By Nick Italiano
Knife Pivot Lube, also known as KPL, has been around for a few years now and they have made quite then name for themselves in the Every Day Carry Community. They are known for their top of the line pivot lubricants that improve pivot action and protect these internal parts. While this is certainly a great claim to fame, KPL’s goals are to become the premier knife maintence supplier and their new Knife Sheild product is a giant leap in that direction.
As an outdoorsman, most of my knives are carbon steel. The increased toughness and ease of sharpening are important for a hard use outdoor knife. The downside is the increased likelihood of rust build up and damage. Traditionally we have had the options of oil and wax which can be messy, or non-food safe coating options. When Knife Shield was announced I heard that it was both food safe and a dry undetectable layer of protection, needless to say I was intrigued.
I got my first bottle of Knife Sheild when it was released and promptly started to test it out on some of my heavy use high carbon knives. Application is simple, spray a little on a cloth and wipe it into your blade. After about 30 seconds I found it had dried completely and left no oily residue at all. I slipped those knives back into their leather sheaths and went about my day to day use. In addition I also treated some knives I use less often and typically store outside of their leather sheaths to avoid corrosion, but this time I left them in their sheaths to see what would happen.
Through day to day use I found absolutely no rust developing on my high carbon blades. Even in higher heat and humidity in my local environments. KPL does reccomend reapplying more frequently in wet environments and since I’m always near rivers, lakes, and bogs I decided to reapply weekly and that has definitely worked for me so far.
On the blades that I decided to apply to and store in their leather sheaths I checked back in after a week and found no rust, and again two weeks later, then a month later; each time I found absolutely no rust developing. This impressed me, because it makes storing my extra knives much easier!
Confident that Knife Shield is a great protectant, I now wanted to test out its abilities as a cleaner. I found it handled day to day tape gunk and food stuff like a champ, but I wanted to give it a try on something more challenging, pine resin. Pine resin from fat wood is notoriously sticky stuff, and knife shield got it off with little time to soak and a little bit of elbow grease when wiping it down.
It is important to note that despite the amazing properties of this product there are some limitations. You can’t throw your knife in the river and expect it not to rust, nor can you leave it out in the rain for days on end as the force of the water droplets will displace the protective barrier; but for storage and day to day use this is a solid option.
Overall I’m very impressed with Knife Shield, it performs just as good if not better then oils, and is 100% food safe which is good because you never know when your outdoor knife will be processing some food materials!
These are retailing for $17.99 a bottle and you can pick some up (or any other KPL product) for 10% off using code BLACKFLAG at check out! Click here to check it out!
Black Flag Survival 