knife care
You’ve purchased a knife and want to know the best way to store it, clean it, care for it. We get it. So we’ve compiled a list for you to keep your knife looking and feeling great.
Light wash in hot water and dry - oil if you want (I live in a humid environment, so oil definitely helps)
Let patina develop, forced or natural. Most of the carbon steel knives I make have a forced patina.
Remove dirty rust - heat blade in boiling water, scrub and dry.
Enjoy and wear your patina with pride.
Not dishwasher safe - dishwashers will damage your knife.
Storage
Kitchen Knives - I like to keep my knives on a magnetic knife rack.
Store them however is convenient for you, as long as they are kept dry (carbon steel knives) you won't have any issues with rust. I store mine on a magnetic knife rack because I like how it looks but also they are easy to access when I need to reach for one, but I also have some in the kitchen drawer.
Camping Knives.
The camping / outdoors knives I make come with a leather or Kydex sheath. They do a good job as a means to carry your knife. There are some issues though with storing a knife in leather or Kydex and it really comes down to how you dry a knife before putting it in its sheath.
Generally, I wash my camping knives in fresh water and dry them thoroughly before storing them, and also leave it out of the sheath when I get home for a day or so in case any residual moisture is inside the sheath, just to give it a chance to dry and air out.
The same goes for stainless steel as an outdoor knife, rust will still appear on a stainless steel knife if not allowed to dry before storing, granted not as much as carbon steel but enough to be annoying. A little wax or oil goes a long way in keeping your knife rust-free. If you only use a camping knife a few times a year you can also seal it in a vacuum bag removing all oxygen in a watertight environment to prevent rust from appearing.
The moral of the story for knife storage is keeping a dry knife when not in use and using some type of water-repellent coating for extra protection.
Protection
It can be beneficial to take a little more care of your knife by coating the blade in some type of water repellent - either a wax, oil or even just WD-40, even more so if you’re in a salty humid environment like in coastal Queensland where I am.
Here’s some of what I use, remembering if you use your knife to prepare food you want to stick with natural or food-safe coatings.
Carbon Steel Knife Oil - 100% organic Camellia Oil
Renaissance wax
Mineral Oil
Tool/machine Oil
Beeswax
Vegetable oil
WD-40
Carnauba wax
If it gets rusty, you can convert dirty rust into magnetite (patina) by immersing the blade (blade only) in boiling water for 15 to 20 minutes, then scrub it with dish soap and steel wool or Scotch-Brite. This process will convert the rust to magnetite (patina).
Or if you have 1200-grit wet/dry sandpaper you can sand the blade and lubricate it with glass cleaner (with ammonia). Make sure you wash with dish soap and dry after. This will remove rust but also take the blade back to a shiny steel look. It’s a good place to start if you have an old neglected knife that you want to restore. Then just let time do its thing with the patina.