Is My Knife Ruined?

jeremy1517

jeremy1517

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Sep 11, 2012
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A couple years back I bought a Russell Green River "camp" model knife really cheap at a flee market, two-three dollars. Even though I know its a very cheap, carbon blade, I love the thing. I've skinned several deer with it. Easy to sharpen and holds a decent edge.

I cracked the scales that were on the knife and decided to make new ones for it. When I pulled the old scales off I noticed that there was a decent amount of rust under the scales. I took a wire brush and scrubbed as much of the rust I could get off of it. My plan was to let the knife soak in vinegar for an hour and then scrub and sand some more. I had heard soaking in vinegar can help remove rust (hopefully it was good advice). Long story short, my wife went into labor and I forgot all about the knife. By the time I remembered it, the knife soaked in the vinegar for about 36 hours.

I took it out of the vinegar, and washed it off. It is SOLID black and turns my hands black. I'm assuming that's the carbon in the blade????

Once it dries off really well, can I sand sand the blade and get it back to a silver steel color? Is it usable or did the vinegar bath ruin the blade?

What do you all think, any suggestions?
 
As far as I know, all vinegar does is cause a controlled rusting. What you have now should be a ridiculously thick patina, which would in theory keep it from ever rusting again.

Scrubbing it with a bit of dish soap and a scouring sponge would probably keep it from depositing black residue on your hands.


And yes, you should be able to sand it shiny again. But leaving some of the patina wouldn't hurt.
 
So, washing it with dish soap will stop the black stuff from coming off? Well, If that's the case, I'll wash it with dish soap, pop the new scales on, sharpen, and use. I kinda like the overdone patina look.
 
What that black is is black rust. It is a somewhat more beneficial rust than the red type as it will somewhat prevent the red kind from forming, However one should always practice proper care and clean and oil their blades after usage. A good cheap oil to use is Pharm grade mineral oil.

I would wash it off thoroughly with soap and water to remove excess patina,dry, Then spray down with WD-40 to insure all water is removed. What little oils in the WD-40 will also serve to seal the patina.
 
A soda (baking soda) dip will help neutralize everything. Just mix up some arm and hammer in water till it looks like skim milk and dunk it for a few minutes. wash with soap and hot water....oil and go.

this is how the old fashion Damascus gun barrels are done for the final step in "slow rust" bluing.
 
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