Thread: Leave Bluing Intact?

Is there a conventional wisdom about whether, when sanding/polishing a blade back to a mirror finish, you leave the darker or blued tang alone if it's not rusted or pitted?

It's really up to you. Some like to keep the original bluing intact to preserve some value and originality, some don't care and remove it all. I tend to remove it if it's all patchy, not uniform looking and completely faded.
I have blades from which I removed the bluing and it hasn't made rusting or darkening/pitting of the removed parts any worse.

Re blue it. There's several products on the market that work well and in paste form is very controllable. Take pics before stripping everything off to use as a guide.

I agree.

If the blue is shot, just sand it all off until you get to good steel and then re-blue it. I've used Perma Blue in the past with great results.

23404 - Complete Perma Blue Liquid Gun Blue Kit