Newbie - clean knife

Greetings - new collector here in Florida - just got my 1st Randall! #14 - my question is how to clean the blade to shine - seems to have oil or grease on it....

Also, if one could point in the direction of best info to maintain the knife, would be appreciated...

Jerry in Tampa

Whether right or wrong, for many years I've done the following to the entire knife:
1) clean (except leather handles) with soap and warm water, using a sponge;
2) immediately dry thoroughly;
3) lightly polish with Simichrome;
4) apply at least one coat of Renaissance wax for protection.

many thanks Steve!

I use fairly "hot" water and liquid dish washing soap, along with an old, soft toothbrush. The reason is that the shop does such a good job of covering the blade (for prep and shipping) that I need to scrub around the hilt a thumb notches to remove it. You have to guard against getting too much hot water and soap on the handle. It will knock off the nice polish...
Best, Capt. Chris
PS: Jerry: I think I sent you an email...Let me know...CCS

If it is tool steel I would not leave it wet for very long, like less than 2 mins.

I recommend this stuff it works very well for both users and collectors. Many soldiers use this stuff.

http://www.sentrysolutions.com/mm5/merch...ategory_Code=SS

Capt. Chris--

I use your technique also. I try get the blade as hot as possible at least in the rinsing process--the theory being that the hot metal will evaporate away water molecules that might remain on the surface and in the pores of the metal after it is wiped dry. Then apply whatever protective coating you plan to use.

Larry

Larry's comment reminded me of something I had read in Phil Sharpe's books. Back in the days of carbon steel barrels and before advanced modern cleaning solutions, the hot tip was to use boiling water when cleaning your guns. Because it was so hot, the metal dried quicker.

Set up with a kettle and you're good to go. Just be careful to not burn yourself. I used this technique after lapping the action in my rifle. I needed to remove all of the lapping compound and the hot water worked like a charm.

Rick

I've always maintained that you should never get a knife blade hotter than you can "touch". I know many knife "sharpeners" maintain that theory, siting the fact that they do not have to worry about ruining the temper, heat-treat, rockwell, etc. I think a "Kettle" may be going a bit too hot. If I can clean a blade with a "warm/hot" to the touch temperature I think (for me anyway) that this is hot enough. Perhaps someone else has another idea??
Best, Capt. Chris

Capt. Chris--

I think that the temper of most steels would not be affected by the 212 degrees of boiling water--even though I don't use boiling water to clean a knife. Boiling water is much too hot for me to handle when cleaning a knife, and the blade doesn't need to be that hot in order to help evaporate water off its surface. From what little I have heard of the heat treating process, most tempering is done at temperatures higher than 212 degrees, and the temper is not likely to be affected unless the blade is heated beyond the original temper point.

This reminds me of the movies where they stick a large knife into a fire to get it cherry red in order to cauterize the wound of somebody who has been shot. Not only would that put the poor guy through a lot more misery--it would ruin the edge holding ability of what might have been a properly heat treated knife.

Larry

Rick,
That's the way I clean most metal.
Learned it when a fellow showed me how to clean a black powder rifle...The hotter, the better.
:-)R

I can not possibly imagine that boiling water would affect the temper of a knife. Another manufacturer of carbon steel knives told me that I would have to exceed 850 degrees F before I started to lose temper with his blades. This was a topic of discussion because people were asking about using one of those baked on finishes like Kalgard (sp?). He was more concerned about damaging the micarta than the blade.

Rick

I am only quoting concerns with several different people I have talked to with regards to "sharpening" blades, particularly on electric motors, belts and wheels, etc. They all said that they were very careful not to let the blades get too warm to the "touch" for fear of loosing the rockwell and softening the blade. Made sense to me...so I don't get the blades that hot either. Besides: It's not needed to clean the blade. I would also be concerened with the plastic fiber spacers with too much heat.
None of this may matter at all...but I'm going to follow their theory. I did say "others" may have other ideas. That's fine. I get the shop-installed grease/wax composite off of the knife without over-heating the water just fine. That's all I'm saying. I will also add that too much hot water also takes the nice shine off of the handles as well.
Everyone has their own ideas. I know that mine work and I have used this method on Randalls for many years, many, many hundreds of knives with no ill effects.
Best, Capt. Chris