what do you use to keep rust at bay?

Break Free on most

mineral oil on food prep knives

ATF if nothing else is available

Johnson's paste wax for long-term storage

I've had good luck with all of these. As many have said above, just keeping them clean goes a long way.
 
I've heard mineral oil before and went to the grocery store to find some. The only thing I found was a clear liquid...but it was a laxative?!! I didn't really think that would be great for a knife I use to prep food with. What am I missing and where can I pick some up?
 
ndeezl said:
I've heard mineral oil before and went to the grocery store to find some. The only thing I found was a clear liquid...but it was a laxative?!! I didn't really think that would be great for a knife I use to prep food with. What am I missing and where can I pick some up?
Click to expand...

As long as it is pure mineral oil, that's the stuff. It is a "intestinal lubricant". But it is also a petroleum product, it gets used a lot on knives because it is also food safe and wont go rancid. In small amounts (the amount that would rub off your knife in food prep), it will not have any laxative effect. You have to drink like a spoonful of it for it to lube the pipes.

Add fragrance to it and you have Baby Oil.

By the way, love the avatar.
 
ndeezl said:
The only thing I found was a clear liquid...but it was a laxative?!! I didn't really think that would be great for a knife I use to prep food with. What am I missing and where can I pick some up?
Click to expand...

I think you'll find that mineral oil is used to coat/lube the digestive tract - If you smear a small amount on a knife and then cut up a tomato you really wont ingest enough of the oil to do anything.

If you eat a plum you will have ingested much more laxative than you ever will from eating food cut by a knife that had mineral oil on the blade.
 
Nothing.

I've found that washing the knife at least once a week does more for rust resistance than applying oil or other preventative. I've been doing this with my ZDP Stretch for more than 4 months with the only rust being seen in very small amounts under the liners.
 
Alright, you can feel free to throw rotten tomatos at me, but I live in a place with an average of 13% humidity. So the answer to your question is: "nothing."

I do try to keep my knives as clean as possible, and everything gets a coat of mineral oil, but even O-1 doesn't rust here unless you really screw something up.
 
Speaking of Brownell's, for you NRA voting members out there, Pete Brownell is on this year's ballot for the Board of Directors. I have no vested interest in this, but would strongly encourage you to consider voting for him. He's a great supporter of everything we think is important.
 
Samael said:
Alright, you can feel free to throw rotten tomatos at me, but I live in a place with an average of 13% humidity. So the answer to your question is: "nothing."

I do try to keep my knives as clean as possible, and everything gets a coat of mineral oil, but even O-1 doesn't rust here unless you really screw something up.
Click to expand...

I have similar good luck with knives - I keep them clean & dry and give them a coat of mineral oil now and then, when I remember. Over the last few days we have had the humidity at 100% and the night time temp didn't drop below 20deg Celsius the other night. Quite a few of my knives are carbon steel (Mora, 3 x Opinel, BK7, BK9, HI Ganga RAM & Karda, Izula) and they don't seem to have any rust on them yet.
 
Gadgetaholic said:
I have similar good luck with knives - I keep them clean & dry and give them a coat of mineral oil now and then, when I remember. Over the last few days we have had the humidity at 100% and the night time temp didn't drop below 20deg Celsius the other night. Quite a few of my knives are carbon steel (Mora, 3 x Opinel, BK7, BK9, HI Ganga RAM & Karda, Izula) and they don't seem to have any rust on them yet.
Click to expand...

Yup. Rust doesn't exist - it's just a conspiracy by the makers of petroleum-based products to make us spend more money.:D
 
A lot of great options have been posted. Everybody has their own little system, mine is to clean the knife blade with Purell then put a gentle coating of Rem Oil on it.
 
+1 on Boeshield for storage. Use and not putting them up wet or dirty works even in Florida humidity.
 
I use Fluid Film.

fftestpanelslarge.jpg

From their website:

Has there been any outside testing conducted to show the effectiveness of Fluid Film®?

Yes. The Department of the Navy conducted testing on maintenance products for Navy vessels and Fluid Film® was found to provide superior performance. In fact, according to the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division, Philadelphia, PA where material testing took place, the difference in performance...profound...most telling result of all the testing accomplished for this project." The Naval Ammunition Depot in Pensacola Florida conducted tests to find safer products for corrosion preventatives, and Fluid Film® was found to supply superior protection in salt water environments. Furthermore, the test results found "outstanding results" in direct exposure to the outside environment, and concluded with these findings: "The results of the tests preformed indicate a superiority in Fluid Film® for long term corrosion protection. The properties of Fluid Film® help to achieve a more environmentally safe work place." Testing was also done in an outside testing facility according to Salt Spray resistance - ASTM B117 standards where Fluid Film® was tested against WD-40, CRC 3-36, Corrosion X and LPS-3. After 3 weeks exposure Fluid Film® had a total surface corrosion of 1%, while the closest competitor contained 40% surface corrosion. Two of the other competitors had achieved 100% surface corrosion during this same period, proving once again the superior quality of Fluid Film®.

P.S. - Fluid Film is food safe as well.
 
One way to keep rust at bay is to keep your knives away from the bay...ha ha, couldn't resist!

Seriously, using Breakfree is the best thing I know of. It can be applied (shake it up first) and left on wet, or it can be applied wet and then be wiped down. Vaseline also works well for storage.

Machine oil doesn't work very well -- neither do lubes like Militec-1. Breakfee has been tested on guns with salt spray and it's very good. Some people have unusual body chemistries and just touching carbon steels can cause rust.

Breakfree does attract a certain amount of grit (as you'll see by touching an open bottle), but it's effective and withstood over 100 hours in a 5% salt spray test.

Be particularly careful not to use steel wool on your blades. That can embed steel particles in the blade and cause corrosion problems.

If you already have some rust, I recommend using CLR (Calcium, Lime, Rust, as seen on TV). I just cleaned an old reloading press that I thought was a goner. Cleaned up very nicely and was applied to an old toothbrush. (If you don't have one, use your wife's!)
 
Last edited:
I'm not quite sure how mineral oil is "food safe". It's a petroleum product with known hazards for inhalation or systemic uptake. It's been used at a laxative, but with known toxicity for multiple uses.

True, you don't ingest a lot, so it isn't really an issue for use on knives (tuf glide uses mineral oil as a carrier), but I wouldn't call it "food safe".

Hence my interest in tea seed oil and/or olive oil for kitchen and food prep knives.
 
guns_and_labs said:
I'm not quite sure how mineral oil is "food safe". It's a petroleum product with known hazards for inhalation or systemic uptake. It's been used at a laxative, but with known toxicity for multiple uses.

True, you don't ingest a lot, so it isn't really an issue for use on knives (tuf glide uses mineral oil as a carrier), but I wouldn't call it "food safe".

Hence my interest in tea seed oil and/or olive oil for kitchen and food prep knives.
Click to expand...

I would call it food safe for the quantity you would ingest from your knife. If you can ingest a spoonful as a laxative without harm then how long would it take to ingest the same amount when using your knife for food prep? I seriously doubt that I would end up ingesting a spoonful over 5 years from what comes off my knife - and it is not going to be toxic at those levels.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top