Yellow CV Soddie questions.

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ElCuchillo

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Hey guys.
I was just given a CV Soddie Jr., and it's pretty cool. I touched up the blade and it's nice and sharp. It's my first experience with Case's CV steel, so I have some questions.
1. How often does it need to be touched up? I will be using it a couple of times a week, not really for any hard cutting, but small stuff. I'm used to the Tru-sharp, which isn't bad, but needs to be sharpened once a week. Does the CV edge last longer?
2. How tough is it to sharpen? I hear that carbon steel is sometimes hard to sharpen. Is CV the same as Carbon? Is it hard to get an edge on it once it is gone?
3. Living as I do in Florida, and working out doors, in the heat and humidity, will this pocketknife rust to all hell while in my pocket after a hot, sweaty summer day? Should I wipe it down during the day? Will it be ok to care for it when I get home? How easy to rust is Case's CV?
I've never cared for a CV, or a carbon blade, so I am not sure of what to do. Any advice and/or guidance would be appreciated.
 
Case's CV is not technically the same as plain carbon steel, is has some Chrome and Vanadium added, hence the CV.

It will not rust quite as easy as plain carbon steel, the best thing you could do for it, is dip the blade in warm vinegar or stick it into an apple an leave it over night.

The blade will start to darken with patina and once it develops a good patina, that will help it fight off rust.

My Case CV knives, I don't worry to much during the day, but when you get home at night, I'd wipe off the blade with a rag and a drop of oil and it should be fine.

Since you say you have never carried a carbon steel blade, I'll give you a little tip to save yourself some headaches.

If you plan to carry and use this knife daily, do not try to keep the blade nice and shiny and new looking....you will fail! :D

let it turn dark black with patina and it will hold off rust much better and look really cool!
 
The CV should hold its edge just a tad longer than the Tru Sharp. It should sharpen as easy, if not easier. Jackknife had a good technique with his CV peanut of just stropping it a few strokes each morning before you leave. I don't know if he was using charged (the green stuff) leather, or plain leather. He'll have to fill you in on that.

I've carried my CV yellow handles in my pants in the summer here in the San Antonio area without much trouble. You probably have a bit more salt air than we do, so that might be a factor though. On mine, I just wiped them clean after use and would wipe a light coat of mineral oil on mine every week or so. I used mineral oil since I used mine to cut fruit and foodstuff. Not to tasty or good for you if you use 3 in 1 Oil or similar on it.

One trick or method that comes up on here now and then is to force a patina on the blade. This acts like blueing on a firearm and slows oxidation. Interesting since it is an oxidation process. I'd done some by dipping the degrease blade in hot cider vinegar. Other things you can do are stick the blade in a potato for a day or just peel a few apples a day with the blade and let that patina the blade.

Like I said, the salt air in Florida might have an affect on how much you need to keep up with the knife. Mainly, just wipe it down when you use it and it gets wet. Wipe it off at the end of each day. You may want to do a light wipe of mineral oil every day or every other day.

Regardless, you shouldn't see the knife rust before your eyes,
 
How often to sharpen?

Depends on how much you use it, and on what. Your milage may vary. Touch it up when it starts to get a bit dull.

Hard to sharpen?

In my experiance, carbon steel is easier to sharpen than alot of stainless steels. Its a matter of abrasion resistance. I admit I'm a wee bit prejudiced, but after using all sorts of knives since the end of WW2, I really do preffer a good carbon steel over a stainless for anything short of a dive knife. If stainless was all that great, why arn't machetes made out of it? Last I heard, jungles were a hot damp environment.

As far as Florida and humidity, think of all the centurys man explored watery environments while carrying weapons and tools of carbon steel. A little maintanence will go a very, very, long way. Put a good patina on the blade for some protection, and you may be surprised at how it goes. A good dark patina will act like a protective barrier for the steel. This can be done with viniger, mustard, or even a small bottle of cold blue solution from a gun shop.

Contrary to what the stainless tactical crowd thinks, a carbon blade is not going to rust away on you before nightfall. If it's okay in the morning, it will be okay when you get home that night and you give it a stropping on leather, and a wipedown with some kind of rag with a LITTLE oil on it. Some will tell you to use mineral oil, some will go for 3-in-1, some will say nothing, just use a dry rag to make sure the blade is clean and dry that night. They are all right. It's not going to take a high effort-high tech approach to keep it from rusting.

The yellow CV soddie is one of my favorite knives. Last summer my grandson Ryan, and I spent alot of time at the lake by our house self teaching ourselves fishing with the cane pole. Our knives were the yellow CV peanut I gave him that was mine, and my Case CV soddie. The knives recieved what many would call abusive treatment. They were used for cutting bait, gutting panfish, and were swished around in the water for cleaning till we got home. Once home they were cleaned under warm water and dish soap in the sink, dryed and given a shot of Hoppys gun oil in the joint. Thats all. They survived the summer in fine shape, with a really great patina. I don't know if it was the fish guts or what, but the blades have this really neat blueish irridessant kind of color.

When I was a kid in the late 40's and 50's, and my summers were spent working on grandads boat, all the Chesapeake watermen carried carbon steel pocket knives. In those days stainless steel had a iffy reputation, so carbon was the only thing to have if you wantd a good knife you could count on. Todays wonder steels were not on the horizon yet. But you never saw a rusty pocket knife among those men, in spite of them using their proudly carried pocket knives for everything from trimming a piece of salted eel for the crab trap, or filleting the breast off a quail, or cutting a chew off a plug of tobacco.

Theres a fellow around the Middletown Maryland area named Bill. He's one of the best trappers and game experts in the area. The really rich doctors and lawyers out of Washington and Baltimore use him to trap the birds for their live English style shoots, as well as a hunting guide. For the last couple of decades his main working knife has been a beat up old yellow CV soddie with a blade almost black, but not rusty. He just recently bought a new one because the old one is getting badly worn. He's dressed, skinned, just about everything that walks or crawls, and the CV sodbuster has done just fine.

You're going to do just fine ElCuchillo. For a knife knut, carring for a knife is not a pain in the butt, but a labor of love. We like to have an exuse to take out our knife and maybe take a minute to wipe the blade off with a bandana.
 
I've been carrying carbon steel pocket knives for 40 years with no rust, dark patina yes but no rust. And the first 20 years around saltwater. I like them yellow handle case knives :)
 
My Grandad moved to Miami from Georgia in the early '20s and worked installing glass there for the next 40 or so years. When he wasn't working, he was chasing deer and turkey and hogs around the Everglades or up on Lake Okeechobee shooting ducks or pulling specks out of the lake by the bucketful. His pocketknife? Carbon steel ....... and you better believe it was never rusty. The blades were really dark with patina, but that ain't rust.
 
Very cool. I think I'm gonna like this little guy. By the way, I've been told that the patina you put on a blade, by either using the mustard method, vinegar technique, potatoe, etc., will eventually come off. What about a natural patina, one that happens from just use. Will that come off as well?
 
The Last Confederate said:
Reading this has made me want to carry my Yellow CV Soddie' Jr. today!
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Mine's been missing in action for a couple weeks and I fear it is lost. I can of course buy another one for $20 bucks, but I don't want to give up on mine yet.

El Cuchillo, considering the humid environment you live in, I'm with TLC, Amos, and Jackknife that you'll want to put a patina on it. It will make maintaining the knife rust free much easier. When I want a heavy a patina I heat up some apple cider vinegar in the microwave and dip the blade in it until it has the desired darkness. It will likely get pretty dark, but the thick patina will mellow with use.

The Case CV soddie Jr. is one of the best all purpose pocketknives I know of. It carries very lightly in the pocket. The thick round handle makes it very ergonomic, and the thin hollow ground CV blade takes a screaming edge with great ease, and holds it really well. I honestly don't know how long it takes a Case CV blade to lose it's edge, because I love sharpening CV so much that I'm sure I touch it up before it even needs it.

Great knife choice there. Enjoy!
 
ElCuchillo said:
Very cool. I think I'm gonna like this little guy. By the way, I've been told that the patina you put on a blade, by either using the mustard method, vinegar technique, potatoe, etc., will eventually come off. What about a natural patina, one that happens from just use. Will that come off as well?
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I don't know who told you that, but if you put on a good mustard or or cider vinigar patina the only way its comming off there is with some scotchbrite and elbow grease. With the Florida humidity, I don't think I would wait for a natural built up patina.

Just be sure to degrease the blade good before the patina means of choice. I always wash it off with hot water and dish soap, and dry the warm blade good. Warm up some cider or even regular vinigar in the microwave till its very warm. It will darken up nicely.

Now, ElCuchillo, I don't want to confuse the issue here, but since I know you will like that soddie, I will just leave you with the idea of down the line someplace trying other soddies. I love my Case, but I really love my Eye-Brand too. If you run into any Klass Brown Mules along the way, try one of them too. :thumbup: :thumbup:

And then there's the Boker Argentine knives. :D

I love my soddies!
 
LOL. for all the fancy knives we have floating around here it makes me chuckle that nearly all of us get a special kick when someone else discovers that basic, yellow handled, CV Soddie. Given the patina issue, I guess I could say when someone else comes over to the dark side. :D

It's true though. As soon as someone posts about joining the Soddie love club, the rest of us are practically dancing at the alter of the Sodbusting knife gods. I think most of the folks here by their appreciation for traditional knives just really have a deep appreciation for an age old, simple, working knife that does in fact work like the dickens. It's a celebration of the core principle in a traditional knife.

Jackknife is right. You will find yourself wanting to try out several of the other maker's soddies out there. They each have their charm from the wood handled, truly basic Klass Brown Mules (which I'm quite fond of) to the stag handled Queens and Eye Brands.

After you've enjoyed that soddie for a while, heheheh, try a simple, yellow handled, peanut in CV. Given your line of work it may not become your primary knife, but I wouldn't be surprised if it found itself riding out of the way in another pocket too.
 
ElCuchillo said:
I've been told that the patina you put on a blade, by either using the mustard method, vinegar technique, potatoe, etc., will eventually come off.
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Someone told you wrong, the only way it will come off is if you deliberately take it off and that will take a lot of work.
 
So far as patina goes, I have a good many knives that developed it on their own, and a couple I tried to start along with vinegar, etc. The BEST looking beginning patina on any of my knives is on a 1095 trapper that I used to cut up a mango. So mango juice might be the ticket. Turns it almost translucent blue like bluing on a gun.

I live in a humid coastal environment too, and have many carbon knives. It's long term storage you have to be careful about - not regular use.
 
Amos Iron Wolf said:
It's true though. As soon as someone posts about joining the Soddie love club, the rest of us are practically dancing at the alter of the Sodbusting knife gods. I think most of the folks here by their appreciation for traditional knives just really have a deep appreciation for an age old, simple, working knife that does in fact work like the dickens. It's a celebration of the core principle in a traditional knife.
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You may have hit the nail here Amos. To me the soddie is like the Douk-Douk, Opinel, or a good revolver. Its something going back to a really simple tool thats designed for a purpase. No frills, hype, or gimmicks, just pure function. The Smith and Wesson model 10 has been in production since 1899, and for me it works just fine. I guess its the same with the soddie. For a low price it delivers simple flawless working ability.
 
Here's an example of rust and slip-joint knives:

back in high school, I was given a Schrade Old Timer stockman. It's about 2.6" in length when closed and has carbon steel blades. 2 years ago, I came across that Old Timer, buried away in the corner of a desk drawer. At that phase in my knife journey, I had very little respect for slip joints, particularly old, small slippies :o

So, here's what I did with it: I decided that I wanted to have a small knife in a pocket while I went to the gym. In particular, I wanted a little knife in my swimming suit... This desire was due to an article I'd read about a girl getting her hair sucked into a hot tub's water intake. The girl was being pulled under water and could not get her head above the surface, no matter how hard anyone pulled. Fortunately, someone nearby happened to have a pocket knife in their trunks and was able to cut the girl's hair off, saving her from drowning :thumbup:

At this point, I'm sure you can see where I'm going with ths story. I put that little, ol' Schrade in the coin pocket of my swimming trunks... and completely forgot about it :eek: That bad boy rode around with me in the pool, hot tub, and steam room at the gym for at least 6 months. It never left the trunks' pocket; after swimming, I'd throw those shorts into a plastic bag and dump the package into the bottom of my gym bag. I remembered the knife's presence only when the coin pocket started sporting large rust spots :o I looked at the blades, though, and the rust was only superficial, so the knife stayed put!

After about 1/2 year, I took that knife out and decided to treat it properly. The rust spots were sanded off, leaving not one single pit behind. I then sharpened the blades up and commenced blue jean coin pocket carry of the little guy. I've yet to replace my "trunks knife", but when I do it'll probably be a Spyderco Salt model that gets called on :thumbup:

The moral of this tale? My experience tells me that carbon steel is a lot more resilient than we are led to believe :)
 
True. And I'd say hundreds and hundreds of years of history would back that up.
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Yup, exactly. Stainless steel has a place, but that place is somewhere far, far away from my pockets and belt :p
 
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