Ok , very dirty big knife and no idea how to clean it.

[clarknova156]

I had this sucker for ages now and its quite messed up looking and I wanna be able to polish/clean the suck to a shine if possible. Here are some pictures attached to show its condition. Any suggestions on how to bring it back into proper form are highly welcomed :). Thank you for any suggestions folks!

Image 1 : http://imageshack.us/a/img11/341/img20120917184726.jpg

Image 2 : http://imageshack.us/a/img21/9374/img20120917184716.jpg

Thoughts?

[canid]

I would use very fine grit paper (say, 600-800) against a flat sanding block. steel wool is probably the laziest option. How much care to you wish to take?

[clarknova156]

I would use very fine grit paper (say, 600-800) against a flat sanding block. steel wool is probably the laziest option. How much care to you wish to take?


I don't mind it getting beat up some I just want some of its shine back and just want to neaten it up some. Thanks for the advice , I'll go a head and give that a shot :cool2:

[JPGreco]

I use the wire wheel attachment on my dremel. Worked wonders on an old knife. I've been meaning to hit it with a polishing wheel as well.

[Wise Old Owl]

curious - does that say Pakistan?

[crashdive123]

Hand sanding as Canid suggested is your best option.

[canid]

and the block will help you keep from rounding off and losing definition of the facet lines.

[clarknova156]

curious - does that say Pakistan?

In fact it does :) , do you know of what type of knife it is?

Also to those suggesting sanding , what grit do I start with? And what do I finish with? Also I'm not that worried if it comes out finished with marks I just want the crud off the blade so It doesn't look like I dipped it into horse sh*t.

[crashdive123]

220, 320, 400, 500, 800, 1000. 1200

[hunter63]

I don't know if anyone has seen or used a "Rust Eraser", but they do work for stuff like this.
http://www.garrettwade.com/product.asp?pn=06K02.01&ch=06K02.02&EID=W6061011&SID=W6061011&utm_source=googlecse&utm_medium=shoppingengine&zmam=91072717&zmas=1&zmac=1&zmap=06K02.02&gclid=COim5dDixLICFYNM4AodAwwA3A

Personnely I don't mind a little patina on a blade........

[crashdive123]

Agreed. For that blade I'd be more interested in getting the paint off and then forcing a patina.

[Winter]

I'd go with a scotch brite pad. You don't wanna spend more on sandpaper than the knife is worth.
http://budk.com/product/Knives/Bowie-Knives/Classic-Bowie-Knife/pc/2902/c/0/sc/2904/156796.uts

Those are the knives I buy to mod into throwers.

[Daniel Nighteyes]

In fact it does :) , do you know of what type of knife it is?

Simply, it is a cheap knockoff of the Western Cutlery "Bowie" (later renamed the W49) that was very popular among American and other "foreign" contestants in the Southeast Asian War Games of the 1960s and early 1970s. (I am dramatically euphemizing and simplifying here.) Western Cutlery produced good, and very popular, knives throughout its life. Too, the comparatively "soft" steel they used made keeping their blades razor-sharp a relatively easy task.

Here is a link to a Western Cutlery W49 knife on eBay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/US-WESTERN-W49-Huge-Bowie-Knife-Leather-Sheath-/221126964380?pt=Collectible_Knives&hash=item337c31b49c

Other Western Cutlery knives that were popular during the same period include the L46 line -- L46-5, L46-6 and L46-8. Their blade-lengths were 5-inch, 6-inch and 8-inch respectively. The L46's were the next-generation offering of the WWII G46 line -- the G46-5 ("Baby-Shark"), G46-6 ("Shark") and G46-8.

But that's probably more than you ever wanted to know.

-- Nighteyes

[itsken78]

like Nighteyes said, it's a cheap knife. if you ever tried to give it real, hard use, it would likely end up breaking & possibly injuring the user...or bystander. or if lucky, it would just end up bending like gumby.

[canid]

I seriously doubt it. Cheap or not, it's fairly solidly constructed. The abuse it would probably take to break it isn't likely to fall into the reasonable use category, except that it might fail from the scale attachment, as those look as likely to be flimsy rivets as solid screws.

[itsken78]

i had 1 like it when i was a kid, i gave a pine tree a whack & the blade split horizontally, almost in half.

[canid]

Knives aren't axes. Axes are.

That sounds about like the [possibly mythical] guy who immortalized himself in sword collecting circles by buying a 17th century nihonto sword, then tried to cut a tree with it, ostensibly to tell if it was real.

[itsken78]

if i ever met that guy...i would hurt him.... & alas i am 1 of those people who see value in batoning a knife....but yeah, whacking a tree is not smart... what do you expect from a kid who just got a big honking knife to do? (btw, my father was too busy trying to find the bottom of liquor bottles to teach proper use) so had to self-teach & research....

[canid]

I did much the same when I was little, and I have the scars to prove it. :D

[itsken78]

hehe, none of my scars come from knife use oddly enough...just dogs, glass, yard darts, & rusty nails...

[canid]

Sadly, I come from the diminished days which feel that lawn darts are too dangerous to be trusted to the public. I still suffer from the odd nail puncture though. Thought I had tetanus just last year.

[itsken78]

yuck...thankfully i never had tetanus. the yard dart that bit me was flat tipped, & thrown by my older brother...game of chicken...he moved, i didn't...

[Rick]

Well I think ya'll need a tetanus shot before you get lock fingers and can't type.

[itsken78]

is that a tacticool way of saying "stop derailing the thread"? hehe

[Winter]

My knife like that one has held up to 1000's of throws. It bends, it does not break.