Blade rust ?

CRAIG1952

Well-Known Member
Today I forgot and left one of my file knife's in a sheath that I had just made and formed to the knife. This morning I pulled the knife out and noticed that it had rust on the blade:what!: I was able to buff the knife clean of rust.
My question is what should I do or is it common for file blades to rust. I used WD40 on the blade to stop the rust.
Will using Neets foot oil inside the sheath help with this problem?
I have used 5160 and 1095 and have not had this problem :les:
 
I'm not the one to answer this,but someone here will.
I think some of it,will depend on the leather and how it was tanned.

God bless,Keith
 
Do not store your knives in their sheaths especially after being out in the field. Leather can store water and cause pitting to the knife blade. Keep the blade dry and wipe fingerprints and moisture off, after use, with a soft all cotton cloth or chamois. This is particularly important with blades of high carbon steel. The spine and belly of the handle on full tang knives are not to be forgotten. Tarnishing or oxidation is a normal property of carbon steel and cannot be avoided. This normal oxidation or tarnish actually helps protect the knife from rust and will have blue grey tones, rather than rust red tones. Applying a couple drops of any quality oil or silicon treatment to the blade with a soft all cotton cloth will provide excellent protection.

Cheers
Nektarios
 
I wrap my blades in VCI paper before storing them in their sheath for an extended period of time or spray some Boeshield T-9 with a coat of Ren Wax if using water to form a sheath. Just remember to thoroughly clean your blade before use if you're using T-9
 
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I let my carbon steel, user knives tarnish or rust if they want to. I clean them after use, let them dry and store them in the sheath. I don't see the point in trying to keep a knife looking new if it gets used.
 
Patina (tarnish) is one thing, I find it quite desirable but rust has no place on any of my knives. Every time you have to clean off surface rust you run the risk of pitting and its quite a waste of time to spend an hour fixing what only takes minutes to prevent. Just my .02
 
Overnight seems a little fast for causing rust which leads me to wonder if you used a chrome or oil tanned leather for the sheath. Only vegetable tanned leather is safe for making sheaths with. The other tanning agents will promote oxidation (rust). If that sheath is not vegetable tanned, throw it away and make another out of proper leather.

Doug
 
Overnight seems a little fast for causing rust which leads me to wonder if you used a chrome or oil tanned leather for the sheath. Only vegetable tanned leather is safe for making sheaths with. The other tanning agents will promote oxidation (rust). If that sheath is not vegetable tanned, throw it away and make another out of proper leather.

Doug

The leather is veggie tanned or so I was told at Tandy leather. Would putting Neat's' foot oil on the seath cause this problem also? Or is it safe to use neat's foot to waterproof the leather. Thanks for all the replys!
 
Ok, it looks like the wrong leather is not the problem and I don't think that Neats Foot oil is the culprit either. I'd just clean the blade up and not store it in the sheath becuase the leather can absorb moisture and rust the blade.

Doug
 
A Sheath maker that I use to use for all of my sheaths and can't find anywhere, Anymore would wrap the knives in a Saran wrap Type plastic when he would be making a sheath for one of my knives in the overnight forming stage that I think you are referring too??
Mine are almost all Stainless Steel but I saw him use that technique on Damascus and S. Steel both.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com/
 
A Sheath maker that I use to use for all of my sheaths and can't find anywhere, Anymore would wrap the knives in a Saran wrap Type plastic when he would be making a sheath for one of my knives in the overnight forming stage that I think you are referring too??
Mine are almost all Stainless Steel but I saw him use that technique on Damascus and S. Steel both.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com/
I did use Saran wrap. But I read where you only need to keep the knife in the sheath for a couple of hours, before the sheath is formed. I did a stupid thing and unwrapped the knife, put it back in the sheath and got distracted.:s12138: I guess old age is catching up with me!
 
I was about to suggest wax and Eric beat me too it. I have done this too with a old fish cleaning knife, (probably the first knife I ever made)! I made the sheath from an old work boot upper. I had a problem with it wanting to rust. Two things stopped the problem, the first being. Let the knife dry for at least 24-48 hrs. before returning it too the sheath as it had a wooden handle made from walnut. The second I heated beeswax in a small can, almost too the point of the wax boiling and poured was into the sheath and back out. As well as coating the outside. I then let it cool with the knife wrapped in saran wrap or tin foil insert the knife into the sheath. Then with a heat gun or hair dryer, warm it back up, and rub any of the excess off with a cloth. In effect you have waxed the sheath inside and out. The first application of the hot wax tends to coat the sheath and the subsequent warm up and rub down help to pull the wax into the leather and remove any excess.
The two things always stopped that knife from rusting till I let one of my daughters boyfriends use it and he cleaned fish and shoved back into the sheath wet. I found it about three months later. Needless to say I was not a happy camper.
A side note their are two different types of neatsfoot oil one that's pure and animal-based, and one that's petroleum-based. "Only use the pure Neatsfoot oil, the animal-based product". "Petroleum-based products are not kind to leather. They'll rot linen stitching." Plus they tend to trap moisture that causes the rust!

I knew about the two types of neatsfoot oil but I wanted to pull up a reference so Here is the article that I pulled that quote from.
http://www.horses-and-horse-information.com/articles/0397tack.shtml
 
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A Sheath maker that I use to use for all of my sheaths and can't find anywhere, Anymore would wrap the knives in a Saran wrap Type plastic when he would be making a sheath for one of my knives in the overnight forming stage that I think you are referring too??
Mine are almost all Stainless Steel but I saw him use that technique on Damascus and S. Steel both.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com/
I did use Saran wrap. But I read where you only need to keep the knife in the sheath for a couple of hours, before the sheath is formed. I did a stupid thing and unwrapped the knife, put it back in the sheath and got distracted.:s12138: I guess old age is catching up with me!
 
in a sheath that I had just made and formed to the knife. This morning I pulled the knife out and noticed that it had rust on the blade

I assume the leather was still holding moisture from being wet-formed... You need to let it dry out for a few days before you put the knife in unprotected!

My usual process is to coat the blade with oil, wrap it in plastic wrap and tape that up, then wet-form the leather to the knife... a few hours later I remove the knife, take off the plastic wrap and clean and oil the knife again. I let the sheath dry for 24 hours then dye it, and let it dry again for a few hours.... The sheath needs time to dry, or it will rust the knife even if it is stainless... Once the sheath is dry, oiled, and waxed, it is good to go, and should no longer cause the blade to rust.
 
The sheath may take a few days to dry out after wet forming, depending on the relative humidity. To wet form, I usually give the knife a coat of oil, then wrap it tightly with saran wrap to protect it from the wet leather, and remove it periodically while the sheath is drying to be sure there is no rust forming, and to wipe the excess moisture off it. Once the leather has stiffened enough to hold its shape I remove the blade for longer periods of time to allow some air exposure to the inside. The leather will shrink somewhat during this stage if you take the blade out and leave it out. Usually when you pull the blade out at this point, it will have little specks of moisture on it, which I believe is what caused your blade to rust. This can go on for a few days.
Neatsfoot oil will help waterproof the leather and should not cause rust on the blade, but you have to wait until the leather is dry after wet forming before applying the oil, otherwise as you apply it to the outside of the sheath it will literally push the moisture through the leather and cause it to sweat out the other side. The oil will darken the leather and soften it somewhat.
 
You can use oils and waxes (like shoe polish or car wax) to waterproof the sheath, but don't forget to coat the inside of the sheath as well as the outside. This insures that there is good penetration of the oil, and therefore, less room for moisture to be absorbed. Another thing I like to do is drill a hole in the back of the sheath, something small and near the point, so air can enter the sheath more readily. The more air circulation there is inside the leather sandwich, the less moisture you'll have to worry about.
 
I would use eezox.......I used to use wax but trying to pick all the wax out of the grooves and crannies after its hardened is a PITA... Eezox dries, not like most oils etc. Go look at the saltwater tests on their website. I've used it for awhile now and it works well.... Larry
 
I've seen high carbon blades and other steels rust in minutes under the right conditions.

Doesn't have to take long at all.
 
Before I recently opened my Cutlery Store Knife shop here in town,
I worked out of the Garage in the alley of my apartment for over 15 years.
I could literally watch the blade I was working on rust before my eyes!
I was in a alley two blocks from the Bluff and then the Ocean! When the storm winds would blow you could feel that deep salt air coming in off the Pacific Ocean. I started with 1095 & O1 steels and these would have red rust on them after a few grind and dunks!

I watched a TV Special about the Japanese Living Sword Masters and noticed that they would use water buckets that looked like horse water troughs to quench the swords and they were filled with what looked like automotive radiator fluid! So it was off to the auto parts place to get some fluid and I did have a reduction in rate of rust by using it as a quench water bucket liquid instead of just soapy water.

I still ended up using Hi Carbon Stainless Steel because I make culinary knives Mostly and these people around here get a bit picky if they start finding red rust spots on their Rhino Custom Knives! :(

I love the CPM Stainless and Tool steels. That tight grained homogeneous mix of steels that they get are excellent! and have extremely good corrosion resistance.

I still use the Antifreeze with a tad of soap for my dunk tank while grinding!

Laurence

wwwwestsidesharpening.com/
 
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