All About Pocket Knives

Hi everyone, long-time reader, first-time poster here. I found 2 knives that belonged to my Grandpa, a salty old sailor. They are kinda rusty and dirty. I am not sure how to clean them. But I am not concerned with value or collector's appeal. I just want to use them and think of my Grandpa since he isn't around anymore. Any advice would be appreciated, thank you in advance.

Here are some pics. The Case is in a little better condition than the Camillus.

Pencil lead will take the rust off. Mineral oil bath/soak will loosen them up.

Those are some great knives! I am sure that the memories are even greater!

Cleaning:
Hot water with Dawn dish washing liquid. Scrub the entire knife with an old toothbrush. If you don't have an old toothbrush, use your wife's. (she will never know).
Be sure and clean all around the tang of the blades with them closed, open, and halfway open.
Afterward blow them dry with compressed air.
Then flush them out good with WD-40. It will displace the rest of the moisture.
Dry them well.
Oil the joints with machine oil, Remington gun oil, or something like that. ANY oil is better than none!

For the blades, rub away rust spots with the lead of a #2 pencil. Take your time and go over the rust spots multiple times. Then clean and oil the blades (I use mineral oil on the blades, but any oil will help).

I prefer to leave the patina on most of my blades; I believe that an old knife should look old. But if you want yours to be shiny, you can gently sand the blades with sandpaper. I start with about 400-grit and work up to 1000-grit. I prefer wet sanding as I get a much smoother finish. Sometimes I tape the sandpaper to some smooth wooden sticks.
Some guys finish theirs with Renwax or something similar. I have a tube of Case paste that I polish with.

Welcome to AAPK. One of the most often asked questions here is how to clean a knife, especially by new members. About everything you'll need to know about cleaning knives can be found here: viewtopic.php?f=98&t=65391

Ken

All of the advice that has been offered above is very good. But, in my humble opinion, before anyone can give you a really good answer to your question, you need to decide what end result you want to achieve with these knives (or any knives for that matter). As you probably can tell, the term "cleaning" can, and does mean widely differing things to different knife enthusiasts. For example, if you want to just remove the dirt and extraneous crud, that is one thing, if you want to remove all the surface rust, that is another thing, if you want to remove all of the pitting, that is another thing, etc., etc., etc.

Everything that has been said is spot on. I can add a few things:

Whatever end result ( just clean up , looking good, looking perfect) go slow with cleaning, polishing, and sanding.
You cannot go back and add material you removed.

Using a WaterPik does wonders in getting the crevices and tang areas cleaned out. I usually go
in the shower and let it blast wherever.

If you are going to use sandpaper on your blades the Wet/Dry kind is the best. Give the sandpaper a good
soak in water. I have glued the sandpaper to short (4-5 in long) section of wood paint sticks. It
give you a smooth straight surface to work with.

Using a metal or car polish can really shine up the bolsters if you wish shine. Using paint tape
to mask off areas that do not need polish.

Applying a thin layer of mineral oil really makes most scales really shine and stand out.

Bob

Welcome to the forum!

Very good advice already given!
Both of those knives should clean up nicely!

Steel wool and high grade sand paper will remove the tarnish and any light rust (If you want to go that route).

Enjoy those 2 family treasures!

Thanks everyone for your help with this! I really appreciate it. Looking forward to starting this up now that I have a better idea of how to go about it. I will post some "after" pictures once I get it to where I want.

Happy pocket kniving and Merry Christmas!