I, like all of you, know that each steel is an alloy with different parts hardness/edge retention and susceptibility to rust. I realize that hardness is a product of heat-treatment, but I'm under the impression that certain alloys accept certain levels of hardening better than others.
I, like most of you, have knives for different purposes. I have some knives that sit in my house and get cleaned/coated frequently. I also have knives, like the one on my camping/emergency bag that rarely see the light of day during the colder seasons. These knives get a coating from a Tuf-cloth maybe twice a year.
My question then becomes, where do I sdraw the line? I know I'm going to be relatively lazy in seeing to the upkeep of a knife I only use during the warm seasons, so what do I look for there? Should I sacrifice some of the more desirable qualities in a knife for a more stainless alloy?
How do you make this decision? Where do you draw the line? Or do you just take the route of coating your blades every time you put them away?
With the exception of my ESEE-4, most of my ESEE knives have ended up with rust spots, even after being coated with Tuf-cloth. This is probably a result of storing them in their sheaths, though. And while I love these knives, I would rather have a steel that didn't need as much attention.
I, like most of you, have knives for different purposes. I have some knives that sit in my house and get cleaned/coated frequently. I also have knives, like the one on my camping/emergency bag that rarely see the light of day during the colder seasons. These knives get a coating from a Tuf-cloth maybe twice a year.
My question then becomes, where do I sdraw the line? I know I'm going to be relatively lazy in seeing to the upkeep of a knife I only use during the warm seasons, so what do I look for there? Should I sacrifice some of the more desirable qualities in a knife for a more stainless alloy?
How do you make this decision? Where do you draw the line? Or do you just take the route of coating your blades every time you put them away?
With the exception of my ESEE-4, most of my ESEE knives have ended up with rust spots, even after being coated with Tuf-cloth. This is probably a result of storing them in their sheaths, though. And while I love these knives, I would rather have a steel that didn't need as much attention.