Cleaning up Scharade 1080T

al3xd4gr34t

al3xd4gr34t

Joined
Jan 14, 2009
Messages
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I was just given this knife from a friend of mine. It is a US made Old Timer. It is pretty beat up and gritty. I was wondering how one would go about cleaning it up. There is plenty of rust on the inside of the knife and the action is far from smooth. Could a mineral spirits bath do the trick? Thanks

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If it was mine, i would pour it full of dishwashing liquid and start working the blades open and shut. Rinse with scalding hot water and then repeat as manytimes as it takes to get rid of dirt and grime. I would then wrap the blades in paper towel and then moisten the towels with vinegar. Let the knife set 12-24 hours. When you unwrap, you will be totally horrified. The blades will be blackened as if burned. The black can easily be cleaned off with dish soap and a clothe. This will leave some patina. If you want shiny blades, rub em with nylon mesh scouring pads, what i call "scotch-brite" pads I would then leave the knife submerged in mineral oil for some time. Work the blades open and shut and wipe off excess oil. DON"T DO ANY OF THIS IF YOU THINK IT HAS COLLECTOR VALUE ! this is only to restore a user knife. HENRY
 
Henry44 said:
If it was mine, i would pour it full of dishwashing liquid and start working the blades open and shut. Rinse with scalding hot water and then repeat as manytimes as it takes to get rid of dirt and grime. I would then wrap the blades in paper towel and then moisten the towels with vinegar. Let the knife set 12-24 hours. When you unwrap, you will be totally horrified. The blades will be blackened as if burned. The black can easily be cleaned off with dish soap and a clothe. This will leave some patina. If you want shiny blades, rub em with nylon mesh scouring pads, what i call "scotch-brite" pads I would then leave the knife submerged in mineral oil for some time. Work the blades open and shut and wipe off excess oil. DON"T DO ANY OF THIS IF YOU THINK IT HAS COLLECTOR VALUE ! this is only to restore a user knife. HENRY
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I am by no means a collector, just a humble user. I soaked the entire knife in rubbing alcohol for about 30 minutes. It got the action much, much smoother, but still, there is rust on the inside of the knife, on the back springs. I will soak it in mineral oil or WD-40, whichever I can find easier. How long should I submerge the knife?
 
The most painless way to get rid of rust is vinegar. Give it a good soak for 30 minutes and see where that gets you.
 
Go down to your local auto parts store and ask for "Evap-O-Rust". You should be able to buy it in a pint plastic bottle. The stuff is amazing. I have used it to clean and recover a lot of small, ferrous car parts. You can look it up on line and check it out if you want to do some research before you buy it. Make sure the knife has absolutely no oil in or on it. Evaap-o-rust won'tr remove oil, grease or work on surfaces with them on it. Crack the blades open to 90 degrees and let it soak in the solution for as long as you like. Really heavy rust might take a couple of days, but it will not harm any other surface. It just eats the rust. Then you can rinse it off with water, dry it off and see what else you need to do. If you need to do some more clean up you can move on to some of the other stuff like 000 steel wool and simi-chrome polish on the blades and metal surfaces. I didn't check out the thread above, but I'm sure there is good stuff in there too.
 
If you want to get the active rust off easily, it's as simple as submerging it in some Classic Coca-Cola overnight, then rinse.
The darker spots may need some scotch brite and they will probably leave pitting.
 
tabeeb has no clue what he is talking about. Vinegar will cause rust and discoloration.
WD 40 is your best bet. You can scrape most rust off with a piece of brass or copper.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
tabeeb has no clue what he is talking about. Vinegar will cause rust and discoloration.
WD 40 is your best bet. You can scrape most rust off with a piece of brass or copper.
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Bill,
It's apparent you have never used vinegar. Vinegar will not cause rust.

Try it with any old piece of rusted metal if you don't believe me. You'll end up with a clean piece of steel and a bunch of rust at the bottom of your container.

It will cause discoloration, and that is obvious. In this case it will even out the current oxidisation to a nice patina.

Either that or you can enjoy trying to get the rust off from inside the knife with your brass wire brush.
 
Has anyone tried micro-mesh abrasives?(sandpaper type product) Fine sandpaper is 400 grit. These go to 12000 grit. They polish scratched plexiglass on airplanes. I have polished old plastic knife scales smooth. Also a dremmel with a brass brush on low speed for initial rust removal is good. Avoid harsh chemicals to remove grime in the springs as you may mar or damage the handles(scales). Tuner cleaner spray may help blow it out but protect the handles. The sugestion of oil and working the handles is probably the safest route.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
tabeeb has no clue what he is talking about. Vinegar will cause rust and discoloration.
WD 40 is your best bet. You can scrape most rust off with a piece of brass or copper.
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WD=WATER DISPLACING-40! Do you have any water on that knife that needs displacing?--Use mineral oil and OOOO steel wool on it.--KV
 
Wow-lots of inexperienced opinions here!
Let me tell you what a pro uses. WD 40-it's a pretty good solvent, and it won't harm your knife. WD 40 contains diluted mineral oil.
I use a lot of other things in my business that I DON'T recommend, like power tools, hydrochloric acid, brake parts cleaner. None of these should be used by people not familiar with knife materials and mechanics-they can do more damage than good in inexperienced hands. WD 40 is safe and effective. Used with 0000 steel wool, WD 40 will remove most rust. Generic mineral oil is too thick to be an effective solvent.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
Wow-lots of inexperienced opinions here!
Let me tell you what a pro uses. WD 40-it's a pretty good solvent, and it won't harm your knife. WD 40 contains diluted mineral oil.
I use a lot of other things in my business that I DON'T recommend, like power tools, hydrochloric acid, brake parts cleaner. None of these should be used by people not familiar with knife materials and mechanics-they can do more damage than good in inexperienced hands. WD 40 is safe and effective. Used with 0000 steel wool, WD 40 will remove most rust. Generic mineral oil is too thick to be an effective solvent.
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Inexperienced or not, the posters should have a right to voice their opinion without being told they're clueless by a "PRO".:rolleyes:
 
I have no problem with people voicing their opinions, but when those opinions can do damage I feel the need to speak. I didn't say you were clueless. You challenged my recommendation and I explained it.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
tabeeb has no clue what he is talking about. Vinegar will cause rust and discoloration.
WD 40 is your best bet. You can scrape most rust off with a piece of brass or copper.
Click to expand...

What you posted."tabeeb has no clue what he is talking about"= clueless.
 
Who cares if he said he was clueless? I think we can all clearly see he's at least got a clue of what he's talking about since vinegar is used to patina and it's acidic; I've never tried removing rust with it, but I can see how it would work. Was it a little harsh for Bill to say "clueless"? Sure, but who cares if he exercised a lack of tact? Since when do people have to be courteous and civil to share good information? Concentrating on that portion of it just distracts from the worthwhile information he provided. As far as him calling someone clueless... Well, I'm sure that he has thick enough skin that it won't kill him, so instead of petty insults, character defense and other egotistical BS I think the actual subject at hand should be the focus and quibbling over what offensive thing who said shouldn't be a real big concern.

As far as what Bill is saying, I think I would tend to agree. Vinegar might work for removing rust ( seems like it's actually just replacing one oxidation with another ), but there's a lot of other parts on a knife to consider. For one thing, I doubt that vinegar would make very many scales happy, and for another if you have a folder then letting vinegar work between the pivot and other mechanisms probably isn't the best thing you can do for your knife because the oxidation vinegar forms is corrosive in its own right.

As far as an Old Timer slip-joint goes... I don't know, but I think I'd probably take Bill's advice and just use WD40. It's a very conventional remedy for removing rust and isn't harmful at all. Plus with my experience forcing patinas to prevent rust, I have noticed that vinegar will loosen it up... However I still think WD40 does a better job of it anyway.
 
Well I took some sandpaper to the blades and get a lot of the grime and whatnot off. I also used a tooth brush and scrubbed the inside of the knife a little and got a lot of the rust out. There is still a tiny bit. I'll try WD40 some time this weekend. Thanks, everyone!
 
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