Help !! My Hale Fighter is Rusted

G

Greasegunner

Joined
Apr 21, 2019
Messages
23
Hello All:
I am embarrassed as this knife sat in its sheath for over 20 years in a air conditioned climate controlled room
Can the knife be replated?
I did get most of the orangy rust off
below is what i am left with



 
Was it actually chrome plated or just highly polished?
 
I hear good things about rust erasers but haven't used one personally yet.
They should remove the orange rust and from what I hear, most of the stain as well.
Either way with a high polish finish like that you would likely need to redo the whole blade anyway.
From my experience using chemical rust removers they will always patina the steel so re-polishing is always needed.
 
If it's a Lloyd Hale custom, and the mark looks like his, he often gave his blades a mirror polish. I don't see any with a plated blade. Nor can I think of any reason why a guy who gives many of his blades a mirror polish would go with plating.

I can't think of any good reason to have a plated blade. I'd rather deal with rust.

If it's mirror polished, and if you can't contact the maker, your only choices are to sand/polish the blade yourself, find someone else to do it, or live with it the way it is.

If it's plated, the knife would have to be completely disassembled to get the blade re-plated.
 
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I would not store the knife in the sheath. Unless the sheath was vegetable tanned then it can cause the material to rust. Same goes for firearms. I hope you get your knife fixed up.
 
The real shame is that it sat so long without being used. Use it let it patina and it will be even more beautiful.
 
The blade is not plated.
A rust eraser will further damage the finish.
The blade needs to be professionally polished.
 
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