Renovating an old barlow

[neeman]

I am posting this here is the Trad forum and not in Tinkering becuase this applies to renovating a slippie.

I have an Imperial (Ireland) barlow.
I seems to have the clip as stainless and the spear is carbon.
The carbon is all rusted.
And the knife is full of junk mainly rust.

How do I go about cleaning and getting rid of rust?

 

[Buck268]

How I've done it in the past, depending on conditions is based on either oil soaking the rust and wiping (possibily vigorously) with a oily rag, or using abrasives (the finest possible). With light surface rust, using an oil such as Triflow or hoppes gun oil and rubbing with a rag will do more than you think. If its more sever you may need to use steel wool, metal polish or even sandpaper (wetdry the higher the grit the smooth the finish; 1500-2000 begins mirror finish)!

That said, are you sure its not just that the blade is patina'd? I know I have a few old Imperials with patina so deep its unbelievable.


EDIT: Also, for cleaning I've used everything from compressed air to WD-40 to Clean Steak White Lightnining (its a metal degreaser, typically for bicycles). My favorite for CLEANING is white lightning as its extremely safe (wont even harm rubber) and leaves a nice clean metal thirsty for lubrication.

 

[Blues]

neeman, the post still belongs in the "maintenance" area so that others on the forums can find and make use of such threads. A link to the thread will stay here for a day or so.

Not everyone has "search" capabilities and this allows us to use the various forums as they were intended.