New knife, need help

[mike]

I recently purchased an ESEE 5 for work, and I also bought the tuff cloth kit to go along with it. night before last, before work, I applied a heavy coating to the blade and let it sit on it’s box until it dried. I went to work the next day and put it to normal everyday pocket knife use. this includes cutting boxes, cutting open cryovac meat, and plastic cable ties. Before my lunch break I rinsed off the knife in our sink, dried it with a clean dry towel, stuck it in the sheath, and headed toi lunch. After I came back from lunch, one of my co-workers wanted to check out my new knife, so I showed it off to him. When I pulled the knife out of my sheath I noticed tiny rust spots all along the edge and shoulders of the blade! Surely these knifes don’t rust this easily? I was very dissapointed upon this discovery because I was using it to open packages of raw meat. Help me out here, does 1095 have to be babied that much? Did the coating come off from cutting cardboard?

**I should also mention the knife was pretty dull to begin with. It wouldn’t cut copy paper**

[Jeremy Liskey]

What did you use for coating? Mineral oil is good for knives used in food prep. 1095 has quite a bit of carbon that would explain why it gathered rust so fast. Especially if it was in a sheath.

[Geocyclist]

Any coating, oil, tuff cloth, etc. will come off with cutting cardboard. 1095 does rust that easily.

You can put a patina on it. Raw meat, red wine, mustard etc. This would give protect to washing then drying it off. If you leave it wet it will rust even with a patina.

The rust will come right off with sharpening. So don’t worry about that.

[mike]

I used a tuff cloth with tuff glide rubbed into it .

im not sure if putting a patina will help in this situation. I need for the knife to be completely food safe so that if it comes into contact with food, i won’t give customers tetanus or anything.

[Jeremy Liskey]

The patina mentioned by geocyclist is a “natural” patina. Think about the older knives you see butchers use. It will create a natural barrier to the blade. It’s safe. Give it a try.

[Mark76]

I’m surprised the Tuff stuff doesn’t work well. I use it on my outdoor knives and I’m quite happy with it. Are you sure you covered your blade completely? I am not sure Tuff is food safe: no problem with bacteria, but I don’t know whether it isn’t toxic.

If you’re sure you applied the Tuff well and it didn’t work, a patina, like Geo suggested, is a good idea. This is completely food safe. Just make sure you regularly clean your blade so the bacteria get no chance. (Tetanus is a bacterial disease.)

@Geo: out of interest: have you ever used red wine to force a patina? I’ve never heard of anybody doing that. (Or did you mean red wine vingegar?) What color patina does it result in?

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[mike]

I wiped down the whole blade with the new cloth and let it sit on my bed side table overnight

[Geocyclist]

I used red wine (not vinegar). I t was OK. Average color, average looks. Cooked beef is good. It leaves a slightly blue tint, if you like that. The pattern is a little strange. At least with wine the pattern is uniform.

[jumpstat]

mike wrote:

I used a tuff cloth with tuff glide rubbed into it . im not sure if putting a patina will help in this situation. I need for the knife to be completely food safe so that if it comes into contact with food, i won’t give customers tetanus or anything.

Hi there. I do not have an Esee 5 but I do have an Esee 6. I too had a shock earlier days when I bought this knife. It gets rusty very, very easy. Fortunately the black coating does hold up very well and can withstand quite a beating. As steel material goes, its got to be the carbon steel, 1095 that make it easily rust. I have tried to use it for food prep when we went camping but unfortunately carbon steel do leave a kinda taste in the meat, which I received from complaints from my children. So on the next day, I used a different knife, a S30V strider and the complaint stops.

One thing thing good though is that 1095 does sharpens easily. When in storage, I just coat a layer of olive oil.

[Mark76]

A natural patina (from acids, blood, etc.) is completely food safe. So is mineral oil. And so are vegetable oils, but these get rancid and leave a sticky finish on your blades. Tuff and most other chemicals are not food safe.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Author]

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