How do I get over my crippling fear of corrosion?

[Ramonade]

I'd say buy a carbon Opinel, treat it like a stainless and see what happens.
They are way less corrosion resistant than Cru-Wear, and it'll show you the extremes of rust prone steels and how to take care of it.
All of this for like 10 bucks ^^

[vivi]

Ceramic?
DLC?
Magna Cut?
LC200N?
H1?
H2?
Vanax?
Dendritic cobalt?

Yeah I don't really get the appeal with having to do all this maintenance for a little extra edge holding, when there's a wealth of rust proof options. to each their own I guess. for me rust proof > longer edge holding. less time maintaining, more time using.

Opinels are **** to open after they corrode around the pivot and the handles swell with moisture.

[VooDooChild]

Ceramic?
DLC?
Magna Cut?
LC200N?
H1?
H2?
Vanax?
Dendritic cobalt?

Stellite
Talonite
Nitinol
Titanium
Any non-corrosive metal really
Any synthetic material (plastic/ carbon fiber)
Glass
Rocks
Wood
Bone

Maybe someone will do a lab grown chitin or keratin blade.

[SG89]

Maybe someone will do a lab grown keratin blade.

Ewww like a lab grown fingernail?
Lol

[VooDooChild]

Maybe someone will do a lab grown keratin blade.

Ewww like a lab grown fingernail?
Lol

I mean, if its good enough for a lions claws...

[Wandering_About]

A bit of story time here... when I first started really getting into the knife hobby, I was really into the "bushcraft" community where steels like 1095 and O1 were, and still are, held in an almost ultimate regard. I wasn't anywhere nearly as deep down the steel nerd rabbit hole then, and my most carried knife at the time was this Izula in 1095.



What you are looking at is the knife that gave me a strong distaste for non stainless steels for EDC. I carried it basically daily while doing farm work and state park maintenance for a few years, in all weather including rain and heat that made me sweat buckets.

It wasn't so much the surface rust that bothered me, it was edge corrosion. After working a long, hard, soggy day of say 12-16 hours I'd get home in no mood for knife maintenance and basically go to bed as soon as possible. A few days of that and the edge could be fuzzy with rust or even pitted. Then I'd have to get out stones and redo the edge completely. Not to mention that this soft 1095 didn't hold an edge very well in the first place.

Meanwhile I could one of my stainless Spydercos with maybe a quick rinse once in a while there was never any corrosion to worry about. And pretty much any Spydie I had at that time had better edge holding than soft 1095. So eventually I pretty well gave up on non stainless steels for daily carry. I just don't enjoy having to do daily maintenance to keep a knife edge from corroding away, especially when I'm working stretches of long hours in all kinds of conditions. And when I'm out camping, fishing, or backpacking, the last thing I want to do is carry more stuff to try to maintain a knife when I could just carry something that will do what I need and not corrode.

There are some very interesting tool steels out there worth trying! I still definitely play with them from time to time. And many of the higher alloy tool steels are not as super prone to corrosion as say 1095. CPM CruWear and 3V in particular can have plenty of corrosion resistance to make it through most things, although they will corrode eventually.

This is probably why I carry S110V so much now. Excellent edge holding and corrosion resistance. Keeps me quite happy as one who has gone well down the steel nerd path.

[James Y]

In my pocketknives, I personally prefer good stainless. I had the straight carbon steel Schrade and Camillus pocketknives back in the ‘70s. Once I experienced stainless blades, I switched. But everybody has their preferences, and that’s great. It brings variety.

I’m certain that even if there were some miracle 100% corrosion-proof steel that was super-durable, could take and hold an extremely sharp edge for a very long time, yet be resharpened quickly and easily, there would still be those who would reject it and opt for straight carbon steel blades, and the extra maintenance they require. Many would think that that “miracle steel” was soulless.

Jim

[SG89]

Maybe someone will do a lab grown keratin blade.

Ewww like a lab grown fingernail?
Lol

I mean, if its good enough for a lions claws...

Keratin when thin enough for a blade would probably be pretty chippy…It seems like keratin responds well to work hardening tho and definitely can sharpen easily

[zuludelta]

Some non-stainless tool steels can be relatively resistant to corrosion... one of my friends found an original Benchmade 710 (in D2) on the beach (I live on the West Coast) that had presumably been sitting there for a while. And then she kept it unrestored as a beach souvenir for months. It was only after I saw it visiting her place that I asked if I could clean it up & see if there was a recoverable knife under all the rust. And after a little bit of a reprofile, I had it back in working order without too much trouble (even the infamous omega springs didn't need replacing).

My experience restoring that knife helped change my mindset with regards to non-stainless tool steels in pocket knives I carry at work. While I still generally prefer stainless steels for overall ease of maintenance, I now also use K390 & Maxamet knives in my work knife rotation (where they get regularly exposed to water & ice & frost), and while they have patina'ed in quick order, I haven't seen anything corrosion-related that is of any real concern. And all I do is "common sense" maintenance.

[ChrisinHove]

I'd say buy a carbon Opinel, treat it like a stainless and see what happens.
They are way less corrosion resistant than Cru-Wear, and it'll show you the extremes of rust prone steels and how to take care of it.
All of this for like 10 bucks ^^

This, absolutely. If your reaction to a rusty Opinel is bad, imagine your response to a rusty Spyderco 10, 20 times more costly. As a bonus you also get to explore a true slicey blade geometry!

[JRinFL]

If you really want crippling corrosion fears, look at any bridge in snow regions or at the frame of any 80,000 lbs semi-truck barreling down the highway at 70 miles an hour.

[Tucson Tom]

I have had no problems with K390, M4, Rex45, but of course I live in southern Arizona.

The comments made about our boyhood folders made of 1095 are worthy of being pondered.

I have had the same thoughts about those"old timer" knives when the long discussions about the best and strongest lock types erupt. When I was growing up, nobody had a knife that locked open and nobody thought much about it and we used our knives for all kinds of things.

[bleasure]

Dendritic cobalt?

that's my favorite weapons set in skyrim!

[JayHenMac]

This is an old thread that showed up in a search about pivot corrosion.

I am finding more and more that my fears of corrosion make less and less sense. I mean, sure, if left in a drawer wet with sweat or salt water it might cause some damage. But that never happens. Even if it did, is it something that I actually need to worry about? If the blade begins to show a rust spot, what happens? Does it instantly cause the blade to weaken and fracture? Will it cause the knife to be unusable or unsafe? Keep in mind, I am not talking about pristine safe queens. I'm talking about the knife I have in my pocket 6 days a week. (Gotta keep it classy for Sundy church!!!)

I used an old pair of pliers the other day that have been sitting in the shed in the back yard for years. Right next to them was a screwdriver and a crescent wrench. These are the tools I keep with my chainsaw. All of them unprotected from the temp and humidity swings here in northwest Georgia. All of the tools still work. All of them still going strong complete with their stains and spots of rust here and there. All of them can be cleaned up with a little elbow grease, BKF, and some used motor oil. But that has never happened, and it probably won't anytime soon. I bet when I die, they'll be sitting right there ready for more work.

I realized I unnecessarily worry about my tool steel knives rusting. I should just use and enjoy them. They have less of a chance of corrosion than the shed tools and those things are doing just fine. And even then my pocket knife gets a wipe down every now and again while those old tools haven't seen love in years. I will see red spots if my knife spends the afternoon in my pocket while I do yard work. No worries. Just clean off and move on. I have an Old Timer knife that used to belong to my grandfather. It still gets sharp, and it still cuts. I'm sure it spent hours in his pocket while he worked, fished, hunted, and camped. Why should I be so concerned with my K390? Heck I bet it's practically "stainless" compared to the old 1095 stuff that's still around.

Does this mean I am using it as a surf fishing companion? Nah, there are better tools for that. Just like how I have aluminum fishing pliers for my tackle box.

Just food for thought.

[Wartstein]

This is an old thread that showed up in a search about pivot corrosion.

I am finding more and more that my fears of corrosion make less and less sense. I mean, sure, if left in a drawer wet with sweat or salt water it might cause some damage. But that never happens. Even if it did, is it something that I actually need to worry about? If the blade begins to show a rust spot, what happens? Does it instantly cause the blade to weaken and fracture? Will it cause the knife to be unusable or unsafe? Keep in mind, I am not talking about pristine safe queens. I'm talking about the knife I have in my pocket 6 days a week. (Gotta keep it classy for Sundy church!!!)

I used an old pair of pliers the other day that have been sitting in the shed in the back yard for years. Right next to them was a screwdriver and a crescent wrench. These are the tools I keep with my chainsaw. All of them unprotected from the temp and humidity swings here in northwest Georgia. All of the tools still work. All of them still going strong complete with their stains and spots of rust here and there. All of them can be cleaned up with a little elbow grease, BKF, and some used motor oil. But that has never happened, and it probably won't anytime soon. I bet when I die, they'll be sitting right there ready for more work.

I realized I unnecessarily worry about my tool steel knives rusting. I should just use and enjoy them. They have less of a chance of corrosion than the shed tools and those things are doing just fine. And even then my pocket knife gets a wipe down every now and again while those old tools haven't seen love in years. I will see red spots if my knife spends the afternoon in my pocket while I do yard work. No worries. Just clean off and move on. I have an Old Timer knife that used to belong to my grandfather. It still gets sharp, and it still cuts. I'm sure it spent hours in his pocket while he worked, fished, hunted, and camped. Why should I be so concerned with my K390? Heck I bet it's practically "stainless" compared to the old 1095 stuff that's still around.

Does this mean I am using it as a surf fishing companion? Nah, there are better tools for that. Just like how I have aluminum fishing pliers for my tackle box.

Just food for thought.

Your "food for thought" IS pretty much my thought about this...

- I can and do respect if people for whatever (probably just aesthetic) reasons want a completely pristine looking blade (though I personally find used looking blades, including spots or a bit of rust, a lot more beautiful).

- But functionally speaking I think it is just like you say: It does not matter if a blade shows some spots or patina or darker areas or hints of rust and I. It will not "rust away" because oft this. I have an I think O1 knife, I use it in the kitchen sometimes, and its blade can be literally covered with rust sometimes. I clean that off occasionally, the knife works perfectly well.
So I don´t really understand the obsession of avoiding any little spot on a blade.

- Only area where I could potentially see problems actually is the pivot area you mention, but I never had any problems in that regard with my folders.
(Possible edge degradation through corrosion (so the edge loosing sharpness without actual use), is another thing I sometimes speculate about, but also a different topic)

[VandymanG]

Maybe I’m just weird. I like knife maintenance. For me it’s a calming meditative like time period when I touch up the blade, oil it and the pivot and put it away. I’m guessing a little over 85 percent of my Spyderco knives are too steel. I’d find a tool steel like K390 and embrace the patina. I use frog lube which is food safe and I’m loving the patina my Leafjumper is developing.

[Danke]

Embrace the patina

[8th_Note]

the patina on non-stainless can be beautiful and add a striking visual flair to your blades.