Advice needed for a new to me old slip-joint

[Mongo]

Greetings all,

My Dad, out of the blue, handed me and old three bladed slip joint that had belonged to my Grandfather. It has a clip point main blade with a long pull, a slightly shorter secondary blade on the same end, and a punch on the other end. It has two springs and pinned bolsters with presumed black and yellow celluloid scales. It has a shield shaped shield with part of it missing. There is a fair amount of rust inside, but all three blades open, two of them reluctantly. All three blades are carbon steel and all have some degree of rust to them.

This may seem horrible to some of you, but I'd like to clean off the rust on the blades, get the rust out of the inside, and have easier working joints. Of course, don't want to hurt the presumed celluoid scales.

Looking forward to all y'all's information and help.
Mongo

 

[glennbad]

I see nothing wrong with stopping the rust on you knife. You can use some very fine steel wool to clean up the rust. I also heard you can use lead pencil to remove surface rust. Use a toothpick to clean out the rust in the well. Beyond that, it's up to you. Be sure to share a pic of the knife.

 

[knarfeng]

Howdy. Going to move this thread to Maintenance and Tinkering. Most of the Traditional fellas who specialize in knife restoration also spend time in that forum. And there's others there who don't hang out in Traditional who, who nevertheless are quite knowledgeable about such things.

And I'll add a warning about the celluloid. Old celluloid is known to decompose and release nitric acid. This makes this knife a potential hazard to itself, but also to any other knives stored in close proximity. I recommend you store this one separate from your other knives, just to be safe.

And there's nothing wrong with removing rust. At the very least you want to gently remove any red rust.

 

[Bill DeShivs]

Most of the old yellow handled knives were not celluloid. Celluloid smells like camphor when vigorously rubbed with a cloth.

 

[knarfeng]

I'm partial to WD-40 for cleaning old knives. It does a good job of penetrating and getting lubricant into nooks and crannies.

 

[Markesharp]

I'm partial to WD-40 for cleaning old knives. It does a good job of penetrating and getting lubricant into nooks and crannies.

I also use WD-40 for cleaning old knives, it has worked the best for removing and preventing rust. :thumbup: