how do you keep tools from rusting

[Gary S]

Bing; finally someone with the answer.
Good ole grease and oil; keeps them from rusting....

Oh yeah, lay off the feather dusters for a while...and use all those shiny unused tools

That's my secret too. Don't clean all that icky oil and grease off the tools. It protects them so they never rust. My 40 year old Craftsman wrenches are still nice and shiny..............under all that grease.

 

[Torque1st]

wouldn't venting them allow moisture to enter that would make them useless for preventing rust.

Vent FITTING in other words something that can be opened and closed or a plug etc... Something to relieve the air pressure differential.

 

[B.K.M]

Instead of WD-40, I like Camellia oil, but I don't buy it by the gallon -- in other words, it's just for precision tools and blades. It's ideal for any edge tool, knife, blade, chisel etc. I use it on plane blades, chisels, a marking knife and my straight shaving razor. I don't have any fine swords or knives but it is ideal for those. I also wipe the unfinished parts of Starrett tools with it.

For things like the lawn mower blade, hedge shears, shovels, and saw blades for green wood I use WD-40 or something like it - 4 in 1, Tri-Flow, Liquid Wrench etc. I realize these have a wide range of lubricity, but they all seem to work well enough for general purposes. WD-40 is a bit abrasive. Tri-Flow is really slick but more expensive (no reason to use it on a shovel). For machine tools I would look at something like Boesheild, but I don't have a machine shop.