How to deal with (minor) rust?

[mikerestivo]

Hi folks -

I have been carrying my Matriarch during my bike rides for about 3 months now. The blade started showing some surface rust spots a few weeks ago.

I bought and used Tuf-Glide on it and it seemed to stop it for awhile.

This past week a few more rust spots appeared. I would like to remove them. Is it best to use a fine steel wool? I have never had to deal with rust on a nice pocket knife before. If I'm not mistaken, I thought I read on this forum that a pencil eraser will work, too. Is that true?

I have never used Tuf-Glide before now. How often should it be reapplied?

Thanks -

Mike

[dgulbra]

Try a metal polish like Flitz, Simichrome or Super Premium. I would clean and oil it every time your knife comes in contact with a corrosive substance. (sweat, saltwater etc)

[Mr Blonde]

For really minor rust spots, I've had good results using copper polish. This was before I hade a selection of real metal polishes like mentioned above. It still does the trick for minor rust spots without making the rest of the blade all shiny.

[Pockets]

Once you remove the rust, it might be wise to keep it off by not carrying the knife in a place where it touches corrosive substances. Perhaps carrying it in a bag instead of in pocket/IWB.

[JD Spydo]

Try a metal polish like Flitz, Simichrome or Super Premium. I would clean and oil it every time your knife comes in contact with a corrosive substance. (sweat, saltwater etc)

I'm not only a big fan of the Flitz polishing products I'm also a big fan of their polishing cloths as well. I was amazed the first time I used one of Flitz's microfiber polishing cloths. It truly did make a big difference.

Now for extremely stubborn rust the next step I would try is to take some Bar Keeper's Friend cleanser with a polishing cloth. It's totally different than Ajax or Comet and has more of a chemical type cleaning and polishing action which does not scratch up your blade like many cleansers do. I've done some great rust removals with Bar Keeper's Friend and I use it for many cleaning and polishing chores.

Flitz has a great line up of products. Everyone of their products I've tried I've had good success with.

[PocketZen]

Try a metal polish like Flitz, Simichrome or Super Premium. I would clean and oil it every time your knife comes in contact with a corrosive substance. (sweat, saltwater etc)

+1

[DCDesigns]

Really, no suggestions for using Coke a cola to eat off the rust? Let it sit in the stuff overnight, itll eat rust off anything (incluing the battery terminals of a car battery)

[MisterJeff]

For minor rust, I've used baking soda, a bit of water, and an old toothbrush pretty successfully on a few of my blades (cheap, something everybody already has, and obviously non toxic).

[JD Spydo]

For minor rust, I've used baking soda, a bit of water, and an old toothbrush pretty successfully on a few of my blades (cheap, something everybody already has, and obviously non toxic).

That's extremely interesting that you would bring up baking soda of all things. My mother always used a combination of baking soda and salt to clean up stainless steel and copper bottom cooking pans and it seemed to do a beautiful job. Also I use toothbrushes on many of my cleaning and polishing chores. Where I'm working I currently can get just about all of the toothbrushes ( most of them used once) that I want. I have about a 5 gallon bucket of them now and I look to eventually use them all for some type of cleaning or polishing job.

It is truly amazing a lot of the things you can do with some of the most simple things around us. Also I use toothpaste for many cleaning and prep jobs as well. And it seems like the cheaper the brand of toothpaste the better it works.