Old Knife Restoration Help

S

Serrinon

Joined
Aug 19, 2007
Messages
233
Hello,

So I'm still pretty new to blades, and I've just come accross my grand fathers old folders. The Boy Scout knife seems to have been pretty well preserved, looks/smells like my dad may have coated it in WD40 at some point. However, I can't even open the other two folders. I'm not sure if it's rust or corrosion or what. Any suggestions on the process I should go through in order to restore them?

Thank you all in advance!

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I would just put a couple drops of oil in the works and let them sit for a day.
 
Those are nice old knives, so take care of them and be glad you've got them. Put a drop or two (that's all) of some light oil on the joints every few days or once a week for awhile until they will open again. Be patient! If you can, use something that's labeled penetrating oil. WD-40 is perhaps the most common one, but some others are probably a little better. Use you fingers to rub just a few drops of boiled linseed oil into the wooden handle scales to preserve them.
 
Dr. Mudd said:
Those are nice old knives, so take care of them and be glad you've got them. Put a drop or two (that's all) of some light oil on the joints every few days or once a week for awhile until they will open again. Be patient! If you can, use something that's labeled penetrating oil. WD-40 is perhaps the most common one, but some others are probably a little better. Use you fingers to rub just a few drops of boiled linseed oil into the wooden handle scales to preserve them.
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I've got WD40 and Hoppes Lubricating oil (for firearms), which of the two would you use?

Also, once I get it so that it can open again, what other restoration measures should I take?

Thanks!
 
I would use the thinner of the two you have in order to loosen up the stuck blades, but the Hoppe's oil should be best for preserving and lubricating them once you have them opened up again. I doubt there will be much difference in which will penetrate best for loosening them, though. Just use a small amount several times and be patient in between attempts to open the blades. Maybe use something like a popsicle stick instead of your thumbnail to get them moving again, but I would avoid using a steel tool like pliers. That might cause scratches that your nice old knives don't need. Good luck.
 
Some handle materials (celluloid, some woods and early plastics) don't like petroleum distillates at all. I'd suggest food grade mineral oil.

Codger
 
WD40 is a water-displacing material. It is fairly poor as a presenvative. If used in abundance, it can leave a gummy residue behind as the volitile constituents evaporate.

If oil doesn't work and you are still determined to get them open, try a series of VERY light taps with a wooden mallet or piece of wood - like you were trying to close the knife more. LIGHTLY. That should cause the blades to rotate some on the pivot pins and break loose any rusty connection. Remember, LIGHTLY. Or you can tap the back of the blades lightly against a piece of wood.

Did I mention lightly? :D

Baby Oil is mineral oil with scent added --- in case you have any of that around the house. Otherwise, you can get a bottle in any drugstore/drug department.
 
Sounds good, so once I"ve got it open, what should I use to get the rust off of the blades? Steel Wool?
 
That is up to you. However, if you do that, you will remove the patina and a bit of the surface of the blades. That is a part of the charactor of a heritage knife. And to me at least, retaining the charactor is more important than making the blades look all shiney and new. No, the rust should wipe off with repeated coating of oil... lightly...using a soft cloth. Flake rust will fall off. Dusty rust will wipe and rub off.

If they weren't heritage knives, and had no collector value you could sandpaper them with progressively finer paper to a fine polish. But you would lose more than your would gain, IMHO.

Codger
 
One step up (down?) from cloth is rubbing with oily paper toweling. It has some abrasive effect, as generation of owners of plastic eyeglass lenses have discovered.

There are also rust-removing pastes sold in tubes.

The key, as Codger says, is to go slow. You can't easily undue removing patina. No need to start with extreme measures.
 
I have been refurbishing a lot of old pocketknives in the past few months. I bought a passle of them to do such an article and have not gotten around to doing the article. Plus I had some stuff from my Kid's Stuff Articles that I had to fix up.

To remove rust once you get the blades open, use oil and a nickel. Five-cent piece, know what I mean? :D Nickel is softer than steel and won't scar the high carbon blades, works like a charm. But it is a lot of work. It is also dangerous for the FANGERS as working around an edge with oil and a slippery coin is not conducive to staying away from sutures. :)

This information brought to you from my Brother. He knows everything I don't know.
 
If you use steel wool make sure its #0000. The finest grade/grit.--KV
 
This is all really great advice, I'm looking forward to restoring them as carefully as possible.

I don't think I've ever seen a folder as small as the black one (I’m sure they are out there unbeknownst to me). Any guesses as to it's use? Fine carving maybe?
 
Codger_64 said:
That is up to you. However, if you do that, you will remove the patina and a bit of the surface of the blades. That is a part of the charactor of a heritage knife. And to me at least, retaining the charactor is more important than making the blades look all shiney and new. No, the rust should wipe off with repeated coating of oil... lightly...using a soft cloth. Flake rust will fall off. Dusty rust will wipe and rub off.

If they weren't heritage knives, and had no collector value you could sandpaper them with progressively finer paper to a fine polish. But you would lose more than your would gain, IMHO.

Codger
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I'm definitely going to be as careful as possible. I never got the chance to meet my Grandfather, so I'd like to make these as nice as I can. Sort of a tribute.

I had no idea that rust could just be rubbed off with oil and a soft cloth. I guess I assumed that if you had rust you'd need to file the material down down to remove it.
 
Part of the value of a patina, which forms naturally on high carbon steel -- all they used in the old days -- is that it is a kind of oxidation that inhibits destructive red rust.

How small is the black folder (handle length in inches)? For dressing up or office work, even today, many of us carry smaller folders, just enough for trimming threads or slicing open envelopes.
 
I have used SOS pads on the blades without scratching them. The soap on the pads cleans off the rust without killing the patina.
The small folder look nice.I wouldn't douse it with too much oil.might kill the wood
 
Serrinon said:
Sounds good, so once I"ve got it open, what should I use to get the rust off of the blades? Steel Wool?
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Here's another trick for removing rust scale: Use the point of a lead pencil to rub off the rust. The lead point is hard enough to knock off rust scale, but soft enough not to damage the metal or patina. Use an oily cloth to wipe off the graphite residue.
Edit: On a brand new polished blade, this will leave a mark, so use it carefully only to the rust spot. The "lead" in a pencil is a mixture of graphite and clay. The clay acts as a very mild abrasive. However, I have used this successfully on a blued gun barrel, with no marks to the bluing. And I've used it on many old blades with no resulting marks to the patina.
 
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