Knife Care

Contents

        A Few Don'ts
        Preservation and Maintenence
                Blade
                Wood Handle Materials
                Antler and Bone Handle Materials
                Leather Sheaths
        Sharpening
                How Finely Polished Should the Edge Be?
                Convex Edge(s)
                Flat Edge(s)

The information included here applies to most of the knives we make.  Please don't take this to be "talking down" to you if all of it seems obvious.  Not all of it is obvious to everyone and some of it is specific to knives we make.

We make knives that are intended to be used hard for a long time.  We fully expect that many of them, when properly maintained, will be used by more than one generation of people.  The handle finishes we use (unless the customer requires something else) are intended to be maintainable by the customer with minimal effort.  The blades only need the amount of preservation accorded any other non-stainless-steel tool and are field-sharpenable by anyone with a steady hand, a bit of knife-sharpening experience, a piece of silicon-carbide sandpaper and/or a good stone or three. 

A Few Don'ts

1. Never subject any part of the knife blade to temperatures in excess of 300 degrees Fahrenheit.  You could destroy the result of the careful heat treatment we applied to the blade.  If you need to tactically "sterilize" a blade, use alcohol or a bacteriacidal soap or immerse the blade in boiling water for a few minutes.  None will actually sterilize the blade but it's the best you can do unless your need for sterilization is greater than your need for a working knife afterwards.

2. Don't subject the handle materials to any temperature too hot for your bare hands (this includes exposing the blade to high temperatures for long enough to heat up the tang).  You could damage the handle materials or their bond to the tang.

3. Never put the knife in a dishwasher.  The chemicals and abrasives used in dishwasher detergent were not intended for cleaning good tools or furniture.  Would you put your end table, hunting rifle, or woodworking chisels in the dishwasher?  I thought not.  Don't put your knife in there either!

4. Never attempt to sharpen the knife with any type of grinder or sander.  If you do you're very likely to accomplish only two things: obtain mediocre sharpness on an edge with ruined geometry and soften the blade by excessive heating.

Preservation and Maintenence

Maintenence can be easy or hard.  You make the decision.  We'd like to tell our customers to treat one of our knives just like they were taught to maintain their M1, M14 or 1911A1.  Sadly, fewer and fewer people have a clue what that statement means in an age when few were ever in the Armed Services and of those even fewer had a service rifle or pistol that wasn't mostly plastic and aluminum.

In short, clean it and then apply a preservative.  If you use water for cleaning, hotter is better because the warmed steel will dry faster.  If you use a strong degreaser like Gun Scrubber or trichloroethylene on it, try not to get the stuff on the handle materials because they'll remove the finish.  After cleaning and throughly drying the knife apply a light coat of preservative oil or grease or one of the new VPCI-based preservatives to the metal.  Apply a coat of tung oil (if necessary) on wood that was finished using it, and a coat of good quality paste wax on antler or bone to keep the moisture out of them.  More recommendations on preservative oils, greases and waxes can be found below.  A little bit of time spent on maintenence can save a bunch of time trying to undo the effects of not spending that little bit of time.  If you use good quality preservatives you won't need to do it too often

Blade

All of the knives we make require the use of some kind of preservative to prevent corrosion.  The dryer the climate, the less important this is.  In a humid climate, the knife should not be stored for long periods of time in a leather sheath because leather tends to accumulate moisture.  If you only use the knife during hunting season, keep it stored between seasons in a plastic blade protector.  If you live in a really humid climate, don't leave the knife in the sheath longer than overnight and apply a light coat of a good preservative oil after each day's use.  Whatever the climate, never leave the knife in a wet sheath without thoroughly oiling the blade.

For field knives we suggest the use of a good quality gun oil or grease.  We use Kleen-Bore TW25B which is available as either an oil or grease. We've found that the grease appears to hang onto the steel a bit more tenaciously and you don't need much of either of them.  We've heard some very good things about BullFrog Rust Blocker and BullFrog Rust High Shine Paste Wax but haven't had the opportunity to use either of them yet.  You can use whatever you like so long as it keeps out moisture and stays on the steel well in the kind of weather conditions to which the knife will be subjected.  Some people use motor oil.  We recommend that you avoid it.  It smells bad, has chemicals in it that an internal combustion engine needs but your knife doesn't, and it is definitely not good for the knife's sheath or handle materials.  One of the good things about the preservative oils used on firearms is that they are intended to be used on metal that is closely associated with stuff like wood.

Knives used only for food preparation that are not subjected to soaking rain or snow for days on end can be adequately protected with a light coating of vegetable oil (note that olive oil is, apparently, a mild anti-coagulant and might not be the best choice) after washing with hot (the hotter, the better) soapy water and thoroughly drying them.  Whatever you do, don't put the knife in the dishwasher (see A Few Don'ts.)

Wood Handle Materials

Most of the wood we use gets treated with tung oil, steel-wooled to cut off the raised grain, and then coated with tung oil until it develops a nice sheen (usually 6-8 coats).  All that's needed to keep the wood preserved and to restore the finish is an occasional coat of tung oil (Minwax Tung Oil Wood Finish, which has a little lacquer and dryer in it, works just fine).  Wipe it on with a clean, dry, lint-free cloth, let it soak in and begin to dry (4-5 minutes in a low-humidity environment), and then wipe off the excess with another clean, dry, lint-free cloth.  It's ok to use the knife right away but the finish will be shinier and harder if you let it dry overnight and buff it with yet another clean dry lint-free cloth before use.  In a low humidity environment 24 hours is generally adequate but in humid environment 48 or even 72 hours might be needed.  Minwax Tung Oil wood finish has lacquer and a drying agent in it.  It dries much faster than plain tung oil.  You can add a teaspoon or two of japan dryer (your local paint store will have it) to plain tung oil to cause it to dry faster.  We use the Minwax product because it produces a somewhat harder finish.

If you get scratches in the finish and you want to get rid of them, all you need to do is rub them out (the whole surface, not just the scratches or you'll make divots) with some OOOO steel wool prior to applying another coat or three of tung oil.  Note that it's ok to leave the tung oil on the tang and other metallic parts of the handle but over time (many years usually) the tung oil on the metal will develop a yellowish cast and it's not as good at protecting the metal as a good preservative oil, grease or wax so you should not apply it to the blade of the knife.  Tung oil finishes will inevitably get darker over time due to oxidation of the oil

Handles on knives used solely for food preparation can be treated with walnut oil which is available from health food stores.  This doesn't provide the level of protection to the wood that tung oil provides.  If you apply tung oil to a kitchen knife's handle, be sure to let the tung oil dry thoroughly before using the knife because your really don't want it in your food

Some people like to soak kitchen knives in hot soapy water.  If this is your preference a natural handle material is probably not the best choice.  Micarta® or some other material that is inherently impervious to moisture works better in this case.  We think natural materials feel and look better and, in any event, there is really no good reason to soak a knife in hot water.

Antler and Bone Handle Materials

Don't put tung oil on antler or bone.  These should be treated periodically with a good quality furniture wax.  Johnson's Paste Wax works ok but a better choice is a carnauba-based formulation or plain carnauba wax.  A good source for really good quality furniture wax is a woodworker's store.

Leather Sheaths

All of our sheaths are treated with Montana Pitch-Blend paste.  After extended use in wet weather the sheath will need additional preservation.  We suggest that you use the same product we use, applied by the directions on the package (i.e. smear it on and melt it in with a hair-dryer but don't overheat the sheath; only apply enough heat to melt the paste).  If your sheath has metal fittings on it, don't worry about the paste getting on/in/under them.  The beeswax in it will help preserve the fittings and is typically all that is needed for them.

Please don't use leather preservation products that contain silicones. They are fine for leather products that aren't expected to last for many years and do a good job of waterproofing but will eventually cause the leather to crack.

Sharpening

Everyone has a favorite way to do this.  It isn't our aim to tell you how you must sharpen a knife we made for you.  However, one of the things you won't be able to use in sharpening a knife we made is a butcher's steel.  Some professional knife-sharpeners say that the butcher's steel is a honing tool used to straighten/refine the edge.  That may be true in the purist sense but the fact is that a butcher's steel is a file, albeit one with full-length longitudinal teeth, and works by removing small amounts of metal from the edge of relatively soft blades.  A butcher's steel is, at best, useless on the knives we make.  Whatever you do, do not attempt to sharpen your knife using any kind of grinder or sander (see A Few Don'ts.)

Our entire field sharpening kit consists of one smalll piece of 400 or 600 grit silicon-carbide wet-or-dry sandpaper and the jeans we're wearing.  It works well, perhaps better than you might think.  The fact is that it doesn't get used much.

How Finely Polished Should the Edge Be?

The actual question should be "What are you going to cut with the knife?"

A highly polished, thin edge "shears" well but is not so good at making relatively deep cuts where you use a "slicing" technique.  A coarser edge works better at slicing; the edge is more like a micro-saw because of the tiny grooves left by a (relatively) coarse stone or stropping abrasive.  There are trade-offs to be made here and you can save yourself a bunch of time and still have a knife that cuts extremely well by not stoning or polishing too finely.  The knife won't feel as sharp but will make slicing cuts very well with with less effort if it has a relatively coarse edge; no finer than 80-180 grit.  If you want it to "shave" well you'll want to go to 600 grit or finer. 

Convex Edge(s)

Don't use a sharpening stone on convex edges that you want to keep convex.  Doing that would result in grinding off the convexity of the edge and producing a flat edge. 

You need a strop to maintain a convex edge.  Some folks (mistakenly) think that stroping a blade is only done to polish the edge.  The fact of the matter is that a strop works by virtue of some abrasive compound being on the surface of the strop.  All of them, whether a polishing or more aggressive abrasive, remove some metal.  How much depends on how aggressive the abrasive is and how many times you pass the blade over the strop.

There are a number of types of strops that can be used.  Which you use depends on your preferences and needs.  The types range from "shop" type strops with leather over a hard backing material like a board to canvas-backed leather straps and field strops that might be purpose-made, a piece of fiber/cardboard, or your jeans with you in them.  In any event a strop used with a honing compound that doesn't remove much metal can be used to maintain a finely polished edge.  For a better slicing edge you should use a coarser compound.  You'll definitely need an actual abrasive compound to sharpen the edge and serious abrasives like silicon-carbide paper in various grits used over the strop to re-establish a damaged edge.

You can make your own shop-type strop by attaching a piece of relatively hard leather to both sides of a flat block of wood or a piece of Micarta® (used for circuit boards) at least 1/2 inch thick.  A 1-inch thick piece of plywood, or two thinner (1/2 or 3/4 inch) pieces glued together, works well for this.  It's important that the hard backing material (plywood or whatever) be flat.  Use two pieces (one for each side) of 10-14 ounce leather the same size as the block of wood.  The thickness of the leather needs to be fairly uniform and the leather needs to be firm but not too hard; 10-14 oz. cowhide works.  Soft-rolled horse-butt (9-10 oz.) also works.  Shoe-sole leather is a little on the hard side although it can be used on flat edges.  Glue all of the pieces together using contact cement.

Keep your strop clean.  The only thing that goes on it is the abrasive or polishing compound you're using.  Don't ever use a different one on a given side of the strop.  When you're using it put a clean paper towel or piece of cloth under it to keep the reverse side of it from picking up stuff from whatever you place it on.  Store it in a large freezer bag or something else that will keep dust, dirt and other crud off of it.

You can buy honing and abrasive pastes, make your own or just use powdered abrasives.  Good abrasives for this purpose need to cut fairly fast.  Stay away from red jeweler's rouge (iron oxide) and tripoli (pumice, works on wood and precious metals but is way too slow for hardened steel).  They are both intended for polishing precious metals and brass.  Good choices are green chromium oxide, white or grey aluminum oxide, stainless-steel polish (Zam, Fabuluster, Dico and others).  You can find these powdered abrasives in lapidary, hardware or carvers' supply stores and catalogs.

Apply the abrasive (or abrasive paste) to the strop by rubbing it into the surface of the strop with your fingers.  Wash your hands prior to using the strop so that you won't get the stuff all over your knife.

The strop works by the abrasive, applied to the strop, polishing/abrading the edge of the knife.  The leather surface of the strop conforms to the very slight convex cross-section of the edge working the entire convex portion of the edge as it is held at the proper angle and drawn backward over the strop. 

Prior to stropping the edge you must ensure that the blade is clean.  Any foreign matter on the blade will get embedded in the strop and ruin it (or at least the results you achieve with it).

Here is a diagram showing the correct relationship of the blade to the strop while sharpening.  The geometry of the blade and the angle between the blade and the strop are grossly exaggerated in order to more clearly illustrate the relationship of the blade to the strop.

The arrow shows the direction of travel of the blade over the strop.  Both sides of the edge must be stropped evenly.  After going in one direction you lift the blade off the strop, flip it over, place it back on the strop and go the other way.  The direction of travel of the blade on the strop is always opposite of the direction you would use with a stone.  That is to say, you drag the edge on the strop whereas you push the edge on a stone.

Note that the spine of the blade is elevated above the strop at an angle sufficient for the strop to contact the blade at the back of the convex portion of the bevel.  Be careful to avoid too great an angle between the blade and the strop!  If you raise the back of the blade too high you'll take the edge right off the knife.  Sufficient pressure must be applied to the blade to indent the leather just enough (without applying undue force) that the strop contacts the convex portion of the bevel from the back all the way to the working edge (the total length of this is 1/8-1/4 inch typically) but not so deeply that the edge is pressed below the flat surface of the strop.  Just to reemphasize the issue of the hardness of the material used for the strop's working surface: it must be firm but still have enough "give" to it to do this without tending to flatten the edge.  A few pounds of pressure (1-3 depending on the width of the convex part of the bevel) is all that is needed.  If the spine of the blade is correctly elevated a small bead of the stropping paste will accumulate just above the beginning of the convex portion of the bevel with the working edge in contact with the strop.

If you over-elevate the spine of the blade you'll shorten the convex portion of the bevel by polishing the edge away.  If you under-elevate the spine you won't polish all the way to the edge or you'll lengthen the convex portion of the bevel depending on the amount of pressure applied.  The trick is to set the angle such that the center of the convex part of the bevel is in contact with the strop with no pressure at all.  It takes careful attention to what you're doing to get this right but it really isn't any more difficult that sharpening a blade on a stone.

Flat Edge(s)

When shipped to you the knife will probably have been sharpened with an Edge Pro sharpening tool.  In any event, unless you requested otherwise the knife will be very sharp.  If you touch the edge up periodically with a 600-grit stone you'll never have to work much at it.  You can duplicate this edge with nothing but a steady hand, sharpening experience, and a good set of stones.  We confess that we use an Edge-Pro instead of just your basic set of stones because it works faster and more consistently for us and we probably put edges on more knives from scratch than you do.  It's not quite the same as touching up the edge on your knife occasionally

If you aren't all that good at knife sharpening we recommend you consider using an Edge Pro or one of the less expensive clamp type tools.  The simple clamp type tools like the ones made by Lansky are less expensive than the Edge Pro and work well enough to achieve a good edge if used carefully.  I used one for years before I got an Edge Pro.  You can find the clamp type tools all over the web at various prices by a simple Google search.