Your fishing knives are critical for preparing and cutting bait, fileting and pan dressing harvests, and for general utility, such as opening packages, trimming line, and other basic chores like that.
Fishing knives also, perhaps more than any other category of knives, are subjected to some of the worst conditions out there, as far as steel is concerned, and this is especially true of fishing knives used in marine environments.
With that said, this short post should provide a pretty solid overview of general maintenance for your fishing knives, with a special emphasis on how to help keep rust off of them.
Preventing Rust
The most important aspect of fishing knife maintenance is to clean and dry the knife after every use. This applies to knives that are used in freshwater as well as saltwater.
Leaving any moisture on the blade will predispose it to rust, and in the case of marine environments, even if the blade is dry, if any salt deposits have been left on the blade, they can cause a phenomenon known as stress corrosion cracking, which is worse than rust.
Whereas a light coat of rust can be buffed off and the steel oiled to protect it against the advance of oxidation, stress corrosion cracking is an irreversible phenomenon in which the steel cracks along weak points in the grain as a result of stress induced by oxidative influences.
At any rate, the most important thing you can do to prevent this is to make sure that you thoroughly rinse, clean, and dry any fishing knife before you store it.
There are some other notes here, however.
One, be mindful of the steel from which the knife is made. Some steels should not be used in fishing knives, such as 1045 and 1095, especially if they will be used around saltwater, simply because it will become untenable maintaining them. They will rust even if you try to keep them clean.
The other is that you should not store a fishing knife in its sheath, leather or otherwise, for a prolonged period of time. Knife sheaths can trap moisture and will accelerate corrosion of a fishing knife’s blade. Short term storage is fine but not for the long haul.
Also, if you ever get a slight rust bloom on a fishing knife, don’t panic. While rust will damage the finish of the blade, you can often remove it with a high-grit sandpaper or else some fine steel wool. Buff it out, clean, dry, and then oil the blade to prevent the rust from progressing.
Lastly, when you store a fishing knife, make sure that once you’ve dried the blade, you apply a little bit of oil to both sides of the blade, as well as wherever the tang is exposed, if it is anywhere around the scales.
One drop of knife or gun oil per side of the dried blade, and evenly distributed, will help prevent moisture from coming in contact with the blade, and will go a long way towards preventing rust.
Why Fishing Knife Maintenance Is Essential
At the end of the day, the better you care for your tools, the longer they will last. Just like you rinse, clean, and then oil and grease your reels, you should be diligent about cleaning and maintaining your fishing knives, as well as storing them responsibly so as to prevent rust. This is a reasonable investment in the protection of your fishing equipment.
Explore New Fishing Knives
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