The Beer Scout gets rusted with Lemon juice *pic*

bigchelis

bigchelis

Joined
Jan 3, 2009
Messages
276
Hi all,
I recently acquired a like new Soda Scout. This is my first knife ever from this company.

So, This Friday after a long day of work I get a Modello Beer and open it up than get a Lime/Green Lemon cut it in half with my Soda Scout to put a couple drops in the beer. Long story short half way into my beer I noticed the seemingly new knife now looking old and tarnished.

I don't mind the tarnished/aged look but the rust seems to make the opening and closing much more difficult. Is this normal for these knives or do I have a lemon?





 
Lemon juice is very acidic. If it and beer will rust your knife just think what it is doing to your stomach :-)
I thought GEC used stainless steel? I guess not.
Rich
 
The Soda Scout is made of 1095 carbon steel. It is not stainless steel. More care needs to be taken with a carbon steel blade, in order to not develop rust. What you are seeing is normal for carbon steel, when exposed to lemon juice.
 
Looks like it got in your joints. I'd apply some serious oil to the joint and work the knife open and closed a few times. You can clean off the oil (and any debris that comes with it). The worst place to get rust on a square-tang slippie is on the inside of the spring where the tang rides. The good news is the knife will naturally polish itself in this area and if you keep oil on it the rust that wears away will clear out of the joint.

I keep any knives I use with food well oiled (mineral oil) in the joint. This prevents any juice that makes its way in there from causing corrosion. I don't mind patina on the blade.
 
Gec uses 1095 for their blades, and rarely 440c in their Great Eastern Cutlery stamped models. Whenever I expose one of my GEC's to anything acidic, I always wipe it down, wash it, and oil it as soon as possible. I am unsure how difficult it would be to remove that rust, so you should wait and see if someone chimes in with an alternative. At worst, you could send it to GEC at your cost to get the blades replaced.
Edit: Looks like the people above beat me to it.
 
Quite normal for carbon steel blades. Have to be sure to wipe them down on occasion as others have already said. Or pretty quickly after use in something that acidic. Flush it out with Ballistol spray. Good stuff.

If you plan on continued use on food stuff, be sure to use something people friendly. :) Not all is. So be sure it's safe for consumption. Truth be told, for years I just used whatever gun oil I had and never noticed any ill effects. Besides, it's handy having a small third ear. Lol.
 
homer-simpson-doh-400x288.jpg


Easily fixed :thumbup:
 
Not too long ago, I used my newish Case sodbuster to slice some limes for gimlets. Gimlets being what they are, it should come as no surprise that after a couple, I got distracted and neglected to wipe down my blade. Voila, instant patina. There were some black deposits that created an unwanted topography, which I took down with scotchbrite, leaving the patina.

Scotchbrite will also do a nice job on surface rust. Wipe the blade with olive oil or food grade mineral oil if you are using the knife for food. I don't suppose a drop of hoppe's gun oil for the pivot would do any harm.
 
That's why you should've got the BEER Scout not the Soda....:rolleyes:great patina has to start somewhere:D
 
I would rinse the citrus juice out of the joints before drying and oiling.

I think GEC invites confusion by being the name of the 1095s like Tidioute, and at the same time the name of the stainless series. Maybe they should buy a name like "Radiant" for the GEC stainless line.
 
Yeah, I just rechecked. All the stainless knives are labeled Great Eastern and all the Tidioute are 1095.
 
BigBiscuit said:
Yeah, I just rechecked. All the stainless knives are labeled Great Eastern and all the Tidioute are 1095.
Click to expand...
I thought that was what I said. My impression has been that Great Eastern Cutlery makes Tidioute and others, including the GEC stainless, and the GEC stainless doesn't have a name of its own.
Not unusual for me to stand corrected though.
 
Wash/work out the joints. Scrub off the red rust but don't worry about polishing the blade then hit it with something acidic again. Once you get the patina going then it shouldn't rust (red) like as easily. Just keep it clean/dry/oiled afterwards.

Macchina said:
I believe GEC also uses the Cyclops tang stamp to denote stainless.
Click to expand...

Cyclops if its 440C but not if its 420HC.
 
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