Museum Tips for Home Knife Care

[SeekHer]

9 Museum Tips for Home Knife Care
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April 15, 2008
by Jarod Kearney

It is an all-too-familiar scenario. The family reunion is in full swing at your house, and once again Uncle Billy is rummaging through your knife collection. Hands freshly greased from the basted turkey, he eagerly fumbles out each piece, pawing the full length of the blades to leave the maximum amount of fingerprints. He swings your antique knives about carelessly, mouth agape and dripping with ginger sauce. You pause, sigh and politely secure the knives back and begin—once again—the process of wiping them down.

Whether your antique knife or sword collection is large or small, you want to protect and preserve your blades to the best of your ability. As a museum curator, I am often asked how we preserve our collection, and if there are similar measures that can be taken at home. The answer is absolutely—in fact, many of the steps we take at the museum can be duplicated fairly easily by the home collector.

Following are some basic steps we take as curators, and how they can be used successfully for your collection.

All Nine

1) Touch the blade as little as possible. Whether you know it or not, you all have oils on your fingers that wreak havoc with steel. In the museum, we wear white cotton gloves to protect the piece. This is, of course, impractical in your home, but the concept is sound—simply avoid touching the blade as much as possible and you will add to its life. If you do touch the blade, wipe it down afterward with a cotton cloth.

2) Keep the collection away from extreme temperature and humidity fluctuations. In museums, we have heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems that regulate temperature and humidity, as well as data loggers to monitor environmental conditions. Don’t worry about this—you don’t have to give up that trip to Fiji to install an HVAC. Actually, your basic home environment room temperature is not bad at all. Avoid the attic, garage and other locations where the conditions fluctuate wildly. A simple closet in the house proper will work just fine.

3) If the knives are on display, keep them away from direct sunlight. Sunlight will fade handle material, leather and other materials in your knives. We use an ultraviolet-light protective agent on all the windows, and keep the indoor lighting to a minimum. For the home display, taking a moment to move them away from the windows will certainly help. If the knives are in a display case, try putting some silica gel in the case to help control moisture.

4) If you store your collection away, try storing it in inert containers. An example would be a box or shelf lined with Microfoam or other inert archival material. Polymers such as Ethafoam or Volara foam can be ordered from most archival supplies found readily on the web. It can actually be fun to cut out shapes in the foam to fit your knives for excellent storage!

5) Do not sharpen or attempt to restore an antique knife unless it is a using piece (grandpa’s old hunter passed down, etc.). Sharpening an antique knife will often reduce the value. The idea is to preserve the piece, not return it to its original condition. There are exceptions—Japanese blades, etc.—but when in doubt, leave it alone.

6) To remove active rust spots, try rubbing the spots lightly with kerosene and a cotton cloth, cleaning with a lightly damp cloth, then re-applying oil. Active rust is noticeably lighter than the darker patina rust, and should be removed to stabilize the piece. Of course, do not use abrasives or you will ruin the surface.

7) Oil your blade once every few months—or more if you can—even if it is in storage. Clove and camellia oil are excellent, and most over-the-counter knife oils will work. A further step you can take is to wax the piece with a crystalline wax. Crystalline wax provides protection against rust and degradation, and is easy to apply. We use Renaissance Wax, which is available from most archival supplies.

8) If you want to hold someone's knife—antique or modern—it is proper protocol to ask permission first. Receive the knife and hold it by the handle—do not touch the blade without permission. It is impolite to run your fingers up and down the blade. When handing the knife back, hold it by the top of the handle and present it handle-first. This can be tricky with smaller knives, but quit being so modern and just do it!

9) Finally, of utmost importance in the care of a sword or knife is respect. Remember always that any blade is capable of inflicting injury, especially if handled carelessly. Knives are one of our earliest human tools, part of the basic canon of human technology; 100,000 years of human progression has given you this birthright. Take care of your knives always!

A bladesmith and a member of the American Bladesmith Society, the author is the curator of collections at the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum in Staunton, Virginia. He has written extensively on historical edged weapons and made presentations at the New York Historical Society on the early American sword industry.


A bladesmith and a member of the American Bladesmith Society, the author is the curator of collections at the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum in Staunton, Virginia. He has written extensively on historical edged weapons and made presentations at the New York Historical Society on the early American sword industry.

Submitted by SeekHer

[[Category:Knives]]

[Firehand]

I've found Eezox is a very good protectant, extra nice because it's a dry film. Very good for the pivots on folding knives, too.

[HTRN]

+1 on the eezox - it won a coupla informal corrosion tests that have been posted online. Works good on guns as well.


HTRN