Er, right, rust. Anyone considered stainless? Before this sounds like ultra-blasphemy, let me give you a few scenarios.
One, you are hiking/walking/climbing/cycling/whatever, and it starts raining. You're a way from home and soon all your kit is wet. Including your knife, which is sitting in your bag, forgotten because you're too busy both getting the tarp up and saving your sodden food, not to mention your clothes and sleeping bag.
Two, you live by the sea. You leave your knife on the windowsill/sideboard/anywhere. It perhaps isn't in its sheath.
Three, you're into watersports, and don't want to have the burden of your knife on your mind. Not to mention having to keep oil for it, and keep drying and oiling it.
All three of those could be got around, with good care of the knife and just remembering to do it. But in practical terms that doesn't always happen. There are stainless steels that hold an edge just as good as most carbon steels. I don't know the exact mechanics of it, nor the names of the steels, but even the standard stuff is more than satisfactory. All my knives are stainless
One, you are hiking/walking/climbing/cycling/whatever, and it starts raining. You're a way from home and soon all your kit is wet. Including your knife, which is sitting in your bag, forgotten because you're too busy both getting the tarp up and saving your sodden food, not to mention your clothes and sleeping bag.
Two, you live by the sea. You leave your knife on the windowsill/sideboard/anywhere. It perhaps isn't in its sheath.
Three, you're into watersports, and don't want to have the burden of your knife on your mind. Not to mention having to keep oil for it, and keep drying and oiling it.
All three of those could be got around, with good care of the knife and just remembering to do it. But in practical terms that doesn't always happen. There are stainless steels that hold an edge just as good as most carbon steels. I don't know the exact mechanics of it, nor the names of the steels, but even the standard stuff is more than satisfactory. All my knives are stainless
