Baby steps.
Today I put The Old English scale in Neetsfoot Oil. We'll see how it is tomorrow. The result of trying to straighten it out with near-boiling water were negative, it nearly went back to it's original shape, so I will try it out again after the neetsfoot oil.
Also, I took some Mother's Polish to the blade with a Microfibre to see clean it up a little. Will try to get pics tomorrow.