Thread: Cleaning rust around a covered tang.

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!

Be careful with that tang. i had a bad experience when removing one......

I would not remove the tang.

I would wrap my left index finger with 600 grit sandpaper, and hold the razor blade in my right hand and basically breadknife the tang onto my sandpaper wrapped finger, trying to keep the ivory surfaces off the sandpaper if possible...carefully sanding the flat surfaces of metal...

If you are worried about hitting the ivory, don't -- you can sand up to 2000 and then use some maas on a felt pad on your dremel @ low speed and re-buff the ivory back to mirror.

Whatever you do, don't sand the word printing on the ivory ;D it will go byebye.

For the little dimple between the blade and tang there, wrap a pencil in sandpaper and sand that down...

go to 2000 grit after all rust is gone and then do the same motions with a rag /w MAAS on it (wrapped around finger, wrapped around pencil)....

thats what I'd do!

Originally Posted by Undream

I would not remove the tang.

I would wrap my left index finger with 600 grit sandpaper, and hold the razor blade in my right hand and basically breadknife the tang onto my sandpaper wrapped finger, trying to keep the ivory surfaces off the sandpaper if possible...carefully sanding the flat surfaces of metal...

If you are worried about hitting the ivory, don't -- you can sand up to 2000 and then use some maas on a felt pad on your dremel @ low speed and re-buff the ivory back to mirror.

Whatever you do, don't sand the word printing on the ivory ;D it will go byebye.

For the little dimple between the blade and tang there, wrap a pencil in sandpaper and sand that down...

go to 2000 grit after all rust is gone and then do the same motions with a rag /w MAAS on it (wrapped around finger, wrapped around pencil)....

thats what I'd do!

Be careful and patient and this will work!

Looks like French Ivory to me which means plastic basically. Be really careful as any heat or dremel type work around them can melt or rub spots. These are hard to work around even by hand.

Lynn

It's most likely faux ivory celluloid... one hint is the tarnish around the steel in close contact with it caused by slow gassing over the decades (most likely nothing to worry about).

Rub an inconspicuous spot like the back of the tang (if there is no stamping) or the tail with a bit of dry cotton cloth and then give it a sniff... (careful the tail is not steel, not strong and may brake easily). If you smell camphor (moth balls) then it is celluloid.

Use electrical tape to cover the tang and start by using some steel wool to remove the first layer of rust.

Just eyeball and try to mask it so that only the steel is visible.

Once you've removed most of the crap you'll feel more comfortable moving forward.

Send it to Max for a restore job, it will come out awesome.

If there's a rust in the groove next to the ivory, you could use small round file very very carefully to remove the rust or at least the worst part of it. Then finish with sandpaper. Cover the ivory with some aluminium tape or similar to prevent the file (or whatever you use) from touching the ivory.
You could try to remove rust from under the tang with sandpaper wrapped around any flat object. Again cover the ivory before sanding.
In both cases, use oil to soften the rust first.