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A4 checklist with all illustrated steps. Tick the boxes on paper as you go.

FeatherSticks · Tools

Knife Care and Axe Care: Rust, Oil, Handles and Storage

Five minutes of care after a trip keeps a knife and an axe going for decades.

Quick facts

Time
5 min after a trip, 30 min twice a year
Difficulty
Easy – routine matters more than skill
Best for
Knives, axes, saws, sheaths and wooden handles
You need
Cloth, oil, linseed oil, fine abrasive

What you need

  • Cotton cloths: one dry, one lightly oiled, kept in a tin or zip bag
  • Food-safe oil (mineral or camellia oil) in a small dropper bottle
  • Linseed oil for wooden handles, plus a metal can with a lid for used rags
  • Grade 0000 steel wool or a rust eraser
  • Wet-and-dry paper in 400, 600 and 1000 grit and a small sanding block
  • Leather grease or beeswax dressing
  • Old toothbrush and wooden toothpicks for pivots and saw slots
  • Spare hardwood and steel wedges for the axe

Step by step

  1. Clean off sap and dirt

    1 Clean off sap and dirt

    Wipe blade, axe head and saw clean right after the trip. Resin comes off with a little oil or alcohol. Always wipe from the spine side, never along the edge.

  2. Dry everything completely

    2 Dry everything completely

    Dry the steel, the handle and the junction between them with a cloth, then leave the tools in the open air for an hour. Sheaths and masks dry separately at room temperature.

  3. Oil the steel thinly

    3 Oil the steel thinly

    Put two or three drops of oil on a cloth and wipe a thin film over blade, spine and axe head. Use a food-safe oil on anything that cuts food.

  4. Feed wood and leather

    4 Feed wood and leather

    Rub a thin coat of linseed oil into wooden handles a few times a year and wipe off the excess. Dry the oily rags flat outdoors: crumpled up, they can self-ignite.

  5. Store dry, out of the leather

    5 Store dry, out of the leather

    Keep the tools in a dry room with the knife beside its sheath, not inside it. Check the axe head for tightness before the next trip.

Common mistakes

  • Putting a wet knife back into its leather sheath and leaving it there until the next trip.
  • Leaving linseed-oil rags crumpled in a bin or bag instead of drying them flat outdoors or sinking them in water.
  • Standing a loose axe in water: tight for a day, looser than before afterwards.
  • Attacking light rust with coarse sandpaper or a wire wheel and grinding away sound steel and the finish.
  • Drying leather or a wooden handle on a stove or radiator, which cracks both and loosens the axe head.
  • Oiling thickly: sticky blades collect grit, and uncured linseed oil leaves a gummy skin on the handle.
  • Treating care as a substitute for sharpening, or working on with a head that has started to move.