Rust Issues

[Dan Clement]

I have had the Wicked Edge Pro for about two weeks and have sharpened about ten knives. After each sharpening, I use canned air to blow the diamond stones, then wash them with water, soap, scrub with an old electric toothbrush really well, blot them with a towel and air dry. I am having rust issues on all of my diamond stones. Not sure what to do or what I am doing wrong. Please help.

[wickededge]

I have had the Wicked Edge Pro for about two weeks and have sharpened about ten knives. After each sharpening, I use canned air to blow the diamond stones, then wash them with water, soap, scrub with an old electric toothbrush really well, blot them with a towel and air dry. I am having rust issues on all of my diamond stones. Not sure what to do or what I am doing wrong. Please help.

Hi Dan, yours is an interesting case, haven’t really heard much about rusting before and it sounds like you’re caring for your stones well. Do you live in a really humid environment or store you stones in a humid location?

-Clay

[Dan Clement]

I live in the San Diego CA area, so no humidity to speak of. I am about eight miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. I store the stones after they throughly dry, in a plastic case.

[wickededge]

Darn, I was hoping for an easy answer! Can you put up some photos?

I live in the San Diego CA area, so no humidity to speak of. I am about eight miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. I store the stones after they throughly dry, in a plastic case.

-Clay

[cbwx34]

My suggestion would be not to store them in a plastic case. I would think these stones have a lot of nooks and crannies,,,, and probably aren’t as dry as you think…. and any moisture is now trapped. As a test, you could follow your procedure, box them up, stick them in the sunlight, and see if any moisture shows up on the plastic.

cbw

[Steven Pinson]

I am in the humidity capital of the midwest LOL (OH). I just rinse my diamond stones off with alcohol (91%, yes it is hydroscopic), paper towel dry, and I store them in a loose fitting plastic box with desiccant packs.

BLD has a solution as well in VCI paper I believe. Remember: picts always help.

There is another thread on care of the diamond stones IIRC.

Here are a few of my diamond stones performing the care I stated above:

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m599/SPIN1963/600.jpg
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m599/SPIN1963/400.jpg
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m599/SPIN1963/80.jpg
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m599/SPIN1963/50.jpg

[Dan Clement]

Clay, I have attached two photos.

Attachments:

• RustPhoto1.JPG
• RustPhoto2.jpg

[Dan Clement]

I think that I will give the alcohol a try. Probably would be better than the water and soap, thank you.

[Dan Clement]

Good suggestion. Perhaps they were not as dry as I thought they were.

[wickededge]

Thanks Dan. I see what you mean. I’d be interested to hear the results if you try CBW’s proposed experiment. Are they giving you any performance issues?

Clay, I have attached two photos.

-Clay

[Dan Clement]

Clay, the diamond stones are working perfectly thus far. I assume the rust comes from the metal dust from the knives I am sharpening trapped in between the pores on the stones. I scrub the stones a lot so not sure what to do about that. Once suggestion was to use alcohol rather than water and the other to put the stones in the plastic holder in the sun to see if I get any condensation. I will try both and report back in a day.

BTW, I have never been able to sharpen a knife by hand. Your system has made me the envy of my family and friends. I am getting shaving sharp edges with a beautiful polished edge using the 1200/1600 ceramic and leather strops to finish the blades. Cannot thank you enough and am looking forward to being able to purchase the new guide rods.

[wickededge]

Dan,

I’m glad you’re enjoying it. I don’t clean my stones very often, maybe once every 30 knives or so. How often are you cleaning yours?

Clay, the diamond stones are working perfectly thus far. I assume the rust comes from the metal dust from the knives I am sharpening trapped in between the pores on the stones. I scrub the stones a lot so not sure what to do about that. Once suggestion was to use alcohol rather than water and the other to put the stones in the plastic holder in the sun to see if I get any condensation. I will try both and report back in a day.

BTW, I have never been able to sharpen a knife by hand. Your system has made me the envy of my family and friends. I am getting shaving sharp edges with a beautiful polished edge using the 1200/1600 ceramic and leather strops to finish the blades. Cannot thank you enough and am looking forward to being able to purchase the new guide rods.

-Clay

[Thomas Meeks]

I think that I will give the alcohol a try. Probably would be better than the water and soap, thank you.

This brings up a good point. Is Alcohol a recommended cleaning agent for the stones? What is the “official” recommendation for cleaning them?

[wickededge]

Good questions Thomas – there are some gentlemen on this forum that know vastly more than I do about the chemistry involved in cleaning the stones, so it may be worthwhile to consult with them or browse their other posts on the topic.

What I’ve found to work well so far on the diamond plates is a dish brush with warm, soapy water. I then pat the stones dry and leave them standing on end with plenty of air circulation to finish drying.

For my ceramic stones, I use a soft pink eraser most of the time, a fibrous eraser (soon to be available on our site) when it’s really getting fouled up. I recently tried Soft Scrub foaming spray on my Mirco-Fine ceramics and had great success. Some people highly recommend Barkeeper’s Friend for the ceramic stones.

I think that I will give the alcohol a try. Probably would be better than the water and soap, thank you.

This brings up a good point. Is Alcohol a recommended cleaning agent for the stones? What is the “official” recommendation for cleaning them?[/quote]

-Clay

[Dan Clement]

I clean them after every use. I watched all of YouTube videos I could find on the WickedEdge and that was the suggestion from a lot of the videos. I will do fewer cleanings; perhaps that is part of my problem.

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