Waxing Blades

C

CM_Rick

Joined
Jan 10, 2011
Messages
1,402
I've been doing this for a little while now, and I have to say it's become my favorite way of protecting my blades. I got the idea from work. We wax our bandsaw tables for lubrication, and it got me thinking of a knife application for the same purpose as well as protection. Try it and you'll be as impressed with it as I am. It will work for both coated and stripped blades (I have not done this on a blade with a patina, so I don't know how it would affect it). When finished your blade will have a really nice shiny luster. I had the perfect chance to show how I do this on my new BK4. I find this technique comparable to tuff cloth, but better. You'll be amazed with the lubrication qualities.

Stuff you need. Paraffin wax blocks, and two no fiber/low fiber towels.


Start rubbing on the wax.


Use a corner to rub into the etching.


Make sure to rub it into your edge, too.


After you thoroughly coat the blade start polishing it off. Do NOT use any type of paper towel. It will leave a ton of fiber in your wax.


If you have a textured coating there will be a whitish looking residue. Don't worry. We will get rid of that later.




It's best to lay the knife on the other towel when waxing the other side.


Last step is to add a little heat. You can use a blow drier for this if adding heat scares you. All you need is just a short amount of exposure (nothing to endanger the heat treat) to lose the white-ish residue, and make the wax shine.


Try this. I hope you like it as much as I do. It's a lot better, and way more cheap, and practical than tuff cloth. It's also food prep safe.
 
I have been doing something very similar with a combination of Bees wax and I think Almond oil that I made.

Use it mostly under the handle scales of blades that I have stripped but sometimes rub down the entire blade.


Seems to work great.
 
Great tip, I'm going to be giving this a shot.

Another use for the wax is to melt it down and mix it with dryer lint to use as a weather safe fire starter. Melt the wax in a tin can double boiler, stir in the dryer lint and pour it into at cardboard/paper egg carton for easy use, carry, and storage.
 
I have used sno-seal wax on my BK10 blade since it's difficult to get out of sheath that Dex made for me...works great.
Also works good on sheaths...to protect & waterproof.
 
nice tutorial. the Gulf Wax is cheap and available at most large grocery stores in the canning section. I almost grabbed some from the hardware store yesterday before remembering that I have Howard's Butcher Block Treatment in the shop. It's a blend of beeswax, carnuba wax, and mineral oil. Rick's version will be drier than using Howard's, though. Sno-seal is also a great do-all.
 
I just use Johnson furniture wax. Compared to dry wax the carriers get the wax down in the pores, like waxing a car. You just don't want to use car wax because it has a water based carrier. Even Pledge should work fine.

If you want to use basic hard wax, melt the wax or heat the blade.

None of this will hurt patinas or anything, as long as you don't use water based products that could rust the metal while drying. Waxing metal antiques and blued firearms goes way back.
 
Just have to be careful when using some furniture wax because some contain other harmful ingredients that you would not want to ingest or put on a knife that you plan to use for food prep.

On strictly woods knives you should be ok.
 
Dexwithers said:
Just have to be careful when using some furniture wax because some contain other harmful ingredients that you would not want to ingest or put on a knife that you plan to use for food prep.
Click to expand...

This was a primary concern when I started using this. I wanted to get away from wet, poisonous treatments. Also, furniture polish leaves an oily residue, and that is another quality I wanted to eliminate. I had thought about mixing in some oil to the wax for convenience, but that's tricky. Waxes, and oils are chemically the same thing--saturated hydrocarbons. Waxes are far more saturated, so if you mix them with oils essentially all you get are higher saturated oils. I am just looking for a completely dry treatment that way application isn't affected much by environmental factors.

I'm a little confused about "pours" being in anything non-organic. The only thing I can think of that would have pours are handles made of wood, or bone. I wouldn't want to wax those due to losing grip. Also, I would steer clear of anything with a water-based carrier simply because true, natural waxes cannot be carried by water. They are naturally hydrophobic. An added benefit of natural waxes is they should drive any moisture away. Especially after heating.

It's best to rub the wax on dry, and then polish. Otherwise it just becomes a pain. Heating the wax coating is only cosmetic. It doesn't need to be done.

Try it out. If you don't like it a little dawn and hot water will remove it easily.
 
I've been using Frog Lube on all my knives and couldn't be happier. Leaves a great coat, and I can cut food with the knife since it's non toxic. I recommend the paste over the liquid. Apply with a small paintbrush and wait a couple hours and wipe off with a microfiber towel. Has anyone else used Frog Lube? Interested in others experience.
 
There is a lot of great information here. Thanks for the pics and walk through!

I want to try this out myself now.
 
Thanks CM! This is a great thread with some good, usable info. BTW, daizee turned me on to the Howard's at the last Gathering. Now I have a big bottle of it sitting on my bench. Great stuff and ridiculously fast and easy to apply. Prolly doesn't last as long as your hard wax method, tho. Looking forward to giving this a try. Rust is a constant menace here on the coast.
 
granitestateofmind said:
Rust is a constant menace here on the coast.
Click to expand...

Your welcome, GSOM. I bet rust is terrible out there. This method seems to be holding up really well. The blades that have this, and have been sitting unused since our humid summer do NOT have the usual speckled rust spots on the edges. I've always had that problem when using oils. This method isn't as easy as some other waxed based methods, but it is tougher, and lasts longer.

If someone tries this please post some pics, and review it here. I'd like to here some other opinions on it.
 
CM_Rick said:
Your welcome, GSOM. I bet rust is terrible out there. This method seems to be holding up really well. The blades that have this, and have been sitting unused since our humid summer do NOT have the usual speckled rust spots on the edges. I've always had that problem when using oils. This method isn't as easy as some other waxed based methods, but it is tougher, and lasts longer.

If someone tries this please post some pics, and review it here. I'd like to here some other opinions on it.
Click to expand...

Another benefit to this sort of treatment is that it really smooths out the action on Kydex sheaths.
 
Yeah, the lubrication qualities are way better than expected. Makes the steel float through anything it's put through. Our bandsaw tables feel like air hockey tables.
 
CM_Rick said:
This was a primary concern when I started using this. I wanted to get away from wet, poisonous treatments. Also, furniture polish leaves an oily residue, and that is another quality I wanted to eliminate. I had thought about mixing in some oil to the wax for convenience, but that's tricky. Waxes, and oils are chemically the same thing--saturated hydrocarbons. Waxes are far more saturated, so if you mix them with oils essentially all you get are higher saturated oils. I am just looking for a completely dry treatment that way application isn't affected much by environmental factors.

I'm a little confused about "pours" being in anything non-organic. The only thing I can think of that would have pours are handles made of wood, or bone. I wouldn't want to wax those due to losing grip. Also, I would steer clear of anything with a water-based carrier simply because true, natural waxes cannot be carried by water. They are naturally hydrophobic. An added benefit of natural waxes is they should drive any moisture away. Especially after heating.

It's best to rub the wax on dry, and then polish. Otherwise it just becomes a pain. Heating the wax coating is only cosmetic. It doesn't need to be done.

Try it out. If you don't like it a little dawn and hot water will remove it easily.
Click to expand...

While "pours" might not be a perfect term, anything less than mirror polished steel is full of pocks and craters, which is where rust starts. Oil fills those holes through surface tension, and dissolved or melted paraffin does the same. It is absolutely not cosmetic - it is a rust preventative on bare carbon steel, and well known for that use. Do some reading on "Renaissance Wax".

If you want to use dry wax just as a lubricant, like how ski wax is used, that's fine, but you're going to then need to do something else if the steel is bare, or you risk rust where the wax doesn't penetrate. Another product that will slick up painted knives is liquid Teflon.


If food prep is a concern, then I don't know why we're talking about any petroleum based wax. Use beeswax or cooking oil. Just because something is "non toxic" doesn't mean you should be eating it.
 
RX-79G-
When you polish the wax you are effectively melting it through fiction. The cosmetic aspect I mentioned was just to get rid of any white-ish appearance from wax trapped in the craters of the coating. You wouldn't have that without the textured coating. Liquid paraffin wax would be a pain to apply. I can see having a problem with applying too thick of a coat, and not to mention how much of a mess it can be. Also, paraffin is completely safe for food prep. It's primary consumer use is for canning food. Beeswax is a great wax. I really like it, but it's saturation is a lot less than paraffin, and it retains a "sticky" quality being that it cannot get as dry as paraffin. That's the only reason I didn't go with beeswax. I've actually used beeswax for making tinder-cakes, and it's better than paraffin for that application. Being less saturated it burns better, and cleaner.

And, again, I must mention that I use this method to get away from wet oils. I wanted a practical alternative, and this method has turned out better than I ever expected.

I don't mean to offend, I think you're just missing my point. So you know, I have a strong background in both organic, and inorganic chemistry. I know a lot about how crystal lattices form at the atomic level. Trust me when I say that dry application, and polishing will suffice. ;) :D
 
Rick,

I'm not "missing the point", I was adding my own and many other people's experience with a variety of waxes for use on metals. I didn't realize you only wanted to discuss dry wax rubs on painted blades, but I disagree that polishing alone is going to give you the protective coverage that you get from liquids - which is why we don't wax cars with blocks of wax, either.


The main thing I wanted to clarify was that dry wax does not protect carbon steel as well as melted or dissolved wax - which is important for the couple of folks on this forum that have removed their blade paint and are looking for corrosion protection.

And while I'm sure you are a gifted food chemist, I doubt you have any more information about the food contamination levels of different wax products after the carrier has evaporated than I do. Probably much less crap than whatever Frog Lube is made of, for instance.


And "melting" wax isn't messy - you heat the blade above 113 degrees F and run the block of wax along it. You can deposit a light coat that is easy to polish as the wax solidifies, and get 100% coverage.
 
RICK,
What are the benefits of waxing coated blades? Does it slow the wear of the coating or make it easier to clean?
GSM mentioned it smooths out the action on kydex sheaths. Can this cause buildup in the sheath, or is the coating too thin for that to be an issue?
 
Yes, it can help protect the blade and the coating while making them easier to clean. Following Rick's steps, buildup wouldn't be an issue. Besides, removing it should be easy with hot water and soap.
 
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