Cleaning knives

[kBob]

Could some of you serious collectors tell us the best ways to clean up old knives so as to not ruin them?

I have used a pencil erasure to help clean up the brand names for easier reading for example. But how do I get rid of old black stains?

SHould one attempt to polish out old scratched in initials and if so how?

How does one tell old yellowing bone form old yellowing plastic and how or should one attempt to clean either?

I just picked up a couple of older folders this weekend , with the intention of makeing a gift of one (a Camillus/New York/ USA CUbscout knife as I refuse to give my kid a Red Chinese made Cub knife) and the other being of the type my first pocket knife was (Imperial Fishing knife with SHeep foot, scaler.hook remover. bottle openner, and can openner) I want to clean them up so as to look presentable. (Yes, I am looking for the camera)

WHat should I be doing or not doing?

-kBob

 

[hso]

Don't polish an older knife.

You can continue to use an eraser across the entire knife, but you'll find that a diaper or terry towel and light machine oil will do wonders at removing what can/should be removed.

If you want to remove scratched in initials you may have to get the help of a knife "doctor" that knows how to buff/grind out the initials without wrecking the knife.

 

[451 Detonics]

First you do not want to remove steel, this means heavy polishing is out. Oil and 0000 steel wool will remove rust, hand polishing with Flitz can improve the way the blades look but please resist using the Dremel Tool. Toothbrushes, Q-tips, etc all can help.

Old plastic tends to shrink away from the bolsters, bone won't. Plastic also won't have the end grain bone does.

When I buy a basket case the first stop is normally a 24 hour bath in mineral oil. This will loosen corrosion and dirt, lubricate the joints and give bone scales a much needed drink. Yes bone can dry out and that is not always a good thing.

This 1920's Remington Scout was a rusty basket case when I found it. I paid a whopping 5 bucks for it and today it is a valued EDC for me.



I f you want to spend a few bucks you can have a good restoration done on a knife. I recommend Muskrat Man for this, on his restoration page you can see some examples of his work. http://muskratmancustoms.freehomepage.com/

 

[lee-enfield shooter]

Old knives shouldn't be polished at all. Unless they are obvious cheap ones, the ones with bone or wood handles are usually a bit more valuable. I usually use rem oil on them to help get the rust off and lubricate the internal parts.

 

[451 Detonics]

Old knives shouldn't be polished at all.

Not true at all...some can be made more valuable through restoration which does include polishing, and polishing that removes rust and staining without removing metal is fine as well. The Remington in my pic above went from a 5 buck junker to one worth $100+ with simple cleaning and light polishing. If a blade is not rusty but simply has a patina I would leave it alone however.

This is not something that you can easily learn in a forum...just how much to do to a old knife...

 

[Deltaboy1984]

Thanks for the Muskrat man link I have a old Camco Barlow that the Main blade is loose on. I might have to send it to him.