WWII knife restoration help

S

ssg23inf

Joined
Jul 19, 2009
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greetings all. i am new to the forum and have NO experience making or refurbising knives so i need a little help. the back story. i aquired a knife that belonged to my grandfather. he had hand made this knife bowie style 11.5" blade knife in the WWII era. it has a brass or copper handle with pearl or ivory (i think pearl) handle inlays. it has since rusted and semi-corroded in days since. i so badly want to restore this knife to an origional like finish. i cannot post pictures because i am new i suppose. i build and refinish firearms so i do bead blasting, blueing, parkerizing, and all metal work. i can remove the rust and corrosion but dont know anything about products or methods used to enhance and protect the finish and obviously leaving 65 year old steel in the white is a no no. please help me revive this heirloom. thanks!

-newbie
 
If you can refinish a firearm I'm sure you can deal with a knife. Here are a couple of discussions about hand-sanding:bladeforums thread Bruce Evans tutorial. With patience and quality high-grit paper you can achieve very fine finish.

If you get the surfaces reasonably flat and smooth, I wouldn't sweat it too much if there's a few pits or scratches from use/age. In your knife's case, that's just character.

If you want the knife in the white, just keep it oiled or waxed. Or not; lots of folks like the light patina that builds up on a knife that's kept reasonably clean but allowed to "age" with use.

I don't know much about the heat involved with properly hot-bluing or parkerizing and how that would affect the handle material so I can't really speak to that part of it. You could certainly cold-blue the blade.
 
That's not a bayonet! Military knives are an exception.
Carbon steel knives were generally left "in the white."
 
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