Care and feeding?

Maybe Raleigh and Scott and some of the other knifemakers could pitch in and create a thread that is sort of a "Owner's Manual" for the care and feeding of fine custom knives.....how to care for the blades, and various handle materials....how to prevent or remove tranish and oxidation...how to keep bone and Ivory in good shape..how to care for the hand-tooled leather sheaths....that sort of thing.

Well i was hoping that if i waited long enough , Raleigh would make this list . Once again this is just my opinion .

BLADES :

Well as far as stainless steel goes i think that there is not much you have to do to them , just keep them clean . Just because something is stainless steel { ss } does not mean it will not rust or corrode. There are many kinds of ss with different properties and different amounts of ingredients that can make these steels more resistant to rust . Other than just keeping them clean , you really do not need to apply anything to coat ss blades after cleaning .

Knives that are made from tool steels are appt to rust if not kept clean. Blood left on a knife of this kind of steel could rust the knife overnite . These steels are 1095 , 1084,52100, 01 , L-6 , A2 , D2. This is a small list of some of these steels . A good way to clean these steels is to use soap and water and then wipe dry , and lay it up to air dry . If they are really dirty you may have to use steel wool to rub clean, or to remove rust , or residue . After cleaning i would use some kind of a protective coating such as Marvels mystery oil , or machine oil , any kind of a good oil that will stay on the blade and not just go away . If you are going to store a blade made from one of these steels for an extended time , i would reccommend that you remove the blade from the sheath .

Sheaths :

Some sheaths are tanned with different materials . Some companies use chemicals to tan leather which may cause a knife to rust , others are vegetable tanned.I have not seen a knife damaged by this tanning process . Using kydex for a sheath , will scratch the blade , this is about the only damage i know of .

Protecting leather : I would use either neatsfoot oil , or a leather balm wax , or leather sheen .


Handle materials :
Synthetic materials are pretty much safe from absorbing any liquids into the material . They are fairly solid . I would think just soap and water will work well on these kinds of materials .
Wood, if it has been stabilized , you should be good to go , just soap and water . Wood that has not been stabilized you may want to use a sealer on the wood before use .
Natural materials such as bone , horn , antlers , etc .. it would be a good ideal to seal these materials with some kind of a spray sealer such as a polyurethane . As far as cleaning these materials i would highly reccommend a product called renaissance wax for cleaning and to protect it .
There maybe some materials not listed here , that you may have questions about , if so just ask and i am sure that with the wealth of knowledge around here on the forums , someone can answer your questions for you .

I find that the best way to protect your investments would be a little preventative maintainance every now and then instead of waiting until something has gone so far as to start to ruin .

Again this is only my opinion , and the ways i keep my blades clean , and ready to pass down to my boys when the time is right . If anyone has any ideas , commits , or want to add to this list , please feel free to do so . Thanks for looking . SCOTT

Taking care of your knifes

Scott i think you did a good job ;About the only thing i might add is that the sheaths that are hot diped in bees wax and neetsfoot oil dont need to have anything done to them. the mixture penetrates all thru the leather. i have some sheathes that people are useing that are 20 yrs old and still look good and are holding up. The sheaths that are died are the ones you will have to keep clean and treat to make them hold up . And as always treat your knife like a knife was supposed to be used and it will give you many years of pleasure.And like Scott said the knife makers on here are a super bunch of guys and will answer any questions any body has . Raleigh -(AKA- Sharpeblades)

Very good info gentlemen.

I have used mineral oil on some of my Stag handles as they seem to dry and shrink over the years. I've read mixed reports on using Mineral Oil so what do y'all think? I can tell you that I have a Gerber fixed blade with stag handles that was developing some fine cracks in it, after soaking it in Mineral Oil not only did the cracks dissappear the antler looked wonderful.

Again good information here, thank you.

Thanks guys! This is exactly what I was looking for....things that might not really be intuitive or obvious....

There's the normal list of obvious things:

1. Never use a knife for a prybar or screwdriver
2. Never hammer the knife into anything or use the knife for a hammer
3. Never throw a knife that is not designed for throwing
4. Keep it sharp and follow the correct procedures for sharpening
5. Keep the inside of folding knives clean and a drop of oil on the pivot. Wipe excess oil out because it will tend to attract dirt and grit.

Speaking of sharpening...do you guys have a recommended method? I know an awful lot of guys that just don't know how to sharpen a knife. I've seen a lot of blades messed up by not knowing how to sharpen. I have one friend that used to bring me a bag full of knives at a time to sharpen for him because he just couldn't seem to get the hang of it. Finally his wife bought him one of those electric sharpeners from Bass Pro Shop and it has saved me a ton of work.

There's a lot of good information here, and probably a lot more to come. Maybe we could make this a sticky?

Sounds like a sharpening tutorial might be in order. I know there are many different ways and everyone has their favorite. I have never been able to get the 'shaving sharp' edge. These great knifemakers should have some great ideas.

badkarma said:

Sounds like a sharpening tutorial might be in order. I know there are many different ways and everyone has their favorite. I have never been able to get the 'shaving sharp' edge. These great knifemakers should have some great ideas.

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+1 for the sharpening tutorial. I can sharpen a knife. But I've never gotten a knife "factory sharp" as I'd like it to be.

Scott and Raleigh - Thank you for your time and for the educational tutorial. - That is great information for a novice like me. Really appreciate it! And thanks to Germag for the great suggestion.

Knives

I keep a tupper ware bowl (a long skinny one )full of baby oil .I let my stag and especially ivory knives set in it.I do this every couple of months. As far as sharpening them i do it frist time on one of my knife grinders .On a working knife i use a worn out 220 grit belt and on a knife i want a finer edge i use a worn out 400 grit belt .Then i buff the wire edge off . and it will be hair splitting sharp. I have found the easiest way for the average knife person to keep one sharp is with a good set of ceramic sticks. The secret is not to change the angle every time you pull them thru the sticks . (do this before they get to dull ) Hope this will help.

I have started to using the hot dip method RT is talking about , and man it makes a sheath stand tall and look good . Just like RT said , there is nothing in the hot dip that is bad for the knife its all good stuff that is made to seal and keep it clean . Keep all the goodies comin' . SCOTT

sharpeblades said:

I keep a tupper ware bowl (a long skinny one )full of baby oil .I let my stag and especially ivory knives set in it.I do this every couple of months. As far as sharpening them i do it frist time on one of my knife grinders .On a working knife i use a worn out 220 grit belt and on a knife i want a finer edge i use a worn out 400 grit belt .Then i buff the wire edge off . and it will be hair splitting sharp. I have found the easiest way for the average knife person to keep one sharp is with a good set of ceramic sticks. The secret is not to change the angle every time you pull them thru the sticks . (do this before they get to dull ) Hope this will help.

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I have a very similar technique. For normal touch-up or everyday sharpening I use a big fine grit diamond stone. The trick is, as you said, not to let it get too dull. Every time I use a knife, I clean it and sharpen it before I put it away. If it does get really dull, or if I need to change the angle on a new factory blade or something like that, I use a worn-out 320 grit for everything, I just change the angle for different edge types. Then I have a leather belt that I use with some jeweler's rouge to buff the edge.

Huntinfool said:

+1 for the sharpening tutorial. I can sharpen a knife. But I've never gotten a knife "factory sharp" as I'd like it to be.

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The factory edges aren't what they used to be....I call them "lawyer edges". Used to be that if you bought a decent production knife like a Puma or even a Buck or a Gerber or something like that, it would be shaving sharp when you got it. Now I guess everybody is so afraid of lawsuits that they don't make them really shaving sharp any more....you have to do that yourself. The only ones I've seen come from the factory with a sharp edge in recent years has been Cutco.

sharpeblades said:

I keep a tupper ware bowl (a long skinny one )full of baby oil .I let my stag and especially ivory knives set in it.

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That's a great idea. I have some knives with bone and some with oozik handles too....I would assume this would be good for bone and oozik handles as well as stag and ivory? I never really thought about stag drying out and cracking, but it makes perfect sense that it would.... I've seen bone do it as well as ivory. I've always rubbed my ivory with baby oil every now and then, never thought about soaking it.

I've got some automatics with ivory and oozik soaking right now. I would assume just draining and getting the excess oil out will be OK, or do I need to wash it out and lubricate with machine oil?

Mighty good thread here!

Great info guys...........what about the care of Damascus blades ? You know some of us have an addiction to this patterned steel and need to know how to care for it !

backwoodsjoe said:

Great info guys...........what about the care of Damascus blades ? You know some of us have an addiction to this patterned steel and need to know how to care for it !

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Steve , i would just store them out of the sheath , and keep them oiled down good , they will be fine . SCOTT

Knife Sharpening

A barber told me the secret to sharpening a knife on a flat stone was to turn the blade over on the back of its spine at the end of each stroke-this is the way he sharpened his razors. This method stops any rounding of the edge as you bring the knife up off of the stone. It seems difficult when you first try it but with a little practice it can be as fast as any other method of sharpening on a flat stone . Of course a final buffing on a good wheel with a buffing compound will remove any wire edge from the stone sharpening and make the knife razor sharp.

Damascus

If you store damascus in one of my sheaths it will be fine. Always wipe it down and put a coat of oil on it if it is carbon damascus .Another thing on automatic knives it is best to store them open it will take the pressure off the spring and make it last longer

i could never get the shaving edge on a knife, really couldnt even get a good edge. then, i found an e-z sharpe system. there are several different versions. some with stones, the diamond type. you put the blade in a small vice with a part attached. it has several different angles, you can use. you start with the coarse stone and work to the fine. 30 minutes and you will have an edge to be proud of. another brand, i may not spell it right, lansky. this is the diamond type. i have 12 or15 different knives and have worn out several stones. i never have a dull knife. from a usmc knife with a 10" blade to my Sunday knife with a 2 1/2" blade. they all fit. ive had my e-z sharpe for about 20 years. your blades will never be the same.