blades oiled lightly. I pretty much just clean stuff up when I get back but I'm far more concerned for the rest of the gear, ponchos, tarps, hammocks, packs, clothes, ropes, etc than the blades. There's no way I'm going to let anything get moldy.

I do take the machetes out of their sheaths and dry the leather completely before I oil the blades and put them up. The Moras get scrubbed off in the sink but they're all stainless so they can keep with little maintenence.

Before I head out again they all get a run across whatever grit is necessary, the machetes get filed and run across the diamond stone and whatever rust on them gets sanded off. I sharpen the Moras on natural Arkansas sandstone, medium and fine, and finish them on a strop. Mac
 
I wipe them off on my pants leg before putting them back in the sheath when I'm out and wouldn't sharpen it unless I was out for more than a couple of days or it got dull through lots of use. They usually come home sharp with no touch ups.

When I get home I usually just use soap and hot water with a scotch-brite dish sponge. Then sharpen them when I get a chance. I don't use oil on my knives usually. Of course that may change now that I stripped my M6.:D
 
Nothing, unless it needs sharpening (rarely).

The benefits of a quality blade.

Skam
 
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