Reply by David

One trick I use is to put the packets of desiccant that you get with lots of products in the box with anything I want to keep dry. It’s only effective for relatively well sealed enclosures though, so just throwing some in a drawer probably won’t do much.

Beyond that I use paste wax and have a dehumidifier running in the basement to keep the RH down.

Keep whatever you’re storing tools in off the ground and away from walls as basement floors/walls tend to be cooler than the air and cooler temp means higher relative humidity even though the absolute humidity may be the same. (Not to mention unsealed concrete or brick lets a fair amount of water into your basement.)

I haven’t found any specific products to work better than others (not saying some aren’t better, just that I haven’t tested too many), I prefer to keep the environment unfavorable to rust as my primary means to prevent it.

-- Perilous to all of us are the devices of an art deeper than we ourselves possess. --Gandalf the Grey http://davidwahl.org/category/woodworking/