Repair old scout knife?

A

arnoldus

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Mar 3, 2016
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I have this old scout knife which is around 50-60 years old. I'd like to recondition it and put an edge on it.
I have a Sharpmaker.

I had though about doing:
- scrubbing the rust of with 120 grit paper
- Somehow get the cutting edge somewhat straight, getting rid of the nicks (how?)
- reprofiling the blade with 20° (40°) on the sharpmaker, with sandpaper covering the stones.

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Get a potato and cut it up where the rust is. The minor acid in the tater will loosen the rust where you can wipe it off much easier. Not much rust there, but a fair bit of patina.. Are you looking to take it back to shiny or just get the rust off? The potato approach will force a slight patina on the whole blade, so if you want shiny or satin, you will have to take the sandpaper and oil to it afterwords. As far as fixing the edge, just use whatever method you like. A little mothers polish on the handle and guard (if they're synthetic and aluminum, just a guess) will have them happy and shiny quite quickly..if its a leather handle, hit it with some english oil or mink oil or leather conditioner/waterproofer of your choice.

Have fun!
 
120 grit sandpaper is much too coarse. Just scrub the active rust off the blade with 0000 steel wool. A file will remove the edge dings.
 
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I use green scotchbrite, which leaves a brushed finish. Steel wool will leave it shinier. I wouldn't go 20 degrees per side, but around 13. 20 DPS is good for choppers and the like, but this looks like a good slicer.

For the nicks, it would be better if you knew freehand sharpening as you could stone down the high areas quickly and establish a clean line, but if you aren't (im guessing because you use a sharpmaker) you can file them down perpendicular to the blade, then draw file along the blade with a fine file to remove some material that would take ages on the sharpmaker to remove.

Connor
 
Steel wool won't do anything to the steel. It will only remove rust.
 
I worked with warm vinegar and fine steel wool to remove as surface oxidation. Much of the black has gone, but some of the spots are deeper. Those won't go without some harsh grinding, which I feel is unnecessary.
I also used a file to make a smooth curve again.

And then a clone of a known sharpening device + finishing on Sharpmaker.
There are still some spots on the edge that don't bite, so it steel needs a little bit of touch up.
I'm happy having learnt this.

After:
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Before:
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