The most important thing to remember when storing your knife for any length of time is to make sure it is clean and has a protective layer of oil, especially for steels that are not stainless.
To clean your knife use regular dish soap and water to remove any dirt, food, or other debris. If it is particularly well used our handles are removable so you can get a deeper clean. Make sure the blade and handles are fully dry before applying a thin coat of oil.
What type of oil should I use?
Any oil will do. Mineral oil is a great food safe option. Gun lubes like Rem-Oil, CLP, dry film lubricants, machine oil, or something similar work best but a WD-40 or PB-Blaster spray type cleaner/lube will also protect your blade.
There are brown spots on my knife!?
Don't worry! This is likely some minor spotting, which can happen on CPM-3V steel. It is more common in humid environments but can happen anywhere, especially if knives are not stored properly (see above). While this small amount of spotting can happen, it will not damage your knife. Our steels have been carefully selected because of their long term usability. Even though CPM-3V is not considered stainless it does have many of the same elements giving it enough corrosion resistance to last.
As soon as you see the spots clean them off by lightly scrubbing with #000 or #0000 steel wool and water. Depending on how long the spots were there your blade may now have small dark spots even after cleaning. This is a natural patina that will appear dark grey and will not cause any problems for the steel. Once the brown spots are gone be sure to let your blade dry completely and then oil it.
There is a video on our YouTube channel showing the full process of cleaning up a knife with this spotting issue, check it out: here.
What is the factory angle on my knife?
We do not have one specific angle that we use in the workshop. All SURVIVE! knives are between 20 and 24 degrees per side. As a general rule, smaller models tend to have a smaller included angle.
What is the best way to resharpen my knife?
This is a debate that has probably been going on for thousands of years! The best way is always going to be the way that you are most comfortable with. Guy would suggest trying the two sided Norton stones or the Lansky system. You can find a ton of information on the internet to learn about different methods.
Most importantly, do NOT use those pull through knife sharpeners sold in many department stores. Those remove material parallel to the edge but a good knife sharpening system should always be moving perpendicular to the edge.
