i have a schrade-walden that needs some rust removal help.

[jasonbrink]

hi, this is an old knife that i remember playing with as a kid. fast forward to 2007 when a house fire robbed me of everything my father left me in the hunting department. the knife is in good shape, ive reset the edge and have it razor sharp. ive kept the sheath oiled up, but the only thing im un happy with is there is some rust on the stainless steel blade. my question is what is the best way to remove the rust without further damaging the shine on the blade. dad has been gone many years and id like to honor him by restoring this knife to its former glory. can any one give me some suggestions. its as i said a schrade walden 171uh. great knife. holds an edge better than anything ive bought myself

 

[kn4wd]

only way I know would be flitz or maas metal polish and it will polish the entire blade to a mirror if you take it that far.

 

[Zemapeli]

Pictures? I use a brass gun care brush (with the green handle ~ you can buy at gun specialties stores for 1.99) For surface rust spots (red). For the black rust spots, I use naval jelly (an acid that loosens the black rust oxides) on the areas effected by oxidation and use an abrasive (either metal finishing pad ~ looks like a red scotch bright pad, or fine steel wool to remove the oxides) Abrasives you can use are metal finishing pads followed by 1000 grit black wet/dry paper to polish with an oil, steel wool, and a brass brush for gun care. Treatments I have used are CLR green, and Loctite Naval Jelly (These are both corrosive acids, but the only thing that will really remove the heavy rust oxides from a knife blade. Keep in mind that if black rust oxides are present on your knife blade, there is most likely "pitting" in the blade/metal underneath the surface rust.
Red rust is the easiest to remove and is only on the surface. This can be removed fairly easily with a brass gun cleaning brush found at most gun specialties stores. The brass is softer than the steel and will not change the finish of your knife unless it has a dull age patina. I highly suggest this.
Black rust is what happens when you leave red rust to stay and eat away at the steel. It is not active rust, but the oxides from the rust left over from it. Black rust (like a patina on a blade ~ such as blueing on a gun, ect.) actually keeps red rust from being active.. If you remove the black oxides, there usually is pitting underneath, which looks like dimples on the blade. Its your choice. Either remove it or leave it. People have conflicting opinions about this... w/e. I remove it all. To remove oxides (especially from pits) you need an acid treatment like CLR, or Loctite Naval Jelly and an abrasive. Message me if you'd like help. I am pretty knowledgeable about this. Hope this helps you.

~~Also - to keep the leather handles on your old knives nice, use a product called SNO-SEAL. It is a beeswax product with silicone. You apply it with a rag to the leather and heat with a blow-dryer until it works into the leather. It will keep the handles nice and tight so they wont dry out and get loose or crack. Just FYI. I don't know if the knife you have has a leather handle or not.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

On stainless steel, some metal polish like Flitz or Simichrome and some 'elbow grease' is a no-brainer solution for removing light rust, with a clean rag. If it's heavier, you could still use the metal polish in more liberal amounts, but with a stiff brush (brass would work). Lacking the metal polish, WD-40 used liberally with a scrubbing brush would also work. If the rust is heavy/deep with pitting, soaking the blade in WD-40 and wrapping it up in a clean rag or paper towel also saturated with WD-40, and sealing into an air-tight container for 2-4 days also works well to loosen it up, so it can be scrubbed away. I used this latter method on a stainless Victorinox SAK that had been left exposed to the elements for a couple or three YEARS, and it was stuck shut with rust.

Removing deep pitting will require sanding, and I ordinarily wouldn't bother with that. Deep pitting needs VERY DEEP sanding, and removing that much metal likely isn't worth it, in most cases. Most stainless blades, fortunately, shouldn't pit too deeply unless they were severely neglected and perhaps exposed to harsher things like acids.


David