Thoughts on rust removal vs Damascus?

I would test a spot, use a q-tip dampened with Evaporust. Touch it on a small spot with rust, for a few minutes.

Wipe clean and see if it changed anything. If all is good, soak the rusted area, check on it frequently.
 
Whelp here's the final results. Thought I would follow up on my rust removal. I decided since it would never be new again or perfect that I'd just try a couple things see what happened. First thing I did was rub it lightly with fine bronze wool. I've used that for decades on guns and really like it. I rubbed dry for a bit and it removed a lot. Then I soaked it down with a penetrating oil and rubbed more. It turned out pretty good but a lot of staining remained. I washed with soapy water and oiled and this is what you see in the second picture. Then I set up a cup of EvapoRust and suspended half the blade for about an hour. No damage to the Damascus pattern was noted so I pulled the knife apart and put the entire blade submerged over night. I removed early this morning washed and rinsed to look at it then back in to soak. Got it out after church so probably 20-21 hours total soak time. Most of the staining was gone but a little remained. I did a quick polish with my finger of the whole blade with some Flitz and ran a stone over the edge to remove that staining. Rinsed it all down well with oil and scrubbed with a toothbrush. Used a towel to remove excess oil and that's the final result in the bottom picture below. I'm pretty happy with the result and with the EvapoRust. It seems EvapoRust to remove and a little polishing to clean it up should yield good results.
Hope someone find this helpful and thanks to everyone for the input.
Alan

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shootershack said:
Whelp here's the final results. Thought I would follow up on my rust removal. I decided since it would never be new again or perfect that I'd just try a couple things see what happened. First thing I did was rub it lightly with fine bronze wool. I've used that for decades on guns and really like it. I rubbed dry for a bit and it removed a lot. Then I soaked it down with a penetrating oil and rubbed more. It turned out pretty good but a lot of staining remained. I washed with soapy water and oiled and this is what you see in the second picture. Then I set up a cup of EvapoRust and suspended half the blade for about an hour. No damage to the Damascus pattern was noted so I pulled the knife apart and put the entire blade submerged over night. I removed early this morning washed and rinsed to look at it then back in to soak. Got it out after church so probably 20-21 hours total soak time. Most of the staining was gone but a little remained. I did a quick polish with my finger of the whole blade with some Flitz and ran a stone over the edge to remove that staining. Rinsed it all down well with oil and scrubbed with a toothbrush. Used a towel to remove excess oil and that's the final result in the bottom picture below. I'm pretty happy with the result and with the EvapoRust. It seems EvapoRust to remove and a little polishing to clean it up should yield good results.
Hope someone find this helpful and thanks to everyone for the input.
Alan

View attachment 2959072View attachment 2959074
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Great follow up post. I appreciate it. I will be sure to keep some Evaporust around.
 
Something I haven't seen addressed that I'm curious about is- what exactly caused the rust on shootershacks knife?

We've all heard about knives stored in leather sheaths rusting, either from chemicals in the leather from the tanning process, or from the leather retaining moisture, but I've never heard of felt-lined boxes having the same effect.

I wonder if there is a chemical in the felt reacting with the steel (maybe just the red felt), or if the felt is retaining moisture from the atmosphere. Clearly the side of the blade that was most in contact with the felt suffered the most rust. I have no experience with felt-lined knife boxes so I wouldn't know.

So maybe there's a lesson in this- don't store knives in felt-lined boxes.

I'm glad the rust removal worked out as well as it did.

.
 
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Yeah not sure because it's brother stored in a similar box did just fine but had green felt. (Ban red felt!)
Now if they only had a way to dissolve verdigris like this stuff does with rust.
 
There's felt, and there's felt. Proper wool felt breathes. I keep my straight razors on a shelf lined with it. The synthetic stuff, I don't know, but I don't trust it, after being suckered into buying synthetic shirts that "wick away moisture" and are "cooler than cotton" and named things like "CoolMax" and it's all a big fat lie.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
Glad the Evaporust worked for you. Doing the whole blade is what I should have suggested.
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So my test of the EvapoRust was suspended tip down in the jar just past the rust. When I checked it at 1 hour there was a thin black line across the blade at the fluid level. The CRC web page describes this as carbon migration and gives an explanation of what that is and why it happens. That's when I decided to remove the blade and submerge. The line went away with prolonged soaking.
Bill I definitely appreciate your input.
Thanks.
 
I did a search on felt, seems that some manufacturers use sulfuric acid in the process.

If the felt is in contact with the metal, it causes rust.

There is felt made called "acid free" felt. Wondering if the manufacturer of the boxes knew this?

The green might not contain any acid and the red does. I wouldn't store the knife in the box with the red felt. Unless you coat the blade in a good layer of oil, grease or wax.
 
Mk-211 said:
I did a search on felt, seems that some manufacturers use sulfuric acid in the process.

If the felt is in contact with the metal, it causes rust.

There is felt made called "acid free" felt. Wondering if the manufacturer of the boxes knew this?

The green might not contain any acid and the red does. I wouldn't store the knife in the box with the red felt. Unless you coat the blade in a good layer of oil, grease or wax.
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EXCELLENT Google fu......👍👍👍
 
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