Reviving old folding knives

B

bryan11

Joined
Sep 21, 2008
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After finding a around a dozen old folding knives that have sat in a box for 20 years, I'm wondering how best to clean them up and get them all into proper working order. Could you recommend what cleaners and lubricants to use to work on these? If the blade or case has rust on it, what's good for removing it and making it look good again?

thanks,
Bryan
 
0000 steel wool and WD 40.
You can also scrape heavy rust off with a copper penny.
Bill
 
Before you get too aggressive, try chemical cleaners. My son got Noxon at an auto parts store and after testing many types of polish, this seems to be the best. If you can't find that, Brasso also is good. Just put a little on a rag and rub.

If you work on knives WD 40 is great for cleaning the mechanisms. Spray it inside and open and close it until nothing comes out. Blow everything out with compressed air and wash it with dish soap and water.

Goof Off 2 works real good on the scales. It also will clean tar and other gunk off the whole knife. Make sure it says safe on plastic or you could have a real mess.

A drop of 3 in 1 oil on the joints and some good car wax. If you feel like that's not enough, go at it with steel wool.

You probably have most of that in your garage or a cabinet. Don't forget a roll of paper towels, as you clean them, wipe them off frequently.
 
Since I restore knives professionally, I feel I need to make a couple of corrections to Popcornpicker's advise.
Never use Brasso on any knife. It is too abrasive on the soft metals, and can (will) get in the joints and imbed itself. I know nothing about Noxon polish, but NevRdull cotton wadding is afe to remove tarnish-as is Simichrome.
WD 40 does not need to be washed off! I use it to displace water after washing knives in soap and water. Just wipe off the excess.
0000 steel wool is not aggressive on steel. It will only remove rust and will not hurt the blade finish.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
Since I restore knives professionally, I feel I need to make a couple of corrections to Popcornpicker's advise.
Never use Brasso on any knife. It is too abrasive on the soft metals, and can (will) get in the joints and imbed itself. I know nothing about Noxon polish, but NevRdull cotton wadding is afe to remove tarnish-as is Simichrome.
WD 40 does not need to be washed off! I use it to displace water after washing knives in soap and water. Just wipe off the excess.
0000 steel wool is not aggressive on steel. It will only remove rust and will not hurt the blade finish.
Click to expand...


+1 :thumbup:

On a carbon steel blade 0000 steel wool and old fashioned gun oil also work well. Removes the rust, and nothing but the rust! :p
 
Glad to see you guys pop in. My random observations were just that. They were not meant to be a tutorial or used in a specific order. Basically, I was trying to show that you can tune up a knife without spending a bunch of money.

Oh yeah, an old toothbrush is also a good tool.
 
I really like Flitz metal polish with a shop rag. It is not cheap about $7 a tube, but I read about it on a post, found it at an ACE hardware store, used it on a Queen City Jack that had some bad rust from an estate sale. It restored the blade to a mirror finish, it looked so great, I gave the knife to my dad for father's day and made my older brother jealous! The most important thing is to have fun restoring them!
 
I use fine steel wool to remove any active surface rust, and then use valve oil for brass instruments (Blue Juice valve oil can be found for around $5.00 at most music stores) and run that through the joints and back-springs. Then just keep on working the blades and wiping off the grime that comes out. For polishing I use MetalGlo which is relatively inexpensive and does a fine job of removing tarnish and corrosion without "over-cleaning" an antique and destroying the patina. I use q-tips and folded paper towels to get the interior of the frame. Usually by that point it's working as smooth as when it was new and yet still has that vintage look to it.
 
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