How to care for carbon steel knives?

[taz575]

You're welcome! It is often a firm, gummy sealant, so the razor should be able to slice it.

[stewssy]

Just wipe after each use, don’t let acidic stuff stay on it, and use camellia oil when putting it away.

[d_rap]

I guess like anything else on the forum we could go back and forth about this but to me needing to oil the blade every time I put it away for a knife that I use frequently is just impractical. I want to pull out my FM at a moment's notice and cut up food and I don't want to have to wash oil off the blade every time.

So for people who may be new to fully reactive knives and put off by that kind of advice I would say under most circumstances with a knife you're using regularly that's not going to be necessary.

And if you are going to put it up for storage in a place where genuine humidity is going to be an issue plain food safe mineral oil is a good cheap alternative.

When a friend asks my advice about Japanese knives I mean some of them tell me they want to be able to leave the knife in a pool of tomatoes on the cutting board and those are the people I say for goodness sake get a stainless knife. The I can't be bothered to be rinsing it and wiping it down all the time crowd.

For everyone else with the time and energy to be careful as they work carbon core or all carbon knives are an absolute pleasure and just not that hard to work with.

[nyudoc04]

Gotcha. Thank you all again. It's my first higher end Japanese knife so not sure what to expect. Will clean it up a bit tomorrow!

[Captaincaed]

Sounds like most questions got answered. One bit of my own experience, hopefully can help others.
Never store a carbon knife in a wood saya. Wood saya are for transit from point A to point B ONLY. Once they get home from work, they come out and sit in a knife block, or an in-drawer rest where air can circulate. Saya trap moisture, and if you start to get rust inside, it acts as a seed-crystal for future rust in the same location, so you need to dispose of the saya, or pull it apart and cut the old rust out.

For a fun trick, put any saya in a toaster oven with a glass door on low heat. See all the moisture it drives off that steams-up the door?

That said, baby-oil from the pharmacy is the cheapest way to get a food-safe protective coat on your knife, and provides a pretty good level of protection. Mineral oil and cling-film can protect for years if you're in a pinch.

[FisherMAn1298]

It seems more and more makers a cladding with stainless these days.For example Kohetsu blue #2, Takeda NAS, Kurosaki AS, and my favourite Anryu AS. These are all kurouchi finish and this list is just off the top of my head and is by no means exhaustive. I own a few of these knives and maintenance is really not a problem. Just don't leave them wet. I have never used oil but then again I don't live in a rainforest or on an ocean, unfortunately. I agree with Miles that AS is the best for acidic foods.

I live about a 9-iron with the wind from the Atlantic Ocean, nothing like the smell of salt water in the morning blowing in off the ocean. I just wash and dry my blades immediately after use. i spray lightly with oil and pop them back into their blade guards and As isn't just the best for acidic foods, it's just the BEST.

[FisherMAn1298]

You can take a single edge razor blade and clean up the excess putty/sealant if you want. Basically press the blade down into the stuff to level it off with the handle.

Took the words right out of my mouth. You can use clear nail polish to seal around the blade after you remove that white glue. I've used it a number of times, seals out moisture perfectly. Keep sandpaper away from your ferrules, they scratch easily. Also, as a newbie avoid the steels considered less cooperative for sharpening. zdp-189,hap40 and vg-10 needs to be sharpened at a less acute angle than other steels, it can't handle 10-15 degrees unless specially heat treated. I had a brand new chinese cleaver that was stainless, couldn't get an edge to save my life. Mr. Ken Schwartz says, drop back to 20-22 degrees and bang! great edge, slicing paper like a champ! thanks Ken!
Welcome to the group and we love talking knives, stones, sharpening, cooking, etc.