Subject: Re: corrosion removal from sword

From: [email-masked] (Alex Tomlinson)
Date: 10 May 1995 01:23:29 GMT

Christopher Lau ([email-masked]) wrote:

: Also Since your blade is obviously in *very* bad condition, I won't say much
: about your treatment of it, just that I've seen several good blades (minimal
: rust) that someone has tried to clean in such a manner- the process left bad
: scratches all down the blade.  A blade in such bad condition probably
: isn't worth saving, but you can try using naval jelly- don't expect the rust
: to come off immediately, it'll probably take you several days to a week of
: jelly treatments and scrubbing and rinsing to get 50 years of rust off.

The Navel Jelly is absolutely the way to go.  With diligent use of a 
toothbrush you can get all the rust out of the pits without grinding half 
the blade off.  It will take alot of treatments.  I would suggest 
applying it in the morning, letting it sit all day, rinsing it and 
reapplying and leaving it all night and so on until you get down to bare 
metal.  The difference between what the metal will look like compared to 
sanding is well worth the effort. When none of the metal turns black upon 
application of the jelly you have removed all the rust; since the jelly is 
an acid it will ultimately leave an etched surface, but there will be 
nothing but the original unblemished steel.  You can shine up the blade 
and smooth it up a bit with a VERY FINE wire wheel on a drill.  Otherwise, 
you might try a variety of metal polishes; I'm not familiar with one that 
works well on steel.

Alex