As one of the primary tools by your side when heading out into the wilderness, your outdoor, bushcraft or hunting knife will see a lot of use. Survival knives are often relied upon to perform a range of tasks, so it’s important they’re always kept in good condition to see the job done right.
Keeping your survival knives properly maintained not only ensures their reliability but also makes them safer, as you can more easily use them as intended.
Cleaning Your Blade
One of the easiest places to start is ensuring your blade is always clean and dry before returning it to its sheath. In the field, this might just mean a quick wipe, but it’s always worth properly cleaning away any remaining dirt or grime with a bit of soap and water when you can. Make sure the handle and blade are dried thoroughly – remaining moisture can lead to rusting.
Rust Maintenance & Prevention
Speaking of rust, there are ways to prevent your blade from becoming damaged by it. How concerned you are about rust will depend on whether you have a stainless steel or carbon steel blade. Stainless steel blades generally require less maintenance, especially regarding rust (although you should still aim to keep them clean and dry).
For carbon steel blades (and stainless steel ones, too, if you want to give them some extra protection), you can grease the blade or use a specialist lubricant or knife shield cleaner to ward off rust. If you do notice signs of rust, you can sand the rusting part off of the blade, although this can sometimes take a bit of time and effort, so prevention is the way to go!
Lightly oiling high-carbon steel blades before putting them back in their sheath will help keep them rust-free.
Sharpening Your Blade
A dull knife won’t be much good to you in any survival or camping situation. Plus, if it’s not sharp enough, you may end up using more force than normal, making the blade harder to control and more likely to cause an injury.
Again, high-carbon steel knives will need a bit of extra care here as they don’t retain their sharp edge as well as stainless steel. Maintaining a sharp blade requires a bit of skill, but you can sharpen your knife yourself with the right tools and know-how. To keep your blade’s edge in good condition, you can use:
- - Leather strop – a piece of leather coated in a fine grit compound. This doesn’t actually help sharpen the blade but hones it, which is useful to do alongside the sharpening process.
- - Sharpening stone – you can manually grind the edge of the blade against a whetstone to wear down the metal and restore a sharper edge. Freehand sharpening can take a bit of practice. Guide sharpeners work in the same way but are easier for beginners and help you sharpen at a specific angle.
- - Power sharpeners – these offer the fastest and most powerful method, but also mean you end up losing more blade material.
It pays to learn how to sharpen your own blade in the long run, but professional sharpening services can also be useful as you learn how to do it.
Storing Your Knife
Take care to ensure that your knife is completely dry before storing it, especially long term. Again, make sure your sheath is properly aired out and free of any moisture that could cause damage to the blade.
Storage rolls or cases (some come with moisture removers or rust prevention tabs) are useful as they keep your knife out of harm’s way and provide ideal dry conditions.
Maintaining a Folding Knife
Most people will choose a fixed blade for their outdoor survival knife due to their strength and durability. However, if you do decide a folding blade is the right choice for you, there are a couple of extra maintenance bits you’ll need to pay attention to.
As these knives have moving parts, they can be more susceptible to collecting dirt, which will clog up the joint and hinder its pivot’s performance. You should clean your knife regularly as you would with a fixed blade, paying careful attention to any moving parts.
You may also need disassembly tools so you can more easily clean the separate parts and ensure there’s no rust lurking anywhere.
Hopefully, with these tips, your outdoor knives will stay looking and functioning their best for as long as possible! If your knives are beyond saving or you just want to add to your arsenal, why not check out our full range of knives and blades?