Thread: Rust removal options

The pitting can still slightly be seen, would it be worth it to drop to 400 grit to try to completely remove the pitting or would I be better off to leave it alone and just start the polishing?

That is the OTHER kind of rust, the "good" type of iron oxide that you are trying to get when you blue a gun using the old school rust or fume bluing method or when you get a patina on a carbon steel knife. But not so good on what is supposed to be a bright shiny buffed badly, right? Non abrasive metal polishes like Flitz or Simichrome will not really remove that stuff. You will have to get a bit more aggressive,

Originally Posted by xr88

So I scraped all the rust off with a razor blade. What is left underneath are black/grey spots. The spots feel completely smooth to the touch. Can I just use metal polish to get the spots off or will I absolutely have to sand?

From my knife experience, I have found that if you are going for the "hand rubbed" look, the alternate direction sanding kinda becomes superfluous once you get at and above 600 grit or so. At that point, you are just knocking the tops off of the very fine previous scratches. One other little trick is that you can used your buffer or dremel to do the spine to edge "sanding" and then do the lengthwise with paper with cork/sanding block, EDM stones or what have you if you want to end up with the lengthwise "had sanded" look. If you do that, another trick is to go a grit higher say to 1200-1500 or 2000 and then go back to the previous grit, say 1000-1200 or 1500 and pull STRAIGHT in one direction heel to toe using a fresh spot on the paper for every stroke using DRY paper. If you use EDM stones, ALWAYS follow up with paper, as buff, etc. . EDM stones kick butt, but they can leave a hazy finish,

Originally Posted by Euclid440

The higher you go in grit the better the polish. Take it up at least to 1k sanding with WD40 alternate sanding from spine to edge and heel to toe with a cork as a backer, polish with good metal polish.

Most automotive parts stores carry up to 2K.