<< heard that you should coat a knife with oil, or lubricant, etc. periodically...to prevent rust >><br><br>Caveat: I am not around salt water very often. When I am, I protect my knives and guns as best I can. Even so, one glance in my gun room will quickly identify which guns have been on coastal trips / on salt water... but for some reason, my knives have been unaffected. I guess I've been fortunate, tho.<br><br>I simply keep my knives dry. When they get wet, I dry them off. They do not rust. Things that I put away for an extended period get a light coat of Rust Inhibiting Grease (R.I.G.). LPS 2 also works very well if you prefer a spray can. Everyone says to use mineral oil on knives that are/can be used on food, and that makes sense to me (if it's a knife, I eventually use it on food - I like food...). But I just keep mine dry. Pivots on folders get a drop of oil as needed and that's about it.<br><br>Sometimes I blue a knife. I like that, especially when they come out very dark. Best luck has been with cold bluing used in a "hot" application method - see Brownell's website. Some knife steels don't blue well, though. It's easy enough to strip back off if you don't like it, but I would not buy some spendy stuff from Brownell's just for a knife. This is more cosmetic than anything, but it does inhibit rust better than bare steel, particulary if "sealed" with oil occasionally (and then wiped dry, in my useage)<br><br>My favorite EDC knife for over 30 years has that nice "patina" that develops over years of use and it is practically rustproof - well, it has never rusted, so there you go... A couple of years ago, I got to thinking about that - when I gave someone a new copy of that knife, it looked awful to me - gaudy naked steel blades. Hmmm... where did my knife get that patina? Probably from contact with acids, blood, etc. Here's what I did to it: I carefully de-greased the knife and cut up an apple with it. I let the juice dry on the knife (moments) and then sliced a fresh exposure of apple and wiped each blade with the freshly exposed apple again. Repeated many times (same apple - read a book or something to pass the time). By the time I finished, the knife had a very good start on a very nice patina. I assume that the main actor is citric acid (and perhaps a couple of others in lesser roles) and that the patina is some sort of iron salt like an iron citrate - but whatever it is, it's attractive and hard as heck and it works prettty well as a barrier to superficial rust. The de-greasing is important - you WILL get spotty results otherwise. Obviously, this will NOT work with a stainless steel blade. YMMV, and I would not suggest doing this to an expensive knife.<br><br><< what type of resonably priced sharpener do you all recommend >><br><br>See Doug's comments on ETS. I have carried conventional stones (oil is a PITA to carry around - you may want to use them dry or with water, but once you use oil you're stuck - oil ever thereafter), EZ-Lap, ceramics, etc. but I am becoming very fond of DMT folding diamond laps - especially the dual-grit models. The only thing that I do not like about them and similar types is the perforated lapping surface - small blades and fine tip work can be a PITA on the perf laps. I would prefer a smooth lap - which costs more, of course, as there is more surface for diamond dust to be adhered to, and hence more diamond. I have an idea for a "perfect" folding diamond dust lap that I hope to make up one of these days... meanwhile, the DMT duo-folds are very good IMHO.<br><br>Just my 2 cents worth... <br><br>Tom