Taking care of your high carbon knife

If you have bought a knife from us, and it is made of high carbon steel not stainless steel. We recommend to not wash it, merely wipe it over as soon as you have finished using it and put it away. You can wash it by hand if need be, but do not leave water on it, so no soaking in a sink of dishes and don’t leave it to air dry on a draining rack. Wash and dry it straight away.

 No matter how well you take care of your knife it will turn a dull grey colour over time, it will mark and not stay shiny. This is normal, there is nothing unhygienic about it, it is just the nature of the steel. Some foods, like lemon and onion will mark it instantly due to the acidic nature of them.

High carbon steel is a tough and long lasting steel and will keep an edge for a long time. Used properly your knife should only have to be put on a sharpening stone once a month and on a sharpening steel once a week. You can use a leather strop daily. This is if you are using it on a daily basis.

The only down side to high carbon steel is that it will rust if you do not take care of it. To prevent this, keep your knife as clean and dry as possible after use, and apply a light coating of oil periodically. For culinary knives, olive, vegetable, canola or sunflower oil is fine. For other knives, light machine oil like that used for sharpening is suitable, or any of the above listed cooking oils.

If you do get rust spots, light ones can be scrubbed away with 0000 steel wool, more severe can be removed using wet and dry emery paper. Start with a 400 grit and work up to an 800 and finish with a fine abrasive metal polish e.g. Autosol.

Some common do’s and don’ts

·         Don’t put knives in the dishwasher

·         Don’t leave a knife soaking in a sink full of water

·         Don’t store in a wet sheath

·         Do keep your knife sharp

·         Do keep it stored correctly and responsibly

·         Do use the knife for the purpose it was made for

·         Don’t use a knife as a lever, hammer, shovel, screwdriver etc

·         Don’t cut on a glass, stone or steel surface, do use wood or plastic

·         Do remember to clean and oil the handle as well as the blade

·         NEVER put into a fire, onto a hot plate or in contact with any other heat source

Please feel free to message me with any questions on the care and maintenance of your blade.

If you take care of it well, it will last longer than you!

Why do you use 80crv2 for your blade steel?

Knifemakers select knife steel that provides the best fit for the application of their range of knives. For knives and axes that need to be extremely tough with excellent edge retention 80CrV2 steel is an outstanding choice. 80CrV2 knife steel provides a cutting tool with extreme toughness and edge retention; provides a high value for performance vs. cost to manufacture. Due to its toughness, hardness, and availability, it is prized in the construction of tactical knives, hunting knives, tomahawks, and everyday carry designs.

80CrV2 steel is a traditionally cast, high-carbon tool steel that contains chromium as well as vanadium in quantities high enough to affect the strength and hardness of the crystalline matrix of the steel. Vanadium is an element that is added to steel alloys that are typically used to produce excellent edge retention. Vanadium is prized in knife-making because it produces very durable carbides at the molecular level of the cutting edge. Tool steel, heavy equipment, and even nuclear reactors use vanadium in their construction.

https://www.knifeart.com/80crv2-steel.html

Why do you use Magnacut for your stainless steel?

Considering the properties of CPM MagnaCut, it qualifies as an excellent knife steel. It offers excellent edge retention, exceptional toughness, excellent corrosion resistance, high wear resistance, and it is easy to sharpen. Larrin specifically designed it to be knife steel and it achieves this better than many steels in the market.

The high toughness makes it suitable for making knives with big blades, and the fine microstructure gives its thin blades a very sharp edge. In both instances, the blades won’t chip or break easily when used for challenging applications.

https://knifebasics.com/detailed-cpm-magnacut-steel-review/

Are the knives made in the USA?

I produce my knives here in Juneau Alaska. I source as many of my components for my knives from the us as I can. Some of the more exotic materials like Turkish walnut come from well turkey. As much of the knife as possible is made with US produce materials but it isn’t always possible to get everything us just because of where it is actually grown globally.