Help--Best Safe for Knife Collecting?

Balislinger

Balislinger

Joined
Nov 11, 2003
Messages
6,787
Well the collection is getting to that point, so, what do you guys think is the best safe for knife collecting? I don't want to spend alot, I want something with alot of shelves, and a material that is good for long term knife preservation. So help me out guys, I'm relying on your expertise!
 
I have the Freedom or Liberty Safe as some call it. The FR-35 but I have guns also so it may be a bit much for just a knife collection. Although if truth be told I'd rather have a walk in. Hell, then I could use it as a storm shelter to hide from these tornados we get down here in the alley.

STR
 
Balislinger,
don't pick up just any safe. Fire safes work by releasing moisture into the safe during a fire to save the paper work. So there is always some moisture there. A safe made for Guns or a safe made for stopping "burglers only" would work. Don't buy a cheap Sentry/FireKing or WallyWorld home fire chest special! Besides the moisture, the locks on these brands of safes are easily compromised. Go with a brand name S&G, Mosler ,Guardall, Maas Hamilton or such. It will be well worth the money. If you are determined to protect your stuff from fire, then you will need a ceramic linned or multi-media safe. These are linned so the moisture wont damage your prized pos. with in. Either way you go get some Silica packs to put in the safe to absorb any moisture that might be present. Some folks put thier floppies in tupperware containers too.
Hope this helps. Have fun.
 
Balislinger said:
Well the collection is getting to that point, so, what do you guys think is the best safe for knife collecting? I don't want to spend alot, I want something with alot of shelves, and a material that is good for long term knife preservation. So help me out guys, I'm relying on your expertise!
Click to expand...

I bought a Fort Knox safe. They have the option of several interior shelf kits. Some for shotguns etc. But they also have a shelf kit for four shelves. The shelves are nicely carpeted.
 
Not a safe but I store mine in the basement in a 20mm waterproof ammo box screwed into the slab with a lock on it. It probably isn't as good as a safe but it will take some work and they have to first get past my burgler alarm, 12 gauge Remington, The Bowser, baseball bat, assorted cutlery, etc. etc.

I think I bought two of them for under $10 at the gun show. They are a very heavy nylon composition with lids that latch at both ends. Good size. Great for storing all kinds of stuff. Very durable (made for being dropped out of airplanes) and watherproof too. I had used metal 50 cal. ammo cases but like these better.
 
Good info so far. Is there a material for the interior that is better than another for storing knives? Is Cannon any good? Should I shop online or locally? Any installation issues I should be aware of? Of the brands listed, which would be a good one for the least dough?

Sorry for all the questions, a safe is a big purchase, not only because of it's cost and long-term use, but because you just can't move the suckers! So I want to make sure I get input from knife guys on what you've found is the best for knives.
 
I have a Champion. It seems fine. I've had no issues with rust.

It is true that fire resistant containers work by storing moisture in the walls. The walls are lined with a material called "UL Fire Board." Fireboard is glorified sheetrock, just a step above the stuff the walls of your house are probably made of. You can buy UL Fire Board at Home Depot in big sheets. It costs a bit more than basic drywall. Building codes require it in some applications such as when building the partition walls between units of an appartment building. It certainly does work by absorbing moisture out of the air and releasing it when temperature rises. But, things have to get awefully warm. This is one reason why I caution against using dehumidifiers inside safes. You can suck the moisture out of the walls of the safe and reduce their fire-resistance. UL-Rated fire resistant media containers, made for storing computer disks, etc., have two key differences. The first is double-walled construction. They have two separate walls with two layers of Fireboard. But it's the same UL Fireboard product. The second diffence is a heat-activated seal on the door (actually a double-seal). Until you get into vaults with poured concrete, just about all safes use the UL Fireboard product as their fire protection; there's just no better product that's as economical and there's been so much testing work done that an engineer can sit down and figure out just how much thickness of UL Fireboard he needs to design in to achieve a desired fire rating.
 
ThreadMoving.jpg
 
Hmmmm, I'm sure you meant well Cougar, but I was a bit surprised by the move. I thought that this knife-related topic would be better served in general. The general forum is for "general knife related discussion" per BFC definition, which this is one, while community seems to be more for off-topic discussions. Community gets far less traffic, so on a knife-related discussion I would prefer my thread not be moved to "gadgets & gear," which last I checked was mostly discussing non-knife-related items such as flashlights, watches, cookwear and cellphones. Oh well, Cougar may have felt I would get a better response here.

So Chuck am I understanding you correctly that you think a fire-resistant safe is OK and not to use dessicants? Seems like there is a variety of opinion on this, it's an interesting subject.
 
I have been in the Locksmith trade for 23 years now and I wouldn't put my knives into a fire safe unless it was made for multimedia. First of all we are talking apples and oranges here.

A fire container is nothing more than a glorified fireproof file cabinet. With a combination lock or key it is still just a file cabinet. The metal skin/shell is not very tough, burlary tools or being dropped from the second story apt. would break it wide open easily and they all use the fire board chuck mentioned above for thier fire resistance.

Fire safes on the other hand use real safe locks that will hold up to an attempted burglary with multiple relockers, hard plate and such. The skin/shell is a much thicker metal. The fire proof material inside the walls and door is not fire board. This material is more manufacter specific, meaning, they all have they're own special recipe thats designed not just for fire but burlary too. There is cut and drill resistant material with in this mix.
All safes are rated for their fire and burglary resistance. If you can imagine a fire at a house or apt. where the safe is located on the second floor. The safe is roasted at temps ranging from 1500-3000 degrees for a couple hours and then dropped from 15' to 20' in the air onto a pile of rubble to test its durability. Now thats a safe.

If whatever you get is light, bolt it down. Dont give anyone the oppertunity to walk off with it. My nightmare would be to see someone that uses a fire container every day with no problem, have a fire. If the container survived he would find the container, have it opened and find out that all the moisture was released into the container and all of his knives would be ruined:(
that would suck, I love my knives.
Good luck
Keyman
 
Thanks keyman, so just to clarify, you don't like fire containers but you do like fire safes, or only if the fire safe is for "multi-media?"
 
The most common thing I see happen with safes, is people tend to buy small and cheap. Then as a collection grows, or they discover all the things they can keep in there, they want to upgrade and end up spending a lot more money.

Decide first, all the things you may want to keep in one. Guns, knives, jewelry, coins, valuable papers, and other collectables.

Then, I looked at fire resistant. How long will one protect paper in a typical house fire. Paper goes first.

Then, a quality safe is forever. Will be passed down to your children and their children.

So, we bought the largest one we could find. Within the safe, we have a couple of the smaller sentry fireproof lock boxes that contain valuable papers and jewelry.

We also closed out the safe Deposit box at the bank and moved that to the safe. Then I calculated that in about 60 years that alone will pay for the safe. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

We have had ours now for 7 or 8 years and haven't run out of room yet. But it is a big huge thing and you have to have a place to put it.

your collections might grow, a small safe won't.
 
balislinger,
fire containers are made like file cabinets and have no burglary rating,
fire safes are built like a real safe and have burglary ratings.

fire containers & safes are job specific; most are built for the preservation of paperwork - these will release moister into the safe and ruin multimedia, knives or anything that is not paper.

If you want to protect your knives from fire only, buy a multimedia safe or container.
If you want to protect your knives from fire and theft, buy a multimedia safe w/a burglary rating .

Keyman
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top