Stow them away for a SHTF day

[kannonfyre]

IMHO, I seperate knives into the "use and EDC" category and the "grow old and give to the son/grandson" category. For the former, a wipe down with machine oil and fortnightly sharpening is all I do for maintenance but for the latter, I apply AQUA SEAL silicone grease to the blades, wrap the blade in scrap paper and then store the knives in a cool dry place seperately from their scabbards. I plan to take them out every 6 months or so, wipe them down, touch-up on the cutting edges and reapply silicone grease for re-storage.

My 2 questions are:

1) If the silicone grease comes into contact with the synthetic knife handles in the long term, with it have any detrimental effects? My handles are all made of either Zytel, G10 or Prylon.
2) I know that knives kept in leather sheaths for long periods risk being stained by tanning acids leached by the leather but what about blades wrapped in scrap paper AFTER being greased with silicone? Will the paper exhude any chemical that will affect the blade?

 

[JShirley]

The good news is, the handles ain't the knife. One can always wrap a full tang with any number of materials and have a workable blade.

I would suggest contacting or reviewing the manufacturers' instructions for long-term storage.

John

 

[kannonfyre]

Any more comments?

Aw c'mon guys......I'd really appreciate any advice on the effects of silicone grease on prylon, zytel or G10 handles.

Also, several people have advised me against wrapping the greased blade in paper. Would tin foil make a better alternative to prevent the silicone being rubbed off?

Lastly. has Buck honing oil been known to cause pitting if used frequently on blades?

 

[brownie0486]

You could always store them the way the factory sent them.

It's as easy as this: Put clp on the blade and steel portions of the knife. Leave the handle materials alone unless wood, then use mineral oil if they have wood handles.

You could also do a search on the internet and answer your own question here. Plenty of professional tips to be found if one were to search.

Brownie

 

[hso]

If you can get one of the vacuum sealers used for food storage they make excellent archival storage tools.

I would not use silicone grease on any non-glass non-metal parts.

While I don't like CLP (just personal preference) I do like the bike parts cleaner/lube/rust inhibitor called White Lightning. Apply it liberally and then let it dry. Seal the knife in a vacutainer with a desicant pack and wrap it in light blocking paper or foil.

Michael Walker just wrote an article for Blade magazine and found a bowling alley wax, Butchers, to work better than all of the standard metal protectants. http://home.attbi.com/~bberickson/wax.html

 

[brownie0486]

Butches wax is good stuff, used it for years and would have no problem with it at all prtoecting the investments.

Brownie

 

[Sir Galahad]

The paper you are looking for to wrap metal in for long term storage is called "kraft paper". Bosch wraps repair parts for power tools in this paper (in particular, shafts and gears for jigsaws, etc.) Find a place near you that repairs power tools, in particular, Bosch brand. Ask the repair tech to save the kraft paper for you. Buy him a pack of cigarettes or something to motivate him. I've seen jigsaw parts stored in kraft paper for decades and still looked new from the factory. Just put a light oil on the metal and then you wrap the kraft paper over the metal. If I was still doing power tool repair, I'd send you some. But I'm not, so I can't. Also, some rolls of ball bearings come wrapped in kraft paper, so check and auto repair shop. This paper is brown and fairly coarse, somewhat oily (it soaks up oil easily.) It "looks" like old-fashioned brown wax butcher paper.

 

[Ed Brunner]

Renaissance Wax

I have never used it, but it is reputed to be fine.
http://www.restorationproduct.com/

 

[hso]

Surprisingly, considering it's reputation, Renaissance Wax faired rather poorly against other products in the side by side tests performed by Mr. Walker.