How Can I De-Rust This Abused Folder And Mirror-Polish The Blade?

hoxhunbe

hoxhunbe

Joined
Feb 6, 2012
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417
I've taken apart a few of my folders in the past to clean them up or tighten tolerances or fix alignments, etc., but I've never really done a deep cleaning or restore. I'm not a tinkerer or modder, but I'd like to be, so I've decided to start with this trainwreck of a serrated CRKT M21-14:

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The knife belongs to my fisherman roommate, and it's been used to cut up saltwater baits and fish, and it's been stored in his toolbox in his car for ages. He never cleans it, and it shows. The scales, which I think are aluminum, cleaned up fine with my regular gun cleaner fluid and a cloth, but the blade and liner are in a pretty bad way.

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Now, I don't think I can get this thing to like-new condition, but I'd like to get as much of the rusting off as possible and put a mirror finish on the blade. Of course, I have no idea how to do either. I know it's gonna take a bunch of sanding, so my question is: Which grits of wood or metal sandpaper do I need to get the rust off the blade and liner (unless there is a different or preferred way to de-rust steel), and how many different grits should I take them through? As for the mirror polishing, I think there are enough tutorials on YouTube, but any advice for beginners would be much appreciated. (Any sandpapers or compounds I need for this should be available at Lowes or Home Depot, as I really don't feel like ordering anything special at the moment, and I'd like to start working on this tomorrow. Oh, and if I need a Dremel, I'd like to get a good, heavy-duty model that will serve me for a long time.)

Thanks, everyone!
 
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I prefer wet-dry sandpaper because I wash it with some honing oil and reuse, but I'm a college student so stingy has become my middle name.

That being said, I like to start at 100grit, take everything to a nice even finish, then double up the grit numbers, IE 100,200 (in this case 220), 400,800,1000,2000 I prefer alternating direction to see that i've taken out all of the scratches from the previous grit IE one grit with the edge, the next one perpendicular to it

2000 will get you an almost mirror polish finish, Most Automotive stores have 2000 and up for body work.

If you want to start with chemicals, soak all of the steel parts in Vinegar(1hr-a day pending results), It will naturally loosen the rust, on carbon steel blades it'll create a patina. use sparringly and in a well ventilated area.

Make sure to tell your friend to just rinse it out after a trip and blot dry or start coffing up some money cuz it takes a six pack of elbow grease to get those suckers polished by hand.
 
I'd try some steel wool and WD40 to remove the rust and see if it is just on the surface or if there are pits. Then what brets-ftw said, but I would probably start with 320 paper and see how things go. Then if necessary go to a coarser grit. Be careful not to sand down the surfaces that are critical for proper lock up.

Ric
 
If it were me, I would use bar keepers friend to eat the rust the various grades of scotch brite and WD40 to re-finish the surface.
 
Awesome, thanks everyone! I'll use these suggestions and start on this tomorrow. I'll post updated pics as I go through the process.
 
You could bead blast the steel parts, and they will look like they did when new (or close.)
Mirror polishing is a lot of work.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
Mirror polishing is a lot of work.
Click to expand...

+1

Especially with the rust. When you start out with your coarse grit paper you'll have to sand down the entire blade to the lowest point of any pits created by corrosion. Otherwise, the pits will really stand out once it is highly polished. If you try to "dig in" with the sandpaper to remove pits, you'll make little dimples in the surface of the blade that will also stand out in how it reflects light. To make the polish look good you need to keep all the surfaces dead flat, so if the deepest pit is 0.5 mm you have to remove at least 0.5 mm from the entire surface. If you start out with 220 grit on a hard flat surface, you'll pretty quickly get an idea of how deep the rust goes. If it's not very deep, then mirror polishing might be feasible. Once it's dead flat at 220 grit, remove the 220 scratches with 320, then with 400, and so on up to 2000 grit. Then buff.

If the rust is deeper, a satin finish will be much more reasonable. You can get into the pits with steel wool or scotch brite to remove discoloration. Then take the blade to 400 or 600 grit. The key is to keep your sanding strokes perfectly straight so the scratch patterns are neatly aligned. It won't be super reflective at this grit, so the low points won't stick out. After sanding I like to rub the flats of the blade on a loaded strop (hand buffing), which kind of smooths and brightens the satin pattern.
 
I use Evaporust, Must for Rust, ferric chloride, and hydrochloric acid frequently. All remove rust.
That kinife needs bead blasting to remove the rust and camouflage the pitting.
 
If the rust is not deep and you want to try to remove it and not damage the finish use a copper penny, lube heavily with WD-40 and rub back and forth with moderate pressure. This works great on firearems to remove rust spots without damaging the surrounding blueing. That blade may be too far gone for that but all it will cost you is about 5 minutes of your time if you have some WD-40 around.
 
Hey fellas,

I just read through the rest of the responses, lots to consider. What I've done so far is to hit the blade and liner with some WD40 and then scrub 'em up with a heavy-duty and then medium grade of Scotch Brite pads. Most of the rust came off, although there appears to be some minor pitting here and there. Just for kicks, I went over the two pieces with 320 grit sandpaper, but I may have to drop the grit to try to get those pits out. (Beadblasting or sandblasting or any kind of blasting is impossible ATM.) Here's some pics to show progress/what I'm dealing with currently:

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Anyone think 200 grit can handle this? I don't mind a lot of sanding, I just watch the NBA playoffs and listen to music while I do it. I think I want to mirror finish the liner, too. That would look really cool coming through the scales. Like I said, this is my first "project" knife, so I don't mind any extra work as long as I learn something.

Thanks!
 
Not too shabby. Just remember, to "remove" the pits, you actually have to remove all the steel on the entire surface, down to the bottom of the deepest pit. Personally, on a $60 knife I wouldn't bother. Just polish it up.
 
james terrio said:
Not too shabby. Just remember, to "remove" the pits, you actually have to remove all the steel on the entire surface, down to the bottom of the deepest pit. Personally, on a $60 knife I wouldn't bother. Just polish it up.
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Yeah, I know. I thought about just going for the mirror finish now just to do it, and that's what I'll probably do. Will the pits continue to wear at the blade and liner now that I've cleaned them, like a cavity wears into a tooth regardless of what you've done? Or have I pretty much stopped the spread of rust at this point?
 
Here's my first try at using sandpaper (100 thru 2500 grit) to restore an old Old Timer for an old old friend.
I also reprofiled the bevel and polished the edge on the Wicked Edge. My friend was pleased.

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Polishing is rough work, especially if the thumbstuds are pressed. Best of luck... completely flat surface for sanding is your friend.
 
Skimo said:
Polishing is rough work, especially if the thumbstuds are pressed. Best of luck... completely flat surface for sanding is your friend.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've started to realize this. The thumbstuds are definitely in there to stay, so complete flatness is not happening. I might just satin finish the blade and mirror polish the liner, so that way I'll at least have some experience going through the process. Plus it could look cool (I hope).

Holymolar, those macros look really cool. The Wicked Edge seems pretty awesome, I'd like to get one, but I also want to learn honing an edge by hand. Not sure how good at it I'll be, and I'm not willing to try it on any of my nicer blades...
 
Use caution when sanding. I recommend putting gorilla tape on your fingers... if your finger tips meet the sanding paper even at 2000 grit... you'll have some bloody finger tips... and the pain doesn't start until after the damage is done.

I say go for it on the liners, it's good practice, but in my experience, liners shine up with much less work than blades.

Knives do look cool when you mirror the liners.

To avoid rounding the liners, I recommend keeping the scales on if you want uniformity, but if it's G-10... sand under running water or with a bucket/glass of soapy water to keep the surface wet. G-10 will destroy your lungs and possibly eyes.

Edit... aluminum scales... well, it's up to you if you want squared liners or rounded liners, maybe rough out some bass or pine and screw the liners to the wood, that way you can keep better control of the surface.
 
use BRONZE WOOL instead of a steel wools, instead of a sand papers. Aluminum wools work also in some cases
 
were do get bronze wool at, i buy lot's of junker knife'soff e bay, then i go too my polish station
, nothen more then a cheap bench drill press with one those white buffing wheel in it, i'm still practicing on old knife's ,i took a old timer, all deeply rusted , look like he left in a bucket of water for a few weeks, what i did was took my 2 inch cup course wire wheel and put that in my drill press, then got most off rust that way, i seen the chrome and shine , so i knew there was hope, anyway switched over too my flapper sandpaper wheel, got a real nice shine now, then switched over too my white buffing wheel, and it polished up nice, not good, not bad , still pitted bad, but i'll still sell for $5.00 at my swap meet's for somebody fishing box , took me like a hour time too clean it up, don't even look like the same knife. heres a tip; go too resturant store, they sell gloves for sharpen knifes, that what i wear for polishing my knifes, kinves wont even cut the material .
 
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