Thread: My New Playthings..

...I've started polishing up these two, inspired by a thread somewhere here. I used 400 wet and dry, then 600, then a bit of 800, 'till they were quite shiny and mostly free of rust; then soaked in grapefruit juice (seriously. stop laughing) mixed with vinegar for ten minutes Then polished a little bit again 'round the pivot and a little on the blade. The grapefruit juice (I didn't have any lemon) and vinegar were used to force a patina, but it also showed me really well where I still had active rust.


The idea here was to clean them up really well, but then add some signs of wear and tear. Now I've done it once, I think you could get some really interesting effects. I worked on them for only about 4 hours last night; WAY past my bedtime (I was up 'till ten THIRTY!); my wife asked me if I had 'Show and Tell' tomorrow. You know what I told her she should do. She then said I bet you wish you DID have show and tell, don't you? I concured.

Anyway, I'm quite happy with this process. I'm going to keep sanding and 'forcing a patina' and sanding again. It's already starting to make some really interesting markings on the blade. The trick will be removing any active rust (and pivots are always an issue) without unpinning.

..Oh, I'm using bees wax and good old Kiwi black and also natural boot polish on the scales of the Jernbolaget. I figure if the scales are leather (how cool is THAT?) then it makes sense to use shoe polish...