I have a couple old pocket knives that belonged to my grandfather. I’ve looked at a lot of information about removing rust, polishing, etc. I used a gun cleaning solvent with wet/dry sandpaper to take off the heavy rust and brass wire brushes. I have polishing cloths and metal polish. I got them looking a lot better, but there is some damage to the metal itself on the oldest knife. It looks dimpled. Is there anything that can be done to help with the damage short of machinery to refinish the blade or something? I’m pretty new/inexperienced so I’m open to suggestions as long as it doesn’t require buying expensive tools. The knife that is the worst was from my grandfather’s tackle box so it was used hard.

  • over_clox@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    7 days ago

    I’m not exactly a knife restoration expert, but I’ve done a bit of cleanup, repairs and sharpening on some knives before.

    A photo or three would help a lot…

    • you_are_dust@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      7 days ago

      I updated the post to include an image. This is the one that was a tackle box knife. I’m not sure how well the image captures those marks.

      • over_clox@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        7 days ago

        Cool cool 👍

        Personal opinion, what cleanup you’ve done already is pretty good. I wouldn’t want to outright clean it up to flat machined metal though, as the more material you take off, the thinner and smaller the blade gets.

        From what I see, I’d more or less just sharpen the edge (if it needs it, kinda looks like it could use it), oil it, and call it a day.

        The old rust pitting? That just shows character and age…

        • you_are_dust@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          2·
          7 days ago

          I pulled it through a sharpener, but it didn’t seem to do much for it. Just one of those kitchen counter sharpeners. I’m finding that those don’t really do a whole lot I guess.

          • over_clox@lemmy.worldEnglish
            4·
            7 days ago

            Those sharpeners are typically only useful to touch up a barely worn/dull blade occasionally. What you have there appears to have a bit of a curved and rather worn edge, that’ll take some better tooling and some more work, and it really helps to have experience, or ask a local expert to do that for you.

            You really don’t want to take off too much more metal, no more than is absolutely necessary to get the edges back flat and even. There are a number of ways to go about that, the true pros mount the knife in a jig first to keep the angle of the blade perfectly flat and consistent.

            I happen to have a knack for doing that sort of thing freehand with a file and Dremel tool and the side of a cutting wheel, but I do not advise this sort of thing for amateurs.

            And that’s just to get the edges back flat and prepared for a new proper sharp edge, which from there typically requires a proper sharpening stone, leather strop, and as my late father taught me, a tungsten rod.

            Again I’m not exactly an expert, but I do have a fair amount of experience, and have been able to sharpen blades enough to literally split hairs.

            Best of luck, hopefully other commenters here can help you more than I have. But for real, be careful to not remove any more metal than necessary to get it back to good sharp usable condition.