Thread: Restoration Help

Ok so I am going to try to restore this blade. It will be my first restoration project. I bought it off ebay and it doesn't look that bad. In fact, I was expecting it to look A LOT worse. I'll try to post the pictures. Any comments on how to proceed would be appreciated.

From the attached pictures....if you can see them the scales look like green wood, maybe bone? On the inside of the scales (in on of the pictures )you can see there is some "junk". It looks like wood or leather used to be there but was ripped out....or something is just growing there and looks fiberous like that.

The blade has VERY little rust, mainly around the pivot area and looks to be mainly on the surface. It does not appear to have any pitting. The blade is hollow ground and looks grey not at all like a mirror like normal stainless steel looks.

So here is what I am thinking: 1)Take off the scales clean the blade up (maybe starting with 600 grit sand paper) and sand it to get rid of the rust. 2) From there work up to 2000 grit sand paper (if I can find it) and then polish it up. 3) Then maybe sand the scales (?) How do I tell if it is wood or bone?....

To be honest I don't have a lot of experiance working with wood and metal so this is all kind of new territory for me.