I made the mistake of leaving my favorite folder in a wet backpack overnight. As a result, the blade has picked up several rust spots. Is there a way to remove these spots without damaging the finish of the blade?
I have already tried 0000 steel wool with WD-40. This easily removed all of the brown surface rust, but several areas on the blade are still "stained." If left alone, will these areas be susceptible to pitting? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Hi Glock and welcome here.
I've had pretty good luck with stains... not rust, on blades with a combo of Flitz (most hardware stores) applied to a 3M Green scrub pad. You might try that combo next, but those marks sure look like pits to me!
Dave
Thanks to my rust tests, i've had the opportunity to test a few different rust-removal methods....
my current favorite for knives that don't touch food?
for Stainless handled knives, i take a plastic container and pour in a small amount of Firearms Nitro solvent (Hoppe's #9 or equivalent) and let the knife soak for a few minutes to loosen up the rust, on FRN handled knives, i saturate some gun cleaning cloths with Nitro and scrub the rust spots vigorously (not sure if Nitro reacts with FRN, but i'm not taking any chances here)
i then take my firearms cleaning brushes, my .357 brushes mainly, starting off with the brass brush, to knock the rust back, then the cotton brush to polish up
that takes care of all but the most tenacious rust, if any remains, i break out the 000 steel wool, if it withstands that, the green scrubbie comes out, the GS will scuff up highly polished steels like VG-10, but it will agressively remove rust
in order of abrasive agressiveness, least to most, i've found it goes this way;
cotton gun swabs
copper bristle brush
000 Steel Wool
Green Scrubbie pad
once rust has been removed, i use gun oil to lube up knives that don't touch food, mineral oil for any knife that may come in contact with food
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Try the FLITZ polish with the application with a soft bristle toothbrush. For really stubborn rust I've had really decent luck with a cleanser that is sold in a lot of grocery and hardware stores. It is called "Bar Keeper's Friend". You will find it where they have the Ajax and Comet. Make a paste out of some of the Bar Keeper's Friend and use a toothbrush on it also.
Green (chrome) polish on a high speed buffer might do it, but if you don't know what you are doing the blade can catch on the buffer and hurt you seriously. Gloves and eye protection are necessary.
Places that sharpen knives often have buffing equipment, and they might be able to help you. Some people have a better pair of hands than others, so you might want to ask around.
Thanks to all for the responses. I'll give the Flitz a try and see what happens. BTW, the marks that look like pitting in the picture are really just pieces of lint on the blade (my original question was in reference to the brownish rust stains).
One final question for this thread: Since the surface rust has been removed, will the stained areas be more susceptible to additional corrosion?
Metal Glo will remove it in a heartbeat...so will 3M metal polisher. If you don't eat with this blade, coat it in TufCloth...ATS-55 has a high carbon content and is very rust prone although not as much as ATS-34.
if you remove the rust with flitz, it should not be more prone to rust. You could get some gun wax in addition to the polish when you order the flitz if you want the knife to be safe, but i don't think it is necessary.
try the softer methods first and see if that does the trick., if not, go fo teh coarser methods. when the rust is all gone, finish the knife to a nice finish again, whether you want it polished or brushed. that's all there's to it really
GlockinNC wrote:One final question for this thread: Since the surface rust has been removed, will the stained areas be more susceptible to additional corrosion?
no, the steel remains the same it was before. no problem don't worry
one more thing, very important! > never ever use a high speed, high friction steel tooling device that creates lots of heat on your blade. you could terminate all functionality and stability of your blade by doing that, becasue you'll ruin the temper. if you must use power tools, set it to slow and make sure it doesn't get hot.
