How to remove active rust w/o leaving scratches on wood

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Moonw

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Nov 19, 2014
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What do you use to remove a film of red rust that appeared on the full tang, more specifically the part sandwiched between the two wooden parts of te handle? The surface is not perectly plain, so I cannot reach with a wet and dry there and of ourse I would not want to ruin te wooden finish. So I'd stay away from abrasives anyway.
 
I can buy Here Nevr Dull, Tuff Cloth, Hallmark Cuttlery premium polishing paste, S 100 Rust Film Remover etc. i tried WD 40 thinking it would work and oter stuff w/o success.
 
put masking tape over the wood parts and hit the tang with some 000 or 0000 steel wool, or Flitz polish.
 
I use jeweled rouge. The Dremel tool company sells a nice little run of it for under ten bucks. It removes rust and discoloration while leaving a mirror finish.
 
I believe that red jewler's rouge polish is what the kamis use to polish the khuks up in the first place. I have a couple of old ones that still have bits of red polish stuck in some of the nooks and crannies.
 
If you go with sandpaper in whatever grits you need to get rid of the rust and follow up with finer and finer until you get the metal where you want it, you'll also be sanding and smoothing the wood at the same time.

The wood really has no finish to beging with and if you've applied oil or tru oil or whatever, just put more on the wood.

You really shouldn't hurt the wood any by sanding and to me safer than chemicals or stuff that might have and adverse effect on the laha holding the handle slabs on.

Working bowies I nearly alway hit the tangs with a file to begin with to even up tang to wood, removing wood if it's over size or tang if the wood has shrunk a bit. Really don't hurt a thing.
 
So today I also discovered active rust in the same place as you described. I wasn't able to remove it and polish it, but I did find that as long as it's not deep you can take something like CLP and soak it and wipe it down hard with a cloth and at least deactivate the rust. As a side benefit if you soaked the blade, once you wipe it down it slides in and out of its scabbard very easily.
 
DOG SLOBBER! I use dog slobber for just about everything:D Just kidding. In your case Id do the tape and steel wool thing as well. Like Bawanna said you wont hurt the wood finish so I wouldnt worry about that but taping it might help from discoloring the wood if it is lighter colored than rust. If its the dark satisal id just sand it with the fine steel wool and polish it with your favorite polish.
 
I can't get pictures right now, sorry. Yes, it is Satisal but imagine trying to get the rust in some small "depression" - as in Geology (not rust pit, but because of the uneven finish, small but it is there), or through a channel that runs through the ring. It just crept in the worst places. As well as some other uneven, hard to reach places. At lest these last ones I might sand down.

Well I'll probably try both the chemical way in a small place and if that fails it's all sanding from there.
 
I clean out the grooves with a piece of sandpaper folded over a few times or a needle file if you have one.
 
I used to be just plain "skeered" of rust. Having a LOT of metal toys, I spend a good weekend every month reviewing everything for rust and doing touchup cleaning and oiling of everything. A while back I was in the hospital for 5 months and hubby was running between work and spending time with me and doing everything around the house. So everything went almost 6 months without being drawn out of the leather or taken out from under the bed or behind the door. I settled down a couple of weeks after I returned and started in the living room working my way to the gun safe, taking each item, full stripping and check over. Cleaning out the dust on the nightstand gun/behind the door 12 gauges. I figure I should finish up the safe in another couple weeks and it will be time to start over again. Now, I just plain HATE rust! Annoying stuff. Fortunately most of the blades and guns are heavily oiled and properly stored. Just the EDCs and house guns/blades that need work. But I understand how annoying it is to remove a bit of Rust without damaging anything else. Moonw, I suggest using Scara's idea of killing the active rust first, then after the red rust is gone, Hang in there and just take your time removing the deactivated rust at least you won't have to worry about more damage while you go slow to take that off.
 
Clean, Lubricate, Protect. It's an oil originally meant for the M-16 and other military firearms. It's meant to do all three of those functions in its name. It's not great at any one of them, but it works well enough. You can buy it at any gunstore or store that sells guns. There are two brands. I used Break Free and it got rid of all the active rust. It didn't leave the metal shiny, but it did remove the rust and leave nothing but a bit of patina where the rust was before.
 
Here's another way to sand a hard-to-get-to place:

1. Sprinkle some abrasive powder into the cracks and wipe off the excess so the powder is only inside.

2. Run a Q-tip back and forth with pressure. The Q-tip will conform to the crack or indentation and the abrasive powder will do the sanding.

You can also use the Q-tip method with liquids such as Flitz or even mineral oil.
 
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