Welcome to the South, where Stainless Steel isn't Stainless!

[Rock]

I'm one of those Damn Yankees who came to the South and won't go away. One of the worst parts of this for me is the humidity trying to kill my blades. I keep them clean and dry and will wipe them down with a Tuf-Cloth and they will still rust on me, sometimes carrying them for just a day in my pocket with no usage! They will rust in a dry safe down here!

I have had Benchmades, Cold Steel, Buck, Gerber, most CRKTs, as well as others rust on me where it has at least taken a rust eraser and a bit of oil to clean them up but the finish was stained or marred. Never a problem with any Spydercos or Kershaws.

Benchmade, Cold Steel, and CRKT all replaced the products at no cost to me, BTW.

Bead blast finishes are the worst. Lots of different blade steels. Any care suggestions or product recommendations?

[Mike Stewart]

Rock,

As You have found out - The Steels we all call stainless in knifemaking are not actually Stainless Steel.

True Stainless Steel is mostly Chromium and has very little if any Carbon and cannot be hardened.

The steels we call Stainless are actually High Carbon Stain Resistant Alloys.

the level of Stain Resistance does Vary Greatly in a number of them.

Believe it or not - the less desirable Blade steels like 420 and 440A are the most Stain Resistant but lack the Strength to hold an edge well.

ON the Higher Grade alloys you can enhance the Corrosion Resistance by making sure that the Blades are at least 58-60rc and have a very tight Surface Finish like a Bright Satin or even a Mirror Finish.

The Alternatives are to not use Steel.

The Blade Metals that Don't rust are: Titanium - Stellite - Talonite or The Stuff Sal Glesser (Spyderco) uses in his Pacific Salt Knives - I think it is called H-1.

Hope this helps.


Mike

[unreconstructedgordo]

I gave my son a MadDog DSU2 (Deep Submergence Unit 2 was/is a Navy unit he made them for ) which is an 01 Carbon steel serrated blade that is hard chromed and the handle compression epoxy bonded around the blade. He uses it as a dive knive all over the Pacifac with no signs of rust on the exposed sharpened edge. Of course it is rinsed off in fresh water and the edge slathered in XF-7 grease as fastas he can, which can be a few days. No signs of rust after a few years of this.
I also use carbon blades all over the world , sticking them in bloody animal flesh, which is highly corrosive BTW, and with proper rinsing and wiping have yet to experierence any thing worse than darkening. Oh I also carried carbon steel Randalls a few tours in constantly wet Vietnam and Panama that trumps my Georgia boy experiences.

[leatherman]

An old timer knife maker once explained it to me like this:

Stain-less its not rust proff, only rust resistant.

Down here a coating of oil seems to be the only thing that will slow the progression, but its a war of attrition. My guns are the ones that suffer the most. High carbon slides will rust if you breathe on them.

[Rock]

I have a Buck 110 that I carried in the Navy on the USS Eisenhower and used for everything. I'd use it to punch holes in oil cans so they would sink when we threw them overboard (those were the days, you effing treehuggers!). I worked mainly on the flight deck with a fairly constant saltwater mist in the air when underway. Cleaning the blade consisted of wiping it off on my dungarees and sticking it back in its leather sheath. I shaved once with that bitch (not recommended!) even though I didn't even have a sharpening stone or sharpener on board.

No rust or corrosion ever. Never broke the tip or dinged the edge in the Navy.

Sitting on my desk in South Carolina; surface rust. Go figure. Leather and nylon rot fast down here too!

[Parker]

It will help your steels immensely if you avoid blasted finishes, going for at minimum and stonewash or a satin.

I've had decent luck polishing blades down with flitz, as it seems to smooth out some of the more egregious surface flaws, then cleaning the knife with naptha and applying said XF7 (Mad Dog Labs) - you can use any surfactant you want of course. XF7 is entirely non-corrosive and entirely non-toxic.

Worst example of what you describe was an MOD Ayoob I was wearing IWB, hot July 4 weekend. I was running sweat into the sheath, down the blade. It came out with a puddle of orange liquid and the blade was just stained orange all over. Flitz cleaned up that knife easily. The blade was a blasted 154CM.

[Per-Sev]

I'm one of those Damn Yankees who came to the South and won't go away. One of the worst parts of this for me is the humidity trying to kill my blades. I keep them clean and dry and will wipe them down with a Tuf-Cloth and they will still rust on me, sometimes carrying them for just a day in my pocket with no usage! They will rust in a dry safe down here!

I have had Benchmades, Cold Steel, Buck, Gerber, most CRKTs, as well as others rust on me where it has at least taken a rust eraser and a bit of oil to clean them up but the finish was stained or marred. Never a problem with any Spydercos or Kershaws.

Benchmade, Cold Steel, and CRKT all replaced the products at no cost to me, BTW.

Bead blast finishes are the worst. Lots of different blade steels. Any care suggestions or product recommendations?

I am very surprised at the knives you listed having a rust issue, I am not in the south but in the summer we can get a lot of 100% humidity days here and when I worked in a machine shop with all that mist in the air from the machines you would be soaked with sweat by the end of the day. Back then the steel of choice was ATS-34 and I never had any of my pocket knives rust on me. All of them had a satin finish or better and when I got home I would wipe the junk off of them but I never coated them with anything. I have heard that some peoples body chemistry can cause a blade to rust more than some people like there finger prints are more corrosive and will cause rust. At some of the knife shows I have done the dealers would call them ruster's. All we would use was a leather chamois to wipe the finger prints off. I would try to buy the shiniest blades you can find they are harder to have rust form on them than the rougher finished blades and just wipe them off a lot.

[Rock]

The double polished Cold Steels and Spydercos have been the most consistently corrosion resistant for me.

I keep my blades clean and most look pretty new. Never had this trouble in Illinois, Washington, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Virginia, Michigan, California, or Tennessee.

[mitch_mckee]

Well, if you like knives and behave yourself, I recon it's OK if you stay. Developing a taste for good burbon is a plus.

I've found that the typical oils used on knives are inadequate in the 90 degree, 90% humidity of the Southland. I think it may evaporate too fast. Try a good grade of gun oil or, oddly enough, Dexron II or III transmission fluid. The dexron in particular will still be coating your blades after a year of storage.

I use a mix of 1 qt Dexron + 1 qt Mobile One synthetic oil + one container of STP oil treatmeny for all my guns and knives. It lubes, protects, and doesn't evaporate or dry out. It's called Ed's Red Gun Oil. I'm trying to find a way to inject the stuff into my arthritic elbow and hip joints, however, I've met with little success.

If you like to spend money, go commercial gun oil like RemOil or Break Free. They work fine but not as good as Ed's.

[droid]

I have a Buck 110 that I carried in the Navy on the USS Eisenhower and used for everything. I'd use it to punch holes in oil cans so they would sink when we threw them overboard (those were the days, you effing treehuggers!).

Bwaaahahahaha! Oh, the way peoples eyes bug when I tell those stories!!!! Throwing trash off the fantail!!!! Classic!!!!

I carried a Buck 110 while in the Navy as well along with a Camillus Aircrew Survival knife. Bought the buck in the NEX up in Great Lakes after boot. I think I still have that knife somewhere.

I live in south Texas, 90 miles southwest of Houston and it gets HUMID here. On a NICE day the humidity is still 75%+. Never had a problem with blades rusting as you describe. I don't own any bead blasted blades however. I've owned ONE and it rusted to beat the band. Got rid of it and never bought another.

Andy