Was totally not expecting this.

[Samwise]

So...I was hanging out at my buddy's house this weekend, and at one point he started showing me his collection of old stuff. For the most part, I was like :confused: ...

But then I was like :eek:

He pulled this out.



An old Delica III in ATS-55.

After seeing my expression, he just said "Merry Christmas, bro" and handed it to me.

A few things about it:
~This thing is like airweight.
~When I got it, it was rather dull, but some work with the Sharpmaker brought the edge right back. And by "some work", I mean "grinding away until I get carpal tunnel". Jeebus.
~The blade, lockbar, and spring have a little bit of speckling and surface rust. What's the best way to go about cleaning this off?
~There's a few scratches near the heel of the edge. Should I be able to polish them out?
~I've oiled the bejeezus out of the pivot, but it still feels gritty. I think the tang rusted, but since it's pinned, I have no way of checking.

It slightly saddens me to see an otherwise perfectly good blade so neglected and mistreated, but I'm going to try my hardest to restore it.

[Evil D]

I'm not sure how it would effect the steel or handle...but vinegar is known to remove rust from metal if you let it soak for a while. That *might* get the rust out of the pivot without having to take it apart (if you even can) and it might patina the **** out of the steel.... Otherwise you might look into sending it back to Golden for the spa treatment, maybe that can bring it back to its former glory.

[greenfly]

Congratulation ,I recently got one of these n.i.b (old stock) & like it for all the same reasons you do,I would suggest flushing with WD40 & blowing the lock through with compressed air, the rust spots should polish off with chrome cleaner.

[a.carlson]

Crumple some aluminum foil into a ball and wet it a little bit. You can use the crumpled ball of foil to scrub off rust spots. I'm not really sure how it works, (something about aluminum pulling ions from the steel...) but it really does. I use this method on all of my knives with surprising effectiveness.

Its a shame the pivot is pinned instead of screwed. Makes your life a little harder, but I'm sure Sal and the gang back in Golden can get it all sorted out if you send it in.

What a great vintage find! Happy holidays! Cheers!

[Fred Sanford]

That is awesome. I love those old Delicas. With a nice cleanup that will give you lots of years of good service.

[ghostrider]

Congrats on the sweet find. Even with some of the newer steels, some still seem to like ATS-55.

On a side note, I wonder what type of metal they use to pin them with.