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 naturally - 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 water-tight 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 repellant - 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 Cameilla 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 - 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.