Food grade knife oil for a carbon steel kitchen knife?

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Sid Post

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Oct 14, 1998
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I am considering getting some all carbon steel kitchen knives from Japan. What I have no experience with is food grade oil that will keep them from rusting or discoloring (beyond a reasonable patina from use ;) ). There is something called "Tubaki" oil which I know nothing about.

How about PAM and other similar spray oils? Olive oil or, cooking oils?

Ideally I would find something that doesn't add a lot of flavor so I am not required to be fanatical about cleaning it off before use.

THANKS!
 
Food grade mineral oil is safe for treating blade and can be used to preserve/restore wood handles if it has such. My Chicago Cutlery High carbon set came with a little applicator bottle with some.
 
Believe it or not, there is a brand of spray silicon lubricant made specifically for the food service industry. We use it at my picture framing job for lubricating the wall cutter, mat cutter etc. because it leaves no residue to get on people's artwork. I use it on my knives all the time and it's a pretty effective corrosion inhibitor. It should be available from most food or restuarant supply companies.
 
Originally posted by etp777
Food grade mineral oil is safe for treating blade and can be used to preserve/restore wood handles if it has such.
Click to expand...
I don't have any CS kitchen knives, so can't speak from experience.

(WD-40 is cheap and easy and works fine for utility machetes... yeah, try that in the kitchen ;) )

I'd guess any of your kitchen oils would do just find keeping corrosion at bay, but if knife went unused for a while, the food oils (olive, canola, etc) might spoil or go mildly rancid a bit as they oxidize.

The food grade mineral oil would be very stable by comparison. It might be too viscous to squirt out of a squirt bottle, so not as convenient as some kind of spray.
Ergo, the Pam stuff oughta be more convenient and work fine also. You are just trying to kinda fill all the pores and provide a very light coating to keep oxygen from grabbing iron molecules, so any kind of oil will probably do just fine if applied routinely AFTER you wash off any food acids (citric, tomato) or other food products.
 
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Originally posted by Sid Post
There is something called "Tubaki" oil which I know nothing about.
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My guess is that is tsubaki (camellia) oil, which is also used on carbon steel katana blades when the sword polisher is done sharpening them. I don't know how much camellia oil would alter the taste of food.

As the others noted, mineral oil is a traditional neutral-tasting oil that is used around food. Among woodworkers mineral oil is used for finishing wood cutting boards, salad bowls, etc. So it would, as etp777 said, be useful to keep wooden handles from drying out & cracking, as well as coating the blade for rust prevention.
 
camelia oil is largely mineral oil anyway! Go with that. I used to use canola oil on a Cold Steel LTC kukri, but as tiem went on the oil got gummy. I switched to mineral oil and it worked great. You can get mineral oil in any supermarket.
 
THANKS!

Next time i go to the grocery store, I'm going to pick up some mineral oil.

I recently picked up a carbon steel Yanagi (pointed Sushi knife) from Shinichi Watanabe @ http://www.watanabeblade.com/english/ after a post he made on another forum. I am leaning heavily towards a Santoku from him as well.

Suisin and Tojiro have my attention as well. I haven't found a good source for Masahiro knives yet but, I would like to check them out as well.
 
Another vote for mineral oil here...had the same question not too long ago, and found mineral oil to be a simple solution. It works wonders on the handles of Chicago Cutlery steak knives that find their way into our kitchen dishwasher...cheaper than a divorce too.
Jim
 
By the way, where you find mineral oil is in the medical supply section of your grocery store or in a drug store. It is mostly sold as a lubricant laxative. So...use it in moderation, not as part of your salad dressing.

Another thing you could consider using is white candle wax. Rub the sides of your blades with a white candle and rub it in with a clean rag. I have white candles around more of the time than I have mineral oil. It is also a good field expedient for lubricating folding knives.
 
Jeff,

Thanks for the tips. I plan on storing the knife with mineral oil and wiping or washing it off before use. I just don't plan on being super fanatical on the initial cleaning before use. After use it will get the full cleaning with a protective coating of mineral oil.
 
DUH... I use just my grandma method... After cutting ham or salami with a CS knife I don't wash it, just wipe the blade clean with a towel. This leaves a thin layer of protective fat on the blade.
Next time I use it, I wipe it clean thoroughly, and go on like this.
For veggies I use olive afterwards.
 
For food grade mineral oil I'd go to the cutting board section of any kitchen or housewares store -- Bed, Bath & Beyond, etc. They usually have it in a couple of different sizes of squeeze bottles.

Chad
 
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