What do you do to protect your O-1 Steel blades

C

Cimarron56

Joined
Apr 14, 2014
Messages
220
I am a new guy here. Most of my experience is with stainless knives. So my question is: What kind of oil do you use to treat the blade? How do you store your knives?

I tend to be a user rather than a collector. In my estimation use and careful maintenance add value. if I have one gathering dust, it's likely to go into the exchange.

Thanks in advance.
 
Welcome,
Do a quick search, but for users you cannot go wrong with mineral oil as it is food safe and provides a nice layer of protection for the 01 (and handle materials alike). If you have wood scales you might want to consider 100% pure tung oil. I use hope's brand... Don't use anything not labeled 100% pure tung as other "tung finish" products are mostly chemicals and crap...

Please note that this is just my .02 but most folks on the forum will share a similar sentiment. ;)
 
I dry my carbon blades blades on my jeans if they get wet. If I'm doing food prep, they get a rinse before and after. Outside of that, maintenance means keeping em razor sharp and developing a sweet patina, both things that o1 excels at.;)

Do you live in a really humid or corrosive environment?
 
Yup..

And for what its worth, Strigamort is right; keep it dry if you are doing food prep or processing game. Patinas will help some, and look bad @$$ as well!
 
Strigamort said:
I dry my carbon blades blades on my jeans if they get wet. If I'm doing food prep, they get a rinse before and after. Outside of that, maintenance means keeping em razor sharp and developing a sweet patina, both things that o1 excels at.;)

Do you live in a really humid or corrosive environment?
Click to expand...

This.

Of course I am also a patina cheat. I oft times find my self with mustards, and hot vinegar. .......
 
xxwjtxx said:
Welcome,
Do a quick search, but for users you cannot go wrong with mineral oil as it is food safe and provides a nice layer of protection for the 01 (and handle materials alike). If you have wood scales you might want to consider 100% pure tung oil. I use hope's brand... Don't use anything not labeled 100% pure tung as other "tung finish" products are mostly chemicals and crap...

Please note that this is just my .02 but most folks on the forum will share a similar sentiment. ;)
Click to expand...

^this is what I do as well. Good info Will. USP mineral oil from the pharmacy and tung oil from the local Woodcraft for me.
 
Forgot about mineral oil because I really only use it if I'm not carrying the knife for more than a week or whatever. Get the usp stuff from the pharm. It's food grade, and a little more viscous than other min oils. Good for SiC, Arkansas and AlumOx stones too. Actually, I have a million uses for the stuff.

Btw, is it just me or does o1 take on a better patina than other hc blades? Seriously, my Karda went all crazy blue and purple the minute I used it which happened to be on hot links. 1095 and similar don't seem to be as sensitive and brilliant, but I'm sure the ht has something to do with this too.
 
Strigamort said:
I dry my carbon blades blades on my jeans if they get wet. If I'm doing food prep, they get a rinse before and after. Outside of that, maintenance means keeping em razor sharp and developing a sweet patina, both things that o1 excels at.;)

Do you live in a really humid or corrosive environment?
Click to expand...

This.

Of course I am also a patina cheat. I oft times find my self with mustards, and hot vinegar. .......
 
Strigamort said:
Btw, is it just me or does o1 take on a better patina than other hc blades? Seriously, my Karda went all crazy blue and purple the minute I used it which happened to be on hot links. 1095 and similar don't seem to be as sensitive and brilliant, but I'm sure the ht has something to do with this too.
Click to expand...

One of the reasons I love O1. The patinas are beautiful. The only thing I have that comes close is Super Blue.
 
Be careful with forcing a patina with mustards or anything with a real high acid content. I've used mustard to patina 01 steel before and it tends to lightly etch the blade. You can polish the dark patina off of the blade and restore it to nice and shiny again, but it's been my experience that the mustard will leave a very light impression on the blade. I call it a ghost patina. If you don't mind this, by all means use mustard. If you don't like the idea of a etched ghost patina, I would slice some fruits and veggies and just start a less harsh natural patina.

I'm sure there are members that haven't had this happen to them. This has been my experience.

Oh ya, mineral oil works great.
 
Strigamort said:
I dry my carbon blades blades on my jeans if they get wet. If I'm doing food prep, they get a rinse before and after. Outside of that, maintenance means keeping em razor sharp and developing a sweet patina, both things that o1 excels at.;)

Do you live in a really humid or corrosive environment?
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply. I live in Houston.
 
My skinner is a Dozier D2. If I'm using a knife for food while camping, I use a stainless or my skinner. HC steels for all other stuff. That means my O1 blades aren't touching any food typically. As such they will occasionally get a wipe down from a Tuf Cloth. Seems to work very well for me. Keep in mind the majority of the time, I'm a "dry in my jeans" guy as well, but if I'm camping and its been a wet day, I'll wipe it down at night and toss it in the sheath just to be sure.
 
I use mine alot in kitchen so they get dried and a light coat of Olive Oil. Patina came from pineapple, garlic and onions...use.

Bill
 
+1 for me as well.

One thing I'll add that hasn't been mentioned yet is Obenauf's Heavy Duty LP. I find it to be a very versatile product because it does a wonderful job of protecting and lubricating. Though I primarily use it for the sheath and wooden scales (in the case of scales, I'll typically apply couple layers of mineral oil which is more readily absorbed, and the LP as the final layer as it does a better job of sealing), I find it very effective in protecting high carbon steels such as the 01 (after a coat of the LP, the water just beads up on it). This is the method I copied from what Cody at Adventure Sworn does with his knives. I use mineral oil on the blade itself most of the time, because it's definitely food safe from what I've learned (and I haven't gotten sick yet...so hopefully that's good enough of an evidence), BUT, I just find it so dang convenient when using the LP since it can be applied to everything about the knife. The product description on the LP says "Contains NO harmful silicones, petroleums, solvents, or neatsfoot," but I've never seen/read someone saying it's food safe for sure, so I typically apply it on the blade of knives that I use for non-food stuff (e.g. woodcrafting). Plus, there's definitely an odor to it (albeit it's not an unpleasant one), so I wouldn't want to apply it to knives that I use for food prep.

xxwjtxx said:
Welcome,
Do a quick search, but for users you cannot go wrong with mineral oil as it is food safe and provides a nice layer of protection for the 01 (and handle materials alike). If you have wood scales you might want to consider 100% pure tung oil. I use hope's brand... Don't use anything not labeled 100% pure tung as other "tung finish" products are mostly chemicals and crap...

Please note that this is just my .02 but most folks on the forum will share a similar sentiment. ;)
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top