Bought a user, how to clean it up?

[dawgfan]

Blade has some scratches and discolored marks. I'm tempted to disassemble and tumble the blade in crushed walnut media, then resharpen. What would you do to try and clean up the blade?

Thanks!

 

[REK Knives]

Don't know if walnut will do anything, but it's worth a shot! You could also get some ceramic media from harbor freight and tumble it in that for a couple hours. If it's going to continue to be a user, I would knock the bad rust off and leave it as is.

 

[dawgfan]

I've got the ceramic media too. Wouldn't that remove the Spyder and Kahr logos? That's not a big deal - just wondering if it would look like stonewashing.

 

[Bill DeShivs]

I would squirt some WD 40 on it, and rub it with a coarse cloth.
It really doesn't need anything done to it.

 

[REK Knives]

I've got the ceramic media too. Wouldn't that remove the Spyder and Kahr logos? That's not a big deal - just wondering if it would look like stonewashing.

As long as they are etched in there no it would not. However, it may lighten them up. It would have a stonewashed look, yes.

 

[The Zieg]

I would use it heavily for a month and see whether it cleans up from the abrasion of cutting. Cut, clean as usual, sharpen as needed.

Zieg

 

[dawgfan]

All good advice, thank you.

I was intending this to be an option for office carry as it would blend well with khakis. Bought with intent to clean up a bit as opposed to a scratched up user. Nothing wrong with them at all, just had a slight clean up in mind for it.

 

[bgentry]

In my admittedly limited experience: You want to start with the least abrasive thing you can use that might do the job. Oil on a rag is shockingly good at removing light rust. Disassembling the whole thing might be fun. It might be hard to put back together, but if you're up to the challenge it will let you get at all the moving parts and clean them all up like brand new.

If oil on a rag doesn't work, you could try a slightly stronger degreaser. Simple Green has been really good on a few things I've tried it on. After that, you might go to something abrasive like steel wool. But be aware of the fundamental tenet of removing scratches: To remove a scratch, you must use an abrasive that makes marks as deep and big as the scratch itself. So that might mean that you need (for example) 320 grit to remove the scratches completely. Then you'd need to step up through a progression until you got it to the level of polish (or matte) that you want.

Just some thoughts.

Brian.

 

[dawgfan]

Since it was a user and bought to experiment with, I went the ceramic media tumble route. I think it turned out pretty well. I also cleaned all of the individual parts and scales. Not sure if I'm going to continue tumbling to try and remove remainder of logos or not. Spyderco one is half way gone, but Kahr retained a lot of color. Must be lasered?

Here's where it all stands currently.

 

[Blade and Flame]

The blade turned out great.

 

[dawgfan]

Thanks. Need to reassemble and sharpen it, then good to go.