Better Cleaning Method?

I have a W&B that I bought a couple of weeks ago. It's in pretty good shape just dull which will get addressed later. For now I am trying to clean it. I first used a cleaner called Method. Did absolutely nothing. Then I found some Maas and used it last night. A lot of black came off when I used an old sock several times with the Maas. Then I got my Dremel out and went through 4 polish pads. All were just solid black when I finished. I didn't have any more pads at the time so I went back to using the sock. This time I had to turn it inside out because the other side was almost solid black. I don't mean a little dirty, I mean tar black. Today I went and got 12 more polish pads but before I use them all up does it sound like I'm doing this right :thinking: The blade looks alot better than before but I keep thinking the black that is coming off will lessen but it's not. I can still see darker splotches on the blade that need to polish out. Is there a better way to do this or this it?

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Originally Posted by rodneyk915

I have a W&B that I bought a couple of weeks ago. It's in pretty good shape just dull which will get addressed later. For now I am trying to clean it. I first used a cleaner called Method. Did absolutely nothing. Then I found some Maas and used it last night. A lot of black came off when I used an old sock several times with the Maas. Then I got my Dremel out and went through 4 polish pads. All were just solid black when I finished. I didn't have any more pads at the time so I went back to using the sock. This time I had to turn it inside out because the other side was almost solid black. I don't mean a little dirty, I mean tar black. Today I went and got 12 more polish pads but before I use them all up does it sound like I'm doing this right :thinking: The blade looks alot better than before but I keep thinking the black that is coming off will lessen but it's not. I can still see darker splotches on the blade that need to polish out. Is there a better way to do this or this it?

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I would just keep rubbing using multiple coats of Maas until the black stops coming off..(black is good!) It's kinda like shinning shoes, it feels good as you polish and you item starts getting shinnier. It's amazing what will happen to the blade. I like to remove the scales to get the piviot hole area clean; and repin when I'm done. I'd save the pads for your finial polishing.

Sounds like you're doing well.

Steve

Thanks Steve. I know I should probably remove the scales to do it right but actually I don't know if I'm ready to try to do that just yet :shrug: Is sandpaper a bad idea?

Read: "Sandpaper and Razors" right here in this section, but you probably already have.

Steve

I'm not that familiar with maas but if it has abrasives in it the black that comes off isn't only tarnish its also the metal. Once the blade looks clean I would stop with the dremmel and do some light polishing by hand and see what happens.

Maas is a smooth polish with no abrasives that I can feel. I put some on and rub it off by hand and get a lot of black on the cloth. I have also put it in my ultrasonic machine several times. Each time black goop collects in blotches on the blade like grease. I carefully rub that off trying not to spread it and then re-polish by hand with more Maas getting more black off. Repeating with the ultrasonic from time to time. It looks a lot better but it just doesn't seem to be letting up and after several days of this I can't see an end in sight. I have removed the blade from the scales because I was afraid I was going to break them as hard as I was rubbing the blade. So far I've used about a fifth of the tube of polish. I say it's black because that is what it looks like on the cloth, but when I used a tissue to scrape the blotches one time it was really dark green like tarnish. I haven't used the dremel since the first post because I didn't see the point until I can get a clean polish by hand.

your probably looking at 100 years of dirt.. dust... grime... soap scum... honing "byproduct"... shave cream residue... dead skin... and whiskers... LOL metal is still a porous object... i know for Glock firearms, the stuff they treat the steel on the slide and barrel is called tenifer... it actually penetrates the metal.. i forget the actual micrometer measurement, but its pretty deep... now, nothing in this world that i can think of, is able to penetrate something unless that "something" has a place for it to go... thus "pores"... hard to see, no good to water and other liquids, but im pretty sure things can build up in there... on the other hand, i think (and i could very well be wrong, i just know some other things ive polished up such as exhaust tips, and tools) that you will probably end up wearing the metal down to almost, if not, unusable before getting ALL the black out... i dont think ive ever polished a single metal (especially my brass bolstered buck knives) and had a wrag come out clean... i dont know what it is :(

MAAS contains jewelers rouge (which might be the reason for its pink colour) so the black will never stop coming off (expecially if you are using a dremel)

yeah thats what i was using.... jewelers rouge... pasty stuff aint it? lol