Knife sanitizing/dereasing/cleaning solution?

C

Cyber_Demigod

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I need some advice on a knife cleaning solution to purchase, it should to be able to sanitize as well but that is not a must - more on that below, I see a lot of people saying to use oil to clean your knife, but I need something that will actually remove oil as well. I mean CLEAN, like bare knife, no grease or oil from skin, lubricants, dirt, grime, etc...

I need it to hopefully sanitize as well, I am trying to find something else besides alcohol to do this with, however if it does cleaning and degreasing but not sanitizing that is fine. I just will need to find a separate sanitizing solution as well, so advice on either/or/both ?

I am currently trying to add to my current arsenal of knife maintenance solutions and tools, and possibly replace the rubbing alcohol in it altogether.
 
What's wrong with rubbing alcohol? It does its job without harming most materials and has some other uses besides degreasing and sterilising a knife.
Is it too agressive or not agressive enough? Is the flammability a problem?
Based on that one can suggest better alternatives.
Acetone is great at degreasing for example.
 
I use a Windex-moistened paper towel for all (sanitizing, degreasing, cleaning). If something more stubborn needs to be cleaned off, like tree sap, packaging (tape) adhesive, or very heavy automotive-type grease, I'll usually use some Goo-Gone to remove that, followed again by some Windex to remove the oily Goo-Gone residue.

Isopropyl alcohol works best for removing Sharpie ink after sharpening, BTW. Sharpie ink is in an alcohol suspension, so alcohol dissolves it almost immediately.

I've specifically avoided using isopropyl alcohol on the plastic ('cellidor') scales of Victorinox knives, as it can sometimes soften and distort the plastic; they seem to be sensitive to it. Figured this out after wiping down one of my Vic Classics with it, and left an 'embossed' image of my thumbprint on the alcohol-softened plastic. The scales also warped a bit after it dried, so it won't hold onto the toothpick anymore.


David
 
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I've been using isopropyl alcohol for pretty much everything but I didn't think about different types of plastic handles. It's something to think about. Luckily, I've had good results with FRN, G-10, Ti, and aluminum. I do keep it away from any wood handles or finished handles.

How about optic cleaners? They're pretty mild and safe for optical coatings so I'd think they're fine for plastics.
 
dsmegst said:
I've been using isopropyl alcohol for pretty much everything but I didn't think about different types of plastic handles. It's something to think about. Luckily, I've had good results with FRN, G-10, Ti, and aluminum. I do keep it away from any wood handles or finished handles.

How about optic cleaners? They're pretty mild and safe for optical coatings so I'd think they're fine for plastics.
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I've given some thought to optic cleaners as well; they are made to be fairly gentle. I have a couple bottles for my glasses, though I usually just rinse those with water, using the optic cleaner maybe once or twice a week. The optic cleaner seems to work well for cleaning my laptop's screen also, wiped with an old, soft cotton tee-shirt; laptop screens can be sensitive to harsher cleaners like Windex or alcohol, as they might strip the non-glare coating from them. Don't see why it wouldn't be useful for knives also. It's probably not a true sanitizier, though I don't know if my favored Windex is either (I don't worry too much about it, though). In cleaning my knives, I compare methods with how I've treated kitchen flatware for food use. If washing the flatware with simple liquid dish detergent and warm water is good enough for me (and it is), then I don't worry too much about the means by which I clean my pocket knives. I think perhaps chlorine bleach is one of the few real 'sanitizers', but wouldn't ordinarily use it unless I KNEW there were serious germ risks in a specific situation. Bleach is corrosive to carbon steel, not to mention the risks of it altering the color or completely ruining some types of handle material.


David
 
Would anti bacterial dish soap not clean off all the hunk including oil? I've had luck getting oil off kitchen knives with plain old antibacterial dishwashing detergent .

There is a product made to clean knives but the name leaves me . You spray it on and it cleans it. I don't know is its antibacterial or not though.

I have a toddler on the house so we have antibacterial everything (wife's thing) like I said she researched antibacterial dish soap for the cases when a sippy cup 1/4 full of milk goes missing for a few days we are prepared I wash all knives that touch food in that , for carbon steel blades in the kitchen a wash with antibacterial soap and a drying then I apply frog lube (it works and it's non toxic and food safe and all that good stuff. Anyhow brush on frog lube , turn a stove eye on to let the blade get warm and frog lube melt then let it cool down wipe off excess and put it away.
 
Spartan00 said:
Would anti bacterial dish soap not clean off all the hunk including oil? I've had luck getting oil off kitchen knives with plain old antibacterial dishwashing detergent .

There is a product made to clean knives but the name leaves me . You spray it on and it cleans it. I don't know is its antibacterial or not though.

I have a toddler on the house so we have antibacterial everything (wife's thing) like I said she researched antibacterial dish soap for the cases when a sippy cup 1/4 full of milk goes missing for a few days we are prepared I wash all knives that touch food in that , for carbon steel blades in the kitchen a wash with antibacterial soap and a drying then I apply frog lube (it works and it's non toxic and food safe and all that good stuff. Anyhow brush on frog lube , turn a stove eye on to let the blade get warm and frog lube melt then let it cool down wipe off excess and put it away.
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If you remember let me know yeah?

Dish soap/liquid/concentrate requires water to wash it off. Not good for degreasing a knife that you either cannot take apart, or just want to degrease lightly or in depth without taking it apart to dry the entire thing properly.
Of course you could spray a water displacer into it but then what do you use to take the water displacer off? More Soap?
Iso works fine usually because the water evaporates with it, and not much water in it to begin with.

I need an alternative to Isopropyl alcohol, firstly because a knife was damaged after cleaning it with iso, and while most people on here including myself think it was caused by something else, I would like other options just to be safe. .
Isopropyl alcohol tends to leave spots, especially the purest forms of it, and it also has water it in, while not problematic, I would really like something that I can just spray into or on my knives, and let it evaporate, and have the problem solved, without any worry.
I've seen 50/50 iso cause rust before on another persons knife, it got trapped in an area that prevented evaporation, and the metal on the knife rusted. Has not happened to me yet, but I would like to find something water free anyways.

Just need a sanitizing/cleaning/degreasing solution that does not require me to either reclean the knife just to get the stuff off or to wash the knife at all with water, even if it takes multiple products for each thing like one to sanitize/clean and one to degrease/clean. Was hoping somebody here knew of something else besides Iso. Hopefully something less harsh but interested in any and all alternatives really.

The optic cleaners out there were a thought of mine as well, but most are not sanitizing, and often have water in them which is something I am explicitly avoiding.

Also that same softening effect Obsessed With Edges mentioned can be easily observed, if you have something plastic and you want to junk it, or even just a plastic bag, acetone does the same thing to almost all plastics, I had some acetone in a ziploc and it melted the corners and leaked out, and the parts it dried on got sticky from the mix of dissolved plastic. It was resting on a nebulizer for some reason, somebody moved it onto it, and the top of it became soft, and it was actually putty like, could be scraped off with a butter like consistency.

Alcohol has a similar effect on some plastics, although very few in comparison.

Windex ehh? Have you ever sprayed that directly into your knife to degrease inside it or around pivot
Windex has a lot of water in it, and uses ammonia to clean I think. Some of them also have Isopropyl Alcohol in them :P

Acetone melts almost all plastics, I do use it sometimes to clean/degrease/sanitize all metal knives, but I keep it away from knives with resin/epoxy/plastic in them - celluloid, g10, Grivory, all of it. Just be safe and keep that stuff far away from anything non metal.


I have heard of break cleaners and stuff, but no idea if that sanitizes, or leaves residue, anybody have any experience with this stuff? I don't want to just buy and try, I don't want to damage my knives :P Would like some advice first
 
Aegis solutions edci is the brand of stuff I first said . Never user it personally but I hear good things
 
Can't help but feel this is overthinking it by a large margin. A knife that's going to get used and carried at all outside a truly sterile environment (like a hospital or high-tech manufacturing clean room, etc) is never going to be fully sanitized; that's just an illusion. Touch it once, and it's not sanitary anymore. Guaranteeing a truly sanitized knife means thoroughly cleaning it once under severely strict protocols, sealing it up in an airtight container and never using it again; it's unrealistic and hugely impractical. Treat the knife like you'd treat the utensils you eat with at home, i.e., wash & dry them after each use, and you'll be fine.

Don't know if Windex has alcohol or not. But, even if so, it's in such a minor concentration as to be a non-factor. Don't worry about it. Same with water in cleaning products or just used alone; just dry it off, and it's never going to be an issue, even on non-stainless knives.


David
 
Not really, that is all rather exaggerated and not even close to my intent here.
I don't need my knife to be always sterile, that is not the intent of this at all. There are times when you must sterilize a knife - if it has fallen on the ground before food prep, if you dressed a kill with it or while you are dressing to prevent cross contamination, or god forbid emergency surgery or things of that nature.

Folding knives, when washed with water, can trap water in small crevices and in the hinges, flushing it out with something like acetone or 99.9% alcohol has worked to replace the trapped water with something that evaporates and dust not cause rust. But you cannot always use acetone especially, let alone pure alcohol of sorts

Minor concentrations of things can still be a factor if the item is sensitive to the contents. Rubbing alcohol in the 50% area can cause rust when trapped, I've seen it happen personally as I said, and I know that 70 can do it as well, which is why for flushing I only ever use 99%

Sure I could use dish soap and what not, but to keep water from being trapped in the knife, I would either need to disassemble the knife EVERY time I cleaned it to prevent rust, or I would need the type of product(s) I asked about here, to get rid of the water and clean out the residual water. I don't really like rust, I go over my knives with magnification and electronic microscopes to see if rust starts - I take a zero tolerance policy to it really, I prevent it at all costs and treat it before it gets bad when it does appear. I kind of enjoy taking care of knives a bit.

Also a bit late on reply, apparently my reply did not post before.

I'll be looking into a few things like break cleaner and Frog Lube Degreaser, but am still needing recommendations.
I checked out that Aegis Solutions EDCI - it is more of a corrosion inhibitor, and a good one at that, but not really what I was looking for in terms of cleaning, degreasing, and/or sanitizing
Still, cool product, will definitely test it against my oils, waxes, and other rust preventing substances when the time comes.
 
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wiped blade off with paper towel then added some alcohol., proceeded to prepare food with it. Just wipe the blade with alcohol


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"Sure I could use dish soap and what not, but to keep water from being trapped in the knife, I would either need to disassemble the knife EVERY time I cleaned it to prevent rust, or I would need the type of product(s) I asked about here, to get rid of the water and clean out the residual water. I don't really like rust, I go over my knives with magnification and electronic microscopes to see if rust starts - I take a zero tolerance policy to it really, I prevent it at all costs and treat it before it gets bad when it does appear. I kind of enjoy taking care of knives a bit."

Uh, some canned air will drive out any moisture if preceded by pin point application of 100 percent isopropyl. I use Ajax liquid dish soap to wash with copious amounts of water to flush, then tip down to dry after a couple hard wrist flicks in a couple orientations. Once dry I have 5/30 synthetic in a small pin point applicator. In real emergencies, just triage and let ER docs deal with infections. Maybe training like a red cross course or EMT would help clarify your role in emergencies?
 
scottc3 said:
preparing calamari or fixin somthin greasy blade dude?
Click to expand...

Cutting a McDonald's burger.
Was actually changing trans fluid in my car and scraped off the old gasket with my delica.

Op get a cloth soak with alcohol and wipe off blade held tip down so none goes towards handle


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If the issue with alcohol is convenience they do sell presoaked packets at pharmacies. I think the are for use when injecting insuline. The packets are a small roughly 3/4" x 3/4" square that can easily be carried.
 
Windex and the like have ammonia, not alcohol. But its water-based so need to take necessary precautions.

Hand sanitizers are alcohol-based, so appropriate precautions need to be taken.

Whenever cleaning knives, if scales can be removed, do so.

Folding knives need to be lubed. So if I wanted to clean a folder, I'd start with either acetone or 91% rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol. I'd use a syringe to put it just where I need it, then I'd use a thin cotton rag or similar** material to work crap loose remembering to work the hinge back-and-forth. Repeat as needed.

(** Don't use some plastic-based materials if using acetone. Can us non-lint/dense paper comparable to that used for alcohol wipe.)

Once cleaned to satisfaction, then squirt a little WD40 into the hinge areas. WD40 displaces water, if any such as in alcohol, hence the WD - water displacing.

Alternatively, after blowing out any water (or burning off alcohol or acetone), you can use just a touch on Mineral Oil on hinges as your lube or other lube.

While not sterile, WD40 and Mineral Oil (or Frog Lube) are perfectly OK to use around food, especially Mineral Oil and Frog Lube. If still concerned, just wipe the blade of oil by swiping it across anything remotely clean - like a wash cloth. Clean again once finished using it.

If out in the field and overly concerned about germs, carry some 50-91% alcohol with ya.

Note: hand sanitizer does contain alcohol strong enough to kill bacteria, it does NOT kill bacterial spores. This is one reason why bacteria comes back so fast after using hand sanitizer.

Note 2: Washing hands very well with soap, including between fingers and under nails, is just as effective as using hand sanitizer but with the added bonuses of not drying hands out so much as well as helping breed bacteria resistant to being killed by drugs and alcohol.

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Canned air cannot always get into certain areas but I use to use it. But the United States and other countries want bitterant in their canned "air" and it leaves a bitter residue that gets.... everywhere use the knife and then touch food? Digusting taste. Spray keyboard and use it and then touch food? Disgusting taste.

WD40 leaves a gross residue and attracts dirt and gums up mechanical areas after a while. I am looking for something that would actually clean out WD40 like alcohol would, the degreasing property usually found with solvents.

I also know some people who react badly to alcohol. So I would like to be able to recommend an alternative, hopefully just one product. As well if no alcohol is around (I always have some but just for the sake of conversation) - it is good to know alternatives to suit your task. I actually hope to find several alternatives, and then compare their effectiveness against alcohol.
The whole point of this thread is really to discuss if their is a good degreasing/cleaning/sanitizing solution(s) out there other than alcohol or acetone.

I know that some hand sanitizers and wipes use Benzalkonium Chloride - I cannot seem to find the stuff by itself, but it could serve the sanitization purpose if I can find a water and alcohol free version of it. I found a 50% bottle of it online but it is mixed with water. It is in the Barbicide that somebody mentioned earlier. There are several similarly used chemicals like various Ammonium Chlorides.
I still have yet to try break cleaner.
I did find a few recommendations, not sure that they sanitize however - the first "Breakthrough Advanced Firearm Cleaning Technology Military-Grade Solvent" and the second "Tri-Flow Rapid Clean Dry Cleaner/Degreaser"
Not sure if they contain alcohol yet.
I am also looking into Heptane, and Naptha although not really sure that Naptha would be a good idea since I know it can destroy plastics of sorts.
 
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" did find a few recommendations, not sure that they sanitize however - the first "Breakthrough Advanced Firearm Cleaning Technology Military-Grade Solvent" "
sounds like MPro 7 which i love - gel or liquid. serious degreaser with oem reporting 17 percent Diethylene Glycol Monobutyl Ether in water. never used on edged tools.
 
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