I'm sorry, but... Mineral oil?

Bill DeShivs said:
Never use mineral, or any other oil on horn, stag, ivory, wood, or bone. They don't contain mineral oil naturally.
It does nothing to ivory, soaks into crevices in horn and makes them difficult or impossible to repair, and soaks into stag, wood, and bone-softening and discoloring them.
Use paste wax.
Only DRYING oils should be used on wood-tung, boiled linseed, etc.
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Now you've got me worried Bill, as I have been using Ballistol on my bone handle knives for a while. Since it is mainly mineral oil, has anyone out there had bone softening/deterioration problems using mineral oil? What about skin oils? Seems like that would be worse for bone than mineral oil, which is essentially inert. Thanks
 
Carolina Tom said:
Now you've got me worried Bill, as I have been using Ballistol on my bone handle knives for a while. Since it is mainly mineral oil, has anyone out there had bone softening/deterioration problems using mineral oil? What about skin oils? Seems like that would be worse for bone than mineral oil, which is essentially inert. Thanks
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Don't worry about it. I've used WD-40 on bone-scaled knives for a long time (20+ years). The mineral oil left by it hasn't fazed the bone at all (might make it shine a bit more, in the short term). The solvent in WD-40 might remove a little excess dye from brand new knives with bone scales, but only to a point, after which the color becomes quite stable (I've done this). Either way, as long as you're not literally soaking the bone in it for a long period of time, a simple wipedown with a moistened rag or paper towel isn't going to harm anything in/on the bone. As for soaking, the solvents would be much more dangerous to materials literally immersed in it. They're what is used to make oils penetrate more deeply in WD-40 or Ballistol. With just a light wipedown application, however, the solvent evaporates very quickly.

The pharmaceutical-grade (laxative) mineral oil is very inert by design, so it can't be chemically absorbed by the body (which is why it's a good laxative; passes right through). It won't harm bone scales either.

Skin oils won't do any harm to the bone. They do contain moisture and salts, though, which might contribute to rust on a non-stainless blade.
 
Whew! Thanks David! I totally understand what Bill is saying that too much of a good thing can be bad, but a certain amount of oil gets to bone scales from routine cleaning and sharpening, not to mention skin oils, which are acidic. For example, I have a redbone Case barlow (1960's) that I just won on EBay. The guy who owned it must have worked in a garage because it was really gunked up with grease when I got it. I rubbed it down with Ballistol and for 3 days, every time I rubbed it down, dirt and grease came out of the bone (it has marrow grooves on both sides). It was obviously exposed to petroleum grease for years. Finally I got it clean and the bone still seems very hard and substantial. Marrow has a lot of oils (fat) in it, but as Bill says its not mineral oil. I have never seen a piece of bone damaged by oil, but I have seen bone implements that have cracked and splintered due to being all dried out. I guess there are two schools of thought on this. I have a friend in the museum business and he oils everything he owns that is bone! There are also differneces in how you treat stuff that you will use everyday versus how something is treated that is conserved in a collection. For instance, I treat my leather boots that I wear to the woods, but in museum collections, leather is not treated with grease under normal circumstances because it encourages mold in things that are never used, like pieces in a collection. Maybe I'll order some bone scales and soak them in mineral oil for a year and report month by month on the deterioration if it occurs. Seems like a question calling for a definitive answer. Thanks to both you and Bill for your answers. :)
 
I think (or suspect, anyway) a lot of the bad rap about oiling bone or other natural materials comes from the very wide-ranging definition of 'oil'. There are virtually unlimited chemical formulas for petroleum oils in particular. A lot of them do contain other harmful stuff (solvents and other corrosive/caustic ingredients). I've seen posts from people who like to use motor oils, transmission oils and who-knows-what to lubricate and maintain their knives, and that sometimes makes me cringe a bit. A lot of that stuff has extra ingredients included (detergents or solvents, for instance) to make it work well in machine/automotive applications, but also come with warnings about not using it for purposes not intended. With the pharmaceutical grade mineral oil, it's chemical formula is deliberately derived to make it completely incapable of bonding or chemically interacting with anything in the body, and therefore incapable of being absorbed by the body. This is why I've never had any worries about using it for my knives.

My mother has been using a set of 'Chicago Cutlery' knives in the kitchen since the '70s, I think. We still have & use that same set. She has maintained the walnut handles on these knives with either/both of vegetable oil or butcher-block oil (mineral oil) for the duration. Those handles are as good-looking and strong now, as they've ever been. The only possible issue I've noticed is a little green 'verdigris' around the brass rivets of the handle, which is likely due to the acidic nature of vegetable oil, after it oxidizes and breaks down. But even that discoloration is very light, and cleans up pretty easily. Not even enough to cause pitting in the brass, after 30-40 years of use.
 
Bone is not as critically affected by oil as are horn, ivory and stag.
Mineral oil will not be digested, but it can be absorbed by porous natural materials.
 
I've no doubt it can be absorbed in porous material. In fact, I'm sure it will be. But absorption into empty space (pores) doesn't always imply alteration or degradation of the material absorbing it, as might happen with a chemical interaction between the two. The lack of a chemical interaction is why mineral oil (pharmaceutical grade) is useful for this. It's completely inert (literally, chemically non-reactive). It fills up the voids & pores, and that's it. It isn't chemically capable of doing anything else to a natural material, besides occupying empty space. Pores occupied by inert mineral oil won't otherwise absorb water. That's a good thing.
 
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Oddly enough, I've found baby oil works well in a pinch when you can't find anything else. It's just mineral oil and fragrance.
 
I carried a Puma Duke stag knife from 1978 until approximately 2004. The stag has been exposed to all kinds of oils, gun solvents and industrial cleaning solutions. The stag is a little yellow, but otherwise fine.
 
I use mineral oil pretty often, but I might switch back to 3 in 1 oil. Mineral oil makes the pivot feel nice and smooth for about 10 openings then it gets sticky. 3 in 1 oil doesn't do it as much in my experience. Sure 3 in 1 is probably not good to drink, but a trace amount on food won't kill ya.
 
MJF said:
Oddly enough, I've found baby oil works well in a pinch when you can't find anything else. It's just mineral oil and fragrance.
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They sell unscented baby oil. But if you already have the scented stuff, as I do, I would just use that.
 
matt1987 said:
I use mineral oil pretty often, but I might switch back to 3 in 1 oil. Mineral oil makes the pivot feel nice and smooth for about 10 openings then it gets sticky. 3 in 1 oil doesn't do it as much in my experience. Sure 3 in 1 is probably not good to drink, but a trace amount on food won't kill ya.
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3-In-1 is mostly mineral oil. According to what I've read, it is spindle oil (thin mineral oil) with an additive to prevent corrosion and some citronella oil. Pretty neat formula actually . . . I may need to rediscover 3-in1:) Thanks for all the neat replies!
 
I'm allergic to something in 3 In 1 oil. Makes me sneeze!
 
Bill DeShivs said:
I'm allergic to something in 3 In 1 oil. Makes me sneeze!
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Maybe the citronella oil. I previously wasn't aware it was in 3-in-1, but after a little searching & reading, citronella oil is used as a 'perfumery' additive in stuff like soaps, perfumes and cosmetics. I know I've smelled a few perfumes that really stirred up my sinuses and/or made me sneeze. Also used as a non-toxic insect repellent ('biopesticide').

Excerpt from Wiki article about 3-in-1 Oil ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-In-One_Oil ):
"The formula consists of pale spindle oil with a small amount of corrosion inhibitor and citronella oil (which gives the product its distinctive sharp odor)."
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Here's an excerpt from a Wiki article on citronella oil ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citronella_oil ):
"Citronella oil is one of the essential oils obtained from the leaves and stems of different species of Cymbopogon(lemongrass). The oil is used extensively as a source of perfumery chemicals such as citronellal, citronellol and geraniol. These chemicals find extensive use in soap, perfumery, cosmetic and flavouring industries throughout the world.[1]

Citronella oil is also a renowned plant-based insect repellent, and has been registered for this use in the United States since 1948.[2] The United States Environmental Protection Agency‎ considers oil of citronella as a biopesticide with a non-toxic mode of action.[3] Research also shows that citronella oil has strong antifungal properties,[4][5][6] and is effective in calming barking dogs.[7]"
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I think the citronella is what makes it stink so bad, or maybe a combination of it and the corrosion inhibitor. Then again, I like the smell of Ballistol, so what do I know??:barf:
 
mineral oil works fine to lube stuff up, its made out of... oil. plus you can eat it. not sure what else you need other then oil to oil something up.
 
Hey speaking of mineral oil, I have a mildly amusing story:
I went to Home Depot and Lowes, asking about Mineral oil. Both places told me they don't think it exist and directed me to mineral spirits. The woman at Home Depot asked what I was going to with it. I said it was for wiping down tools. She said to use mineral oil as that will clean them. I said no, I don't really care about cleaning them so much as keeping them oiled. I explained to her that I had read that using a rag wet with mineral oil to wipe down a tool is clean enough.
Anyway, I went to a Walgreens or maybe CVS to pick some up. I went looking around near the rubbing alcohol and glanced over at the baby oil. Remembering that I bought some earlier to rub in my hair after I shower. It makes your hair all greasy. It's stupid. But I then remembered that the back read mineral oil. :foot:
 
I use pure mineral oil on all my carbon steel knives (I have hundreds in my collection and inventory). I also use it on my wood handles. It will, however, discolor bone and stag in my experience: it may even add a degree of translucence. I now keep oil off my bone and stag handled knives at all costs to prevent this. Natural skin oils will make stag look 'warm', but the amount we're talking is minuscule compared to slathering on mineral oil.
 
DrivebyTrucker said:
They sell unscented baby oil. But if you already have the scented stuff, as I do, I would just use that.
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pharmaceutical grade mineral oil and Baby oil are not the same

pharmaceutical grade mineral oil is much thicker and gummier
I only use it for long tern storage

unscented baby oil is much thinner and gums much less
I do not find it attracts dirt more than other oils
 
I have used mineral oil on my folders that will have food contact, and they seem to lubricate well, though they attract pocket lint. I have since switched to camellia oil or tea seed oil. It seems to lubricate as well but somehow seems safer not being a petroleum byproduct. If it's good enough for tempura and japanese tools, it seems good enough for slicing my cheese and salami.
 
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