Rust left black spots on Damascus blade

W

WNDR

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Jul 7, 2016
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Hello, I'm new to knives and have been having some issues with the Kershaw Shallot damascus blade I got my boyfriend for his birthday last month. He went into the water with it not realizing how easily it will rust and I wasn't with him to warn him not to. I wasn't able to see the blade for a few days to get the initial rust off that he showed me a picture of and since then it has been polished by me and another (I used Flitz, I don't know what his friend used) to get all of the rust off. The problem is that there are now these small gray spots that turn black within a day or two o not being polished and they look horrible. In the second picture you can already see some appearing a mere five or so hours after I buffed the blade with flitz and then polished it with mineral oil. I had been hoping to sand the blade and use etchant to help bring the pattern of the damascus back out after all this has happened to it but I wanted to see if sanding it will get rid of these spots so that they don't show up when I try to etch the blade (I would also appreciate any tips about sanding the Kershaw shallot because the blade isn't completely even and I don't want to mess that up). Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated.


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Your pictures don't show, but you can sand the blade until the spots are gone, then re-etch the blade.
If the blade is flat ground, you should use sanding blocks to keep things flat. Sand with 400 grit wet/dry paper, then 600 or 800 grit, then etch.
After etching, lightly sand with 800 grit to show the highlights.
 
I was having trouble getting them to show but when I entered the links they did show they pictures. I do feel better that you said sanding it should take care of the problem but the blade isn't completely flat, if this image link will work you can see a this shallot damascus has grooves that I'm worried about messing up that are a part of the knife shape. Any recommendations or warnings? http://www.hand-tools.com/images/brk/KS1840CKTDAM.jpg
 
If the spots disappear after polishing, you may just be able to re etch the blade. Etching should even out the spots.
You still need to go over the blade with very fine sandpaper after etching.
 
Rennaissance Wax is not good for protecting metal.
Oil is preferable.
 
Thanks for the input! And yeah I just use mineral oil on the blade, I read about waxes but felt that the blade should be okay as long as it gets dried off and polished with oil when necessary.
 
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