Carbon Steel Question and Issues

[kannonfyre]

While attending a recent knife show lately, I noticed that the bigger the blades get, the more likely it was that the knife was made from non-stainless steel. For example, most of the knives with 4 - 9 inch cutting edges where made from anything from AUS6A to BG42 while almost everything with a 10" blade and above was made from 1095 steel. Why is that so?

I kinda liked the feel, heft and finish on some of the "micro machetes" on display but stopped short of spending $$ on one because I live in a VERY humid island nation and corrosion is a worry.

Hence, I'm asking all those THRers out there who own knives made out of 1095 steel and operate in humid or salt water environments......how do y'all protect your cutting tools from rust when out camping in the field?

Does anyone recommend oiling the cutting edge/coating it in grease AND THEN inserting the blade into it's sheath before bedding down for the night? Any other ideas?

 

[Don Gwinn]

That treatment wouldn't hurt anything as long as you don't mind using that grease/oil combo for the life of the sheath, but it's just as good and a lot more flexible simply to oil the blade regularly by rubbing a few drops of oil over the entire surface and then wiping it down until you can just barely tell it was oiled at all.
This has worked well for me in the snowy winter woods of Illinois and the humid lakefront summer camp where I worked.

You also want to make sure the sheath is of high quality--some cheap leathers haven't been rinsed thoroughly of acids that contribute to corrosion.

Finally, there should be a *slight* difference in corrosion based on polish. The more highly polished the blade surface, the longer it should take to rust. This is not, in my experience, a huge difference.