Found my pocket knife today

[jaysouth]

After a year in the woods covered up with leaves. My brother in law and I went back to the blind area I hunted from last year with a metal detector and a leaf rake. We found it in five minutes flat!

However it is a carbon steel Camillius that is now badly rusted. What is the best thing to clean this up with? I was thinking a long soak in turpentine or kerosene, then polishing with a dremel polishing wheel.

Any better thoughts. I want this back in my pocket. I bought it in 1978 and it takes a razor keen edge.

[BrassMagnet]

I think either of those will melt the side panels if you soak it.

How about wiping the blades with scotch pads and kerosene?

[osteodoc08]

Naval jelly removed rust. Not sure how it would affect your steel. I'd also look at some of the home brew electrolysis units you can set up cheap.

Looking at the photos, I'd restore it and make it a moments and get a new blade for the pocket.

[Four-Sixty]

I carry a $25 Case Sodbuster Jr. and I would be heartbroken if I lost it. Congratulations on getting your knife back!

[thekidd76]

Toss it in a bowl of white vinegar for a few days up to a week. I could be wrong, but I don't thing the vinegar will hurt the scales.

[nhrifle]

Evaporust. Won't hurt the non metallic parts and will remove all corrosion from the blades. The bottle will tell you to leave it in for a few hours, but I would let it soak for a few days, repeat as necessary until down to bare metal.

[imashooter2]

Electrolytic rust removal is king.

http://schoepp.hylands.net/electrolyticrust.html

A quick and easy set up I have used several times:





Results:

[Daddyfixit]

what imashooter2 said, works like magic.

[Plate plinker]

Glad you found that knife. I thought I found it stuck in my wife's tire. Looked just like yours minus all the missing parts.

[big bore 99]

Try using some fine wet/dry paper with a little kerosene. Not lengthways, but strop it like a barber does a straight razor.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

Electrolytic rust removal will do a good job as will Evaporust. I have used the latter quite a bit with success. White vinegar will go after rust effectively, but if you leave it for too long it goes after good metal; it is often used in the cleaning of cast iron and "too long in the bath" can ruin a piece. On the knife shown, there is probably rust under the scales and on the pivot pins where you can't see it so a soak in the Evapo rust will get to those internals. A final soak in lubricating oil should complete the job. LLS

[claude]

#1 thekidd76, then wire brush it with the dremel and oil it well.

[oldred]

Electrolytic rust removal won't work so well unless the thing is disassembled because any electrolytic action is mostly canceled between overlapping parts, it could also start to erode the tips of the blades before all the rust is removed as it tends to do on long thin items. Evaporust is the ticket here! Evaporust will remove all the rust without doing ANY damage at all to the un-oxidized steel, you will likely have to remove it often from the bath and work the blades to dislodge trapped rust and to work fresh solution into crevices but in a couple of days 100% of the rust will be gone.


Now for the bad news, it will never again look like it did because all that oxidation you see was once part of the blade steel but is now just "ash" from the iron that was affected. There will be pits in the visible blade surface but the worst part is that it's highly likely that the "sandwiched" areas are rusted even heavier and once this is dissolved away I think you will find the blades are going to be significantly looser than before. Unfortunately there is little that can be done about this without total disassembly, polishing and replacement of the pins. Unless the pits are really deep most could be sanded (lightly) with progressively finer wet/dry paper starting with 240 grit and progressing to about 600-800 or even finer depending on how shiny you want the blades.

Evidently this knife means a lot to you, I can certainly relate to that, so whatever you choose to do BE CAREFUL and choose a method that will remove the rust without doing even more damage, you have already lost some of the steel and if even more is removed during the de-rusting process it is gone forever! Remember it's FAR more than just getting the rust off because the underlying metal is not the same as it was before, that rust is not at all like something that is just stuck to the blades such as dirt and crud but rather it's the remains of what was once part of the blades themselves so how you go about removing it and what you find underneath is extremely important. Some methods such as the electrolytic may be the cat's meow for heavy single items with a large surface area but it can literally destroy long thin items because it continues to remove material even after the rust is gone, it will be eroding the tips of the blades long before all the rust is gone at the hinge pin!

[JSnover]

Back when I was collecting, Camillus knives were easy to find. If this one can't be salvaged you might be able to replace it for short money. Maybe even just in time for Christmas.

[DLCTEX]

Soak it in a citric acid solution. Removves rust and does no damage to metal or the scales.

[oldred]

Citric acid will work but if an acidic method is to be used Phosphoric acid would be a lot better, Phosphoric acid (the same stuff found in soft drinks) is sold in a concentrated form just for this very purpose. The difference between Phosphoric acid and Citric acid is that Phosphoric acid will work MUCH faster but better yet it will leave a Phosphated surface that will be resistant to further rusting whereas the Citric acid will remain corrosive until completely removed, Phosphoric acid is the active ingredient in Navel Jelly. There are much better products than Navel Jelly however, such as Ospho, Jasco, etc and most can be found at any of the big building suppliers (Lowes, Home Depot, etc). These acids are however more aggressive than a chelating agent like Evapo-Rust which will very gently remove the oxidized metal but will do ZERO harm to the base metal! Electrolytic methods and acid based removers are going to also attack the underlying metal and while Phosphoric acid would probably do the least harm of these methods any acid or electrolysis is going to do some damage to the acute edges and tips of the blades. In this case Evapo-Rust is going to be the gentlest method that could be used and the only one that will do zero damage to the underlying surface, while Phosphoric acid, Citric acid and even electrolytic methods are normally perfectly safe in most cases the problem here is the extreme differences between the intensive action that is going to be required at the hinge pins vs the light action that will be needed at the point. Considering the fact that the acute edges (sharpened edge) and the tip will still be exposed to either corrosive or electrolytic erosion much longer than necessary while trying to eliminate the heavier rust in recessed areas it becomes easy to see where even more damage could occur. A chelating solution such as Evapo-Rust is the only method that will remove the rust without affecting the undamaged metal underneath.

[shooter2]

I am often reminded at how many smart and talented people we have here. Please let us know what you do and show the before and after pictures.

[Handloader109]

Evaporust. Won't hurt the non metallic parts and will remove all corrosion from the blades. The bottle will tell you to leave it in for a few hours, but I would let it soak for a few days, repeat as necessary until down to bare metal.

evaporust is the easiest and won't hurt the scales. Electolysis is second choice.

[Multigunner]

Don't bother polishing the blade bright, just clean away crusty rust with liquid wrench and 0000 steel wool then put an edge on it.
If you try polishing it you'll always be disappointed that you can't get all the pits out.
If just cleaned and oiled it will usually leave a surface that resembles rust bluing, sort of greyish.
You don't have to soak the whole knife, just apply the iol to the pins and end of the blade, then wait till it softens the rust before opening and closing so you don't loosen it up too much.

I have about two dozen old knives I've found over the years, including a German eye in excellent condition still with factory edge.
Some were found along the side of the road where they had been left under the hood when someone used them to scrape battery terminals. Others found while mowing yards, others found while reupholstering furniture.
Found a once fine Italian switchblade when I was a youngster, but it was too badly rusted from road salt to restore.

[williamwaco]

I use CLR for stuff like that.