Restoring scratched blade while conserving etch possible?

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RavenAMS

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Jan 28, 2017
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I recently bought a Puma 220 700 4 star pocket knife. The blade is somewhat scratched and i would llike to hear some advice in how to handle this job.
I would really like to clean it up while conserving the etched lettering. I doubt this is possible though


Please let me know what is the beast way to handle since i dont dare to touch it at the moment, see the pic i added.

Thanks a lot for any tips or advice you may have.

Regards
 
Anything you do to reduce the appearance of the scratches will also reduce the visibility of the etch, if not remove it altogether.
 
Yeah, i am now at a point that or accept it as it is or sand it altogether, perhaps that would be best.
 
It's a knife. They get scratches. That's just part of it. It will spend the majority of its time folded up anyway. That bolster is sure looking pretty scritchy-scratchy though. I would focus more on polishing up those and the rest of the handle, and that might go a long way towards making it feel more presentable and worthy of being carried if that's what is troubling you. Then you can decide if you want to bother with polishing the blade too.
 
That is the difficulty with these etchings right .. i mean if i would decide to sacrifice it i could get it to a great state but yeah i understand this. It is like restoring old pocket knifes in general, that you like want to keep the patina in order to not create an new old pocket knife, if that makes sense anyway. I was hoping for some in between solution but i knew that could not be the case. Anyway thanks for your Answer Guys. I will do the bolster 1st and see how i fee lafter that. Perhaps i can partly remove some, vertically with bit course sandpaper.
 
One option would be to send it out to someone who can restore the finish and then laser engrave the writing back onto it. Alexandria Knife Sharpening does that kind of work.
 
It's "coarse," and you need to keep coarse sandpaper away from that knife.
Use nothing coarser than 400 grit.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
It's "coarse," and you need to keep coarse sandpaper away from that knife.
Use nothing coarser than 400 grit.
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Hi, thanks for your answer. How would you handle repairing/ restoring the scales? .. has a bit scratching and a pit on one side also. For the blade I am thinking of sacrificing the etching in order to really get the scratching out. How would you handle this?
 
The pearl can be sanded starting with 400 grit paper, 600, 800, 1200-as far as you want to go- but it will need to be polished. Using a buffer and rouge is the best method, but you can hand sand to a very high grit (2000+) and polish with Simicrome or similar polish.
If you want to sacrifice the etch, you can use Scotchbrite wheels on the blade.
Unless you are already adept at doing things like this, it's a recipe for disaster.
 
The best way to preserve that etch is with a picture. Just to document it before you polish it off. Or just leave it as is.
 
I am going to sacrifice the image. What is the best way to create that same finish on this particular blade then? To be honest i have only really been able to end up with a high gloss polish but this time i try to keep it as original as possible. I guess this could be done with hand with a 400grit sandpaper? I also have a hand rotary tool and a bench grinder but i do not have any wheels for that yet. Anyway any ideas from you guys is very welcome!
 
RavenAMS said:
I am going to sacrifice the image. What is the best way to create that same finish on this particular blade then? To be honest i have only really been able to end up with a high gloss polish but this time i try to keep it as original as possible. I guess this could be done with hand with a 400grit sandpaper? I also have a hand rotary tool and a bench grinder but i do not have any wheels for that yet. Anyway any ideas from you guys is very welcome!
Click to expand...
A lot of 'brushed satin' finishes on factory blades will emulate a scratch pattern from something like 220-600 grit sandpaper (in aluminum oxide or silicon carbide, specifically). 400 is likely a good starting point. If the grinds of the blade are flat, an easy method is to affix a sheet of sandpaper flush to a hard surface like hardwood, stone, glass, etc., and then lay the blade flush to the paper, making sanding passes in one linear direction only (like spine to edge) to produce a neat, orderly scratch pattern. Don't scrub back & forth on the paper - just keep the passes going in one direction to keep the scratch lines as straight as you can. Experiment with another user/beater blade to get a sense of how it will work, before trying it on a blade you aren't otherwise willing to blemish.
 
Yeah that's a fair suggestion because you can make uneven dips in the surface of the blade if you only sand with your hand by pressing down on the paper with your fingertips. Having a fully flat surface is really helpful in avoiding that.

I would suggest that if you are trying to match a particular scratch pattern and you are looking to see what grit is the closest to it, then one thing you could do is sand a piece of similar test material and then do side-by-side comparison. This will also allow you to practice mimicking a particular finish to see what works best.
 
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