What type of maintenance and how do you store your knives?

draggat

draggat

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This question is aimed at the people who have stored collections. Nothing wrong with having only users, but maintenance for stored knives is different. On my users, oiling the joint with mineral oil every so often seems to be just fine.

I've been using a light coat of just straight mineral oil on all of my knives for the past couple of years and I've had good results with it so far. I do check on them all every few weeks. I'm a bit tired of the oily mess it tends to make and I've read some things here and there that mineral oil isn't good for bone. Actually, I've read conflicting reports on that because some things I've read say to soak bone handles in mineral oil for 24 hours once a year.

I've been reading lots of good things about Renaissance Wax. I've actually had a can of the stuff for several years but only recently realized that it's a good metal protectant. Is it a good idea, or not, to use ren wax on wood, bone and acrylic? It's petroleum based so I wonder if that would harm those materials long term. I would like my knives to last as long as possible. What about car wax? Or other types of waxes?

Also, I store my knives in a large craftsman tool chest..... I like to be able to look at them periodically, like a kid in a candy store!

So tell me, what type of maintenance and products do you use and how often do you use them? How do you store them?

I forgot to mention that the type of knives I'm storing are all high carbon traditional folding knives.

Thanks.
 
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I use Renaissance Wax on my carbon steel knives that I keep stored away. Just on the blades and backsprings. I don't use anything on the bone handle slabs but I probably should. As long as I'm only storing the knife and not using it I only apply the wax one time. For a little more added protection I use a product called "The Inhibitor" rust preventive plug. In all honesty, I don't even know if The Inhibitor actually works but my knives have remained corrosion free for 6 or 7 years now. Maybe it's the RenWax that protects them or maybe it's The Inhibitor or maybe it's both. Could even be neither but they both give me piece of mind.

I store my non users (both carbon and stainless) in hinged glass top display cases so that I can view them at a glance while keeping out dust and dirt. Note The Inhibitor plug in the middle slot. This is an old photo and I don't even own some of these knives now.

 
I've been using one of those silicone gun & reel cloths now for quite some time with good results so far. It also makes the wood look really good when applied.
 
Plain old WD 40 works very well and isn't messy.
Wax- Renaiassance, car, shoe polish works well for handles, but is difficult to get into tight spots of the knife.
 
Whenever a knife has to go in storage for an extended period of time it gets fully disassembled. All hardware and screws are stored in a tiny sealed vial of Rem Oil. The blade is cleaned with EDCI and then given a coat of Rem Oil. All the parts are stored with plenty of silica gel to absorb any moisture in the container.
 
asdf12345 said:
Whenever a knife has to go in storage for an extended period of time it gets fully disassembled. All hardware and screws are stored in a tiny sealed vial of Rem Oil. The blade is cleaned with EDCI and then given a coat of Rem Oil. All the parts are stored with plenty of silica gel to absorb any moisture in the container.
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That seems to be a little overkill. I have a collection of over 500 knives. Most of them don't have screws, but if they did, I see no reason to disassemble them.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
Plain old WD 40 works very well and isn't messy.
Wax- Renaiassance, car, shoe polish works well for handles, but is difficult to get into tight spots of the knife.
Click to expand...

I did some further reading and several people have said that carnauba wax and beeswax contain acids which could break down wood over time so car wax is out. I think I'm going to go with ren wax and tuf glide in the joints.

My main question now is will ren wax degrade acrylic and bone? I've used it on stabilized wood for years with no negative effect, so I'm guessing it should be fine.

Breaking down knives into individual parts seems like total overkill to me too. It would be a collection of parts rather than a collection of knives! Also, you can't take apart pinned knives without wrecking them.
 
I have never heard of those waxes (especially beeswax!) containing acids.
Regardless, neutral paste shoe polish works very well. I can't see any waxes degrading bone or acrylic.
 
I'm not sure but I agree that RenWax should be fine on bone and acrylic. My jar of RenWax states on the label that one of the materials it works good on is ivory. I'm guessing if that's the case then it should be fine on bone and acrylic.
 
I use ren wax on everything, its great stuff. A little goes a long way. I use it on my wood projects when turning wood, won't harm anything.
 
draggat said:
I did some further reading and several people have said that carnauba wax and beeswax contain acids which could break down wood over time so car wax is out. I think I'm going to go with ren wax and tuf glide in the joints.

My main question now is will ren wax degrade acrylic and bone? I've used it on stabilized wood for years with no negative effect, so I'm guessing it should be fine.

Breaking down knives into individual parts seems like total overkill to me too. It would be a collection of parts rather than a collection of knives! Also, you can't take apart pinned knives without wrecking them.
Click to expand...

There are a LOT of wood finishing products on the market utilizing beeswax (see link below, for Google Images search results); I'm certain it won't harm wood at all. There are even 'wood preserver' products made with it. Some antique furniture experts even recommend solid waxes containing beeswax as one of the few treatments that won't harm antique furniture. If car waxes were really that acidic, they'd also be a much greater corrosion hazard to cars themselves (rust/corrosion). I wouldn't worry at all, about either type of product. Water and UV (sunlight) are really the main things to be worried about, in degrading or breaking down woods.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bee...&ei=0O9YVaj8DcHSsAXbyIGoBg&sqi=2&ved=0CEIQsAQ


David
 
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