All About Pocket Knives

I have acquired an Imperial Boy Scour knife that my investigation tells me is a mid 1950's Imperial knife with Delrin slabs. I'd like to clean it up a bit, but i'm not sure what to use as a cleaner. It looks more like a little black junk on it. Not red rust. Fairly decent condition, but I don't want to ruin the slabs. Any suggestions what to use, and what *not* to use? Thanks in advance.

Find a rag/towel with a bit of texture to the cloth. The old time red shop rags are not so good. I use the barman towels.

Apply a bunch of hand sanitize gel to both side of the knife. Drop into a fold on the rag between the palms of both hands.
A little pressure & back / forth action should take a good bit of the dirt, grime ,etc off pretty quickly.
The hand cleaner is pretty much alcohol & should not do any damage before it evaporates away.

Some of the garage type cleaners have grit in them or a stronger petroleum based than can do damage so I would avoid those. (gunk, goop & the like)

It really depends on what the stuff is all over your knife..... but this is fairly benign way to start.

Stretch

Slightly off-topic, but if your knife has Delrin handles it was made after 1960. We would like to see your knife, of course, including a close-up of the tang stamp; we have folk here who can tell you all there is to know about your example, especially if you find the 'scout knife' thread and post there. But this thread will work, also. Welcome!

Cal is right, if the handles are Delrin the knife was made no earlier than 1960.
Please post pictures of the knife if you can that would be most helpful.

For cleaning and doing the least damage impossible to the knife I would recommend a Sonic cleaner. Three or four drops of Dawn dishwashing liquid and a little bit of water in a Sonic cleaner and let it operate for about 5 minutes. You will be absolutely amazed at the amount of gunk that comes out of that knife and how dirty the water is.

Here are couple of images of the knife:

Is the shield metal or plastic?

If it's metal and inset into the handle, that would be a 1949 to 1952 with black celluloid handles.

If it's plastic and surface mounted, that would be 1953 to 1958, also black celluloid handles.

You can see that the handles are celluloid as the scales are shrinking and pulling away from the bolsters and edges of the liners.

Oh heck bro, that rascal is in excellent condition.
Add some oil to the joints, and some flitz metal polish to the metal parts and you're good!!!

zzyzzogeton wrote:Is the shield metal or plastic?

If it's metal and inset into the handle, that would be a 1949 to 1952 with black celluloid handles.

If it's plastic and surface mounted, that would be 1953 to 1958, also black celluloid handles.

You can see that the handles are celluloid as the scales are shrinking and pulling away from the bolsters and edges of the liners.

Thanks zzyzzogeton. What should I take the black stuff with? Is it rust?

When you ask about "rust" are you referring to the darker gray looking blobs on the can opener and at the base of the CO at the bolster?

Without knowing what the black stuff is, this is just a SWAG -

I'd start with a #2 pencil, rub the black stuff with the graphite end as if you were trying to color a section with the pencil. If the black stuff kind starts coming off/disappearing, keep going. Graphite is way softer than even mild steel so you can't hurt any thing.

If it is left over "killed corrosion" from when it had active red rust and someone killed the red rust with oil, 0000 steel wool and elbow grease creating "patina blobs", you'll need a soft cloth, Flitz (or some other polishing equivalent) and a whole lot of elbow grease. If it is thin enough "dead rust", the #2 pencil might work for any "light weight" stuff.

If they are "naturally occurring from use" patina areas, and you want them gone - see the Flitz.

If you're wanting it to look all shiny and new like out the factory door, you'll need lots and lots or Flitz and elbow grease and patience. And the celluloid will still be shrinking and off-gassing.

zzyzzogeton wrote:When you ask about "rust" are you referring to the darker gray looking blobs on the can opener and at the base of the CO at the bolster?

Without knowing what the black stuff is, this is just a SWAG -

I'd start with a #2 pencil, rub the black stuff with the graphite end as if you were trying to color a section with the pencil. If the black stuff kind starts coming off/disappearing, keep going. Graphite is way softer than even mild steel so you can't hurt any thing.

If it is left over "killed corrosion" from when it had active red rust and someone killed the red rust with oil, 0000 steel wool and elbow grease creating "patina blobs", you'll need a soft cloth, Flitz (or some other polishing equivalent) and a whole lot of elbow grease. If it is thin enough "dead rust", the #2 pencil might work for any "light weight" stuff.

If they are "naturally occurring from use" patina areas, and you want them gone - see the Flitz.

If you're wanting it to look all shiny and new like out the factory door, you'll need lots and lots or Flitz and elbow grease and patience. And the celluloid will still be shrinking and off-gassing.

Thanks a lot man! I'm the world's oldest novice, but i'm learning. This knife has very good snap on the main blade, and truly excellent snap on the leather punch. The can opener and bottle opener have much less snap and seem just a wee bit loose. Following what you said about previous clean up, somebody really put some effort to cleaning up the openers, but didn't support them correctly, and loosened them up. There was much less work done to the leather punch, and as a result it has excellent snap. When I finally find the knife that I had as a scout in the mid '50's, i'll know what to look out for. So, thanks very much for your input! I'm still looking for the site that I looked at recently, but can no longer find. It showed all of the scout knives, their makers, and the years that they were produced. Good photos with the various changes made to the tools over the years for the same knives.

A lot of the these older Imperial blades were carbon steel. With age they're going to turn that dark grayish-black color. You may have to use a dremel and polish wheel to get back the luster on the metal. As for cleaning. Just use gun solvent and a brush. Hoppes 9 won't hurt the scales.