Corrosion or tarnish — what to do

Ron Scott · 08-09-2019, 07:54 AM

What would you do to this trigger guard to make it look better?

Scott Gentry · 08-09-2019, 08:38 AM

What I did to one of mine.
Ballistal and Fortier pad.

B. Dudley · 08-09-2019, 08:44 AM

Apart from cleaning it and removing any actual active rust, there is not much you can do to make it look any different. Just rebluing it.

stumpstalker · 08-09-2019, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Dudley

Apart from cleaning it and removing any actual active rust, there is not much you can do to make it look any different. Just rebluing it.

Exactly the advice a vintage knife expert would give a collector.

If aggressive polishing is resorted to, e.g., as per a buffing wheel, so as to efface corroded metal, it is a dead giveaway that something incalculably ugly had been there. The imagination runs wild.

With the active rust removed what remains is a cared-for object, with character.

Ron Scott · 08-10-2019, 09:14 AM

I've heard of everything from Flitz, Big 45 Frontier Metal Cleaner, 0000 steel wool, WD 40, baking soda, to Bar Keepers Friend ...

I'm not looking to polish it -- just get the active rust, if that's what it is, out. It's more like tiny spots of corrosion. I think the engraving would look better without it.