Spyderco Forums

So... maybe someone has answered this before, but bear with me:
after much activity today (short bike ride, then working in garage woodworking) I took out my knife and noticed sweat on the blade. Wiped it off. Later, same thing.

I know VG-10 (it's a delica) has decent corrosion resistance, but what should I do to prevent this from causing rust long term? Or is it not cause for worry?

Don't know why I never noticed this before, I sweat a lot lol, but hoping to forestall rust on my knives. Any advice? Or should I not worry?

Or just save up for a Salt?

Lonerider

If you're not cutting up food, I'd recommend something like wiping the blade with TufGlide to help protect it. Then you just need to do occasional TufGlide wipedowns every once in a while to maintain the coating. VG-10 is fairly rust and corrosion resistant, but I have seen some minor rust issues before. With sweat, it also seems to vary from person to person, depending on how corrosive their particular sweat happens to be.

Thanks!

Car wax works well too!

I use Tuf Glide on my carbon blades. I never use anything on VG-10, and have never had an issue with it.

The last blade I EDC'd in sweaty situation that was in that general class of steel was a Gin-1 Snap-It, which I used to carry clipped inside my waistband (yes, I know that sounds crazy--I was in a place that wasn't totally blade friendly) in a very humid climate and I never had any issues with rust.

I don't even worry about it, I never really see any rust on most of mine, one time a few specks on a SB, just used some Flitz and came right off. I've heard of some using Chap stick too or mineral oil if using for food.

Many options, but for those tasks a Salt would be great. The Pac Salt is a beast. No maintenance or oiling, no concerns, will take anything you throw at it. Consider it. The Pac Salt is also so thin and lightweight you barely notice it is there. I IWB Carry mine at 3', and you barely notice it. It actually hides better then my delica or DG2 at the 3' position. Length is no concern there, and it is thin, but its tough enough to take a beating

If you leave it unchecked and never clean the blade it may be a problem. I've had spot rust on S90V but never any pitting. I've had pitting on M4 and 52100 but it's not the end of the world.

Wiping down the blade like you are doing will help, or one of the products mentioned by others will help also. Keep this in mind however, one issue you might not notice is that rust will form in places you don't see, like around the pivot, so check those places out from time to time or maybe move to a more rust resistant knife for times you are active or seasons you sweat more. For example I often carry a SALT knife in the winter, not because I sweat more, but because I am around a lot of rock salt since it snows...

i never oil my vg10 delica. i just make sure to wash it with fresh water and wipe the blade dry after cutting food or packaging and it has never developed rust. of course i never carry it while i'm running or any physical activity which involves sweat. the only time it developed pitting was when my wife borrowed it to cut lemons one night when she had tequila with her friends. salt was accidentally sprinkled on the open blade and was left uncleaned overnight. i just rubbed it with a scouring pad and some dishwashing soap and its like new again

lonerider1013 wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 02, 2018 3:04 pm

So... maybe someone has answered this before, but bear with me:
after much activity today (short bike ride, then working in garage woodworking) I took out my knife and noticed sweat on the blade. Wiped it off. Later, same thing.

I know VG-10 (it's a delica) has decent corrosion resistance, but what should I do to prevent this from causing rust long term? Or is it not cause for worry?

Don't know why I never noticed this before, I sweat a lot lol, but hoping to forestall rust on my knives. Any advice? Or should I not worry?

Or just save up for a Salt?

Lonerider

Sweat can easily rust a folder. VG10 and S30V can rust within a day with my sweat.

You may think you're set after wiping the blade, but it gets everywhere. Between liners and G10, in the pivot, in the locking mechanism etc. I've had knives that rusted so bad you could smell it when I pulled it out of my pocket, but there was none visible on the blade. Completely different story when I took it apart. The liners had more rusted spots than shiny areas! :eek:

If you plan to frequently carry a Spyderco while sweaty, you can't beat the salts. One of many reasons the Pacific Salt is my favorite. It's joined me on a few cross country bike trips in fact!

I have jogged thousands of miles with folders clipped IWB and have had minimal rusting with stainless steels. I have slacked off on my running since my son was born but used to run about 40 miles a week and used to bike 14 miles each way to work. Body chemistry seems to come into play. I have personally never had an issue with VG10. I have had S30V rust after a lot of sweat exposure but it was minimal and wiped off. I have actually had S30V rust more than any other stainless steel. Others however have had different experiences. I seem to have far less corrosive sweat than most. We are all different. I am terrible about maintenance. I apply no rust preventatives and never really wipe them down. I put a couple of drop of oil in my pivots and that’s it.

I have actually jogged a ton with my Cruwear Military and my Super Blue Delica (with a pitch black patina) and not had any issues. They just happen to be two of the most carried knives I own.

I would say just wait and see. It never hurts to be cautious though. You won’t know how your sweat reacts until you test it.

Nothing rusts when cared for. If you get salt on your knife just wash it off. That Delica can just be washed off like your tableware by hand if needed ( no dishwasher). I have run mine through the washer and dryer in pants pockets many times with no damage. If you just run water over the knife if it is full of sweat and dry it off it should be fine. I prefer to clean the blades of sweat rather than just wiping it off but I'm pretty sure an oily rag will do a good enough job provided you are a human here on earth anyways. :) If I do something like run it through the washing machine I just re oil the pivot afterward. The takeaway is these things are pretty durable and don't really need anything unusual for care.

Joe

The Mastiff wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 02, 2018 10:27 pm

Nothing rusts when cared for. If you get salt on your knife just wash it off. That Delica can just be washed off like your tableware by hand if needed ( no dishwasher). I have run mine through the washer and dryer in pants pockets many times with no damage. If you just run water over the knife if it is full of sweat and dry it off it should be fine. I prefer to clean the blades of sweat rather than just wiping it off but I'm pretty sure an oily rag will do a good enough job provided you are a human here on earth anyways. :) If I do something like run it through the washing machine I just re oil the pivot afterward. The takeaway is these things are pretty durable and don't really need anything unusual for care.

Joe

I used to do 14 hour landscaping shifts. It'd be 90-105F and humid. Can't help but sweat in those conditions. I could oil my blade, but that wears off after using the knife. Sweat would seep into every nook and cranny. Liners would rust before the day was over. Things can rust even when cared for.

Blades are pretty easy to wipe down....liners, pivot pins, etc. are not. I've tried leaving a film on the liners of my Police 3 and they still get rusty after it wears off. Blade does fine, it's never rusted, but every pivot pin on my Millies and Para has, most my liners do, etc. My DLC Para 2 had a flawless blade, but the liners and pivot pin were 100% rusted over despite frequent rinses.

Those surfaces usually have much less polish than the finish of the blade. Polishing them by hand can help, but why spend my time oiling hardware and polishing liners when Salts exist?

It strikes me as pretty pretentious to imply anyone that has corrosion issues with a material you don't can't exercise basic knife maintenance. We all use our tools in different ways in unique environments. I will never understand the complete dismissal various members here have for those of us that place a higher priority on corrosion resistance.

I'd never tell someone that prefers the edge holding of S110V over PE H1 that with proper maintenance any steel can stay sharp throughout a days work. Some people cut more stuff than I do, and don't want to stop to sharpen their knife. Just like I expose knives to more corrosive environments than most, but don't want to stop to rinse it out every half hour and sand it out weekly. For some reason everyone here is ok with wanting more edge holding, but multiple forumites are eager to dismiss the idea of rust proof knives, since they don't personally need them.

/rant

My sweat is not corrosive so I cannot relate to the problem. I have seen people touch a nicely blued firearm with bare hands and there were rust spots within the hour! Unbelievable. On knives that I am fearful of corrosion I use Vaseline Petroleum Jelly. It not only has mineral oil, it has paraffin wax. It is food safe, and that is a big deal. You do not need a lot. I wipe the blade and etc. with it and then wipe off all of the excess until it looks like none or little remains. It is still there, nonetheless. I do not have corrosion issues.

It strikes me as pretty pretentious to imply anyone that has corrosion issues with a material you don't can't exercise basic knife maintenance. We all use our tools in different ways in unique environments. I will never understand the complete dismissal various members here have for those of us that place a higher priority on corrosion resistance.

I know about sweating salt. My hats would dry with caked salt when working the yard on hot days in July and August. I used to work my share of construction jobs too.I built bridges for a while. I worked the railroad on a steel gang in the high desert and prairie where we had to take salt pills every two hours minimum. I was more often than not having old Imperial slip joints in carbon steel that rusted in less than an hour if allowed.

Me recommending that maintenance can be as simple as rinsing a knife off now and then should not be taken to mean anything personal or insulting. It just means I think of corrosion as a simple thing to stop or remediate. Knives are not delicate electronic devices and wont explode if washed off with a toothbrush under running water or dunked in oil, or etc.,etc. There are as many ways to do it right as there are personalities on this website.

I never try to tell someone what is important in their knife/tool/TV/food/Wife preference or selection. That just isn't me.

Joe

I carried a se dragonfly on my dog chain around my neck for years. I even showered with it on. Only after a few years did I notice the smallest amount of rust where the Lockbar met the tang. This was only on the surface and easily removed. I did rinse and dry the knife whenever I had the opportunity. This knife still serves me today. This is my experience ymmv.

Thanks all. I not only wipe off the blades I also rub out the inside of the handles, where the liners are.
To be fair I haven't had rust YET but my concern was to prevent it.

One of the things I liked about the para3 that played a part in my choice to buy it was the s30v. I know benchmade uses it on their hunt series knives for corrosion resistance, me theory was, if it won't rust from deer blood if taken care of it should be okay for edc if the same. Alarming then to hear it does sometimes rust. But less alarming to know if it does it can be cleaned off...

I will probably consider a SALT in the future (if I can find a smallish plain edge that won't break the bank). That said, want to take care of what I already got. I would be very upset if my para3 or delica rusted beyond repair!

Lonerider

I don’t want to imply that S30V is rust prone. I am just really neglectful at times. I carry IWB a lot which subjects it to a lot of sweat and I am pretty good at putting knives back into storage still dirty, sometimes from food prep and sometimes from yard work. Different plant goos can be pretty corrosive. It is certainly still an easy steel to maintain. Rusting beyond repair would require either salt water or some extreme neglect.

My para 3 in s30v with dlc got light rust spots after cutting up a Costco all beef hotdogs and only being wiped with a paper towel. It was then carried off and on before noticing the rust. So even dlc s30v can rust if not cared for.
I'll admit I'm downright neglectful at times so for me knives in the salt series are looking ever more great and I'm debating getting rid of my m4, 52100, and k390.