SR-101 DOES indeed rust and it can rust VERY fast if moderately wet.

I will often see rust within a few minutes when stripping and grinding on any SR-101 as I dunk my blade in water often when grinding. The parts I am not grinding on will start rusting as I am grinding and that is considering the blade gets at least "warm" enough to the touch to evaporate any and all water within a minute or so.

Make no mistakes about how readily SR-101 can rust. It rusts quite well. I am sure one of the MAIN reasons for not offering many satin SR-101 blades is largely related to SR-101's ability to rust so quickly and easily.

So, don't think you can use SR-101 out in the rain or with wet sheaths and not have rust. You will if you don't oil or wax the exposed steel.

That said, I use Ren-Wax on my SR-101 blades and I highly recommend Ren-Wax or some similar corrosion resisting lube.

If you KNOW how SR-101 rusts, it is plenty easy to maintain and a great knife steel. But, it does require some maintanence.

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