Hello all, picked up a nice CF Schwartz from an antique store last week. It was in decent shape with a good bevel and I figured it would be a good start to practice restoration.

The blade and spine show very light oxidation. I tried removing it with 0000 steel wool and a variety of metal polishes, but after about 5-6 hours put in I see almost no difference. The tang had more rusting and pitting so I sanded 400, 600, 900 and it's coming along well, but I feel I will have to go back to the 400 for a while to remove all the pitting.

My question is, for what is shown, how low of a grit should I start with to remove the oxidation on the blade/spine? I worry about getting too aggressive and ending up in the butchered blade thread myself [emoji16]. On the tang I'm also concerned that if I get to aggressive I'll wipe out the stamping. Any way to avoid this? All criticism and advice is appreciated [emoji3]