The best way to store your knife

There’s a lot of differing opinions about storing a kitchen knife for example, most of the advice seems to be in favor of whatever item someone has a stake in selling - the magnetic rack people hate the knife block people, the cutlery drawer folks think the chef roll folks are uptight - you get the drift - everyone has an opinion.

For me personally, I make knives that are made to be used, whether that's in a kitchen, out camping or in the boat fishing. I don't have any knives that I would consider too good to use, I don't really see the point ( haha sorry) therefore I tend to store different knives in different ways.

Is one type of storage better than any other ? 

Well yes - and no.

 Kitchen Knives - I like magnetic knife racks for these, for 2 reasons. 1 - the knives are easily in reach ( obs depends where the rack is situated but in my case above the bench where i do food prep) 2. I like looking at them. There’s no real “proper care’ reason for a magnetic rack, it’s mostly aesthetics.

Disclaimer - I also have a few kitchen knives in the cutlery drawer, because they just don't all fit on a magnetic rack. I also have a knife block with knives in it on the kitchen bench. 

The main takeaway for kitchen knives is to 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.

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. 

It can be beneficial to take a little more care of an outdoors style knife by coating the blade in some type of water repellant - either a wax, oil or even just wd 40 even more so if your in a salty humid environment like in coastal Queensland where I am. 

Generally I wash my camping knives in fresh water and dry thoroughly before storing, 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 outdoors 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 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. 

Here’s some ideas for that, remembering if you use your knife to prepare food you want to stick with natural or food safe coatings.

Renaissance wax

Mineral Oil 

Tool/ machine Oil

Bees wax

Vegetable oil 

WD-40

Carnauba wax