I got a nice Boker (my first!) from a guy on craigslist yesterday and as soon as I got home I popped the scales off to start cleaning it up. The blade itself is in pretty good condition, but there's a bunch of rust right at the point where the covered tang starts.

First, I'd just like confirmation that the tang is ivory. I'm pretty sure it is but I've never seen the stuff previously to be 100% -- I'll call it ivory from here on out until someone can say that isn't.

Second, could I get some suggestions on cleaning the rust and hopefully whitening the ivory? There are pins used to attach the covering but I suspect that they couldn't be removed without damaging the ivory.

I do not have a tumbler (yet) and my cleaning supplies consist of 400- to 2000-grit sandpaper, a Dremel with felt pads, Maas, and some red polishing compound. My concerns are that trying to sand the metal might damage the ivory, and that there could be rust underneath that I can't get to.

First picture is the blade when I got it, the latter two are closeups of the tang from the top and bottom:







Thanks!