Corrosion or tarnish — what to do

[stumpstalker]

The Frontier pad is the key for the cleaning process used, I suspect, with the oil serving as a slurry helping to slough off removed particles with the added benefit of it protecting the newly exposed metal.

Vintage knife authority, Bernard Levine, is not all that popular with many in the knife collecting community. He has had the temerity to say that sophisticated knife collectors avoid buying buffed knives, but the problem as he puts it, is that most knife collectors are not sophisticated.

But just like on here, some of the best advice is the advice we don’t want to hear.

He recommends removing active rust by working with a mild abrasive, as did Scott with the Frontier pad, and light oil. Too much aggressiveness is the problem. As he puts it in LEVINE’S GUIDE TO KNIVES AND THEIR VALUES, 3rd Ed., on page 22:

”Over-eager polishing destroys any remaining original finish…It softens all contours and edges. It eliminates all traces of honest age….IT SUBSTANTIALLY REDUCES IT’S VALUE TO A SERIOUS AND KNOWLEDGEABLE COLLECTOR” (capitals in the original).

[Ron Scott]

Thanks for all of your suggestions. I decided to stay away from abrasives and instead use an old piece of MidwayUSA Rust and Lead Remover Gun Cleaning Cloth that I found in my tool box. I did the trigger guard as well as the rest of the receiver. They still sell it if you liked the way it came out:

"This marvelous cloth was designed to work on virtually any metal surface to remove rust, tarnish, lead, and other stains. The non-abrasive cotton cloth is impregnated with a cleaning solution, and has hundreds of uses around the shop.

Use it for:

Cleaning stubborn lead and carbon fouling from revolver cylinders.
Removing plastic fouling from shotgun chambers and choke tubes.
Removing tarnish from your favorite hunting knife.
Cleaning your reloading press and dies.
Restoring old rusty tools in the shop to new condition."