What are these marks on my RC-5's edge?

I

Ierax

Joined
Dec 21, 2011
Messages
4
So... i am a new member of the forum and also new to knives.
I recently bought my first good knife. A RAT-Cutlery RC5.
ratrc5.jpg

I noticed these marks, that are difficult to spot at first, on my blade...
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I have enhanched the blacks in the photos so you can see the markings. Up close they dont look this dark.

[Rest of pics
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/593/dsc1635l.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/853/dsc1641f.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/192/dsc1643l.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/69/dsc1645x.jpg/ ]

Could these be from the original factory sharpening? Or is this rust?

The knife hasn't been used although i know it is old (since the company changed names).The knife market in my country isn't that large and it is a real possibility (for a good and rather pricy knife for our market) to be for that long in storage.

I have not sharpened the blade as i am a noob and i am waiting to buy the spyderco sharpmaker so i dont destroy the angle of the grind with flat stones...

If it is rust what can i do to fix this?

Thanks for reading.
 
Very difficult to see, but if anything I'd say it is some slight oxidation. Since your knife is carbon steel, it is prone to oxidation especially on the exposed edge. Consider putting some oil (mineral oil, wd-40, all good) on the edge to protect it from air.

If you don't own a strop, consider buying or making one. You can make one by picking up some scrap leather and a block of wood. Use rubber cement to bond the leather to the wood (I like to strop on the smooth side of the leather) You will also need a stropping compound. Have a look at some hand american stuff. I like the 1 micron boron carbide compound they sell.

Stropping your edge will more than likely remove the oxidation while polishing the very edge.

Other than that, if the oxidation isn't too deep you might consider using some wd-40 on a paper towel (or any similar chemical) and attempt to rub the oxidation off.
 
If you use the knife, you'll likely see those marks go away. :)
 
The only oil i had laying around was WD40 and i used some on the edge and the logos of the blade but with a cotton cloth not paper towel.
I also went as far to scratch it slightly at the base of the edge with another blade to see if it is doing anything or if its the "pattern of the steel" (i don't know how else to say this :)) but it stayed there...

I will soon try to make a strop.
 
its only cosmetic and like morrow said, use it and they will go away :D you can try stroping the edge on your pants or even the backside of a notepad if you need to get rid of them.
 
richard j said:
its only cosmetic and like morrow said, use it and they will go away :D you can try stroping the edge on your pants or even the backside of a notepad if you need to get rid of them.
Click to expand...

If it's not creating any problems to the blade i don't care that much.
I didn't buy it to put it in a display :cool:

Thank you all for the replies...
 
I can't really see anything other then a normal knife edge ?
"Emperor's new cloth" type of thing maybe. ;)
 
I have them on my ESEE knives too. That's just the scratch pattern left from the sharpening process. Best seen under a magnifying glass. I don't worry about them. I live in the North so they have a light coat of Rem-oil on the edges for a couple more months.

My personal opinion (and it is just mine): Look at your pictures carefully. Notice that an inch or so back for then end and you'll see that the scratch pattern meets the coating seamlessly and the edge is gleaming. Where the black lines appear here and there, you'll notice that right above, the grinder hit the black coating for a short space. It may be that some of the coating got embedded in the valleys of the scratch pattern??

You've got good advice already - use them and dosn't worry about them. They have no high value as sell-for-profit knives so it's nothing I'd worry about much other than normal knife care. :thumbup:
 
As you use and sharpen that blade, depending on the grit you use, that will go away. You can use finer and finer grits to get a mirror polish if you want. Even that will tarnish with or without use, unless you just don't use it and keep it oiled, but what's the fun in that?
 
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