Thread: Is the rust here to stay?

Hey all, I've been attempting my first restoration a Wade & Butcher. Really enjoying it so far. I purchased a dremel tool and some antique polisher, which the hardware man said "will do the trick" and it did for the surface rust but there seems to be some marks where the surface rust was. Is there a hidden secret to removing it or am i doing something wrong?
Any help would be great!

Originally Posted by straighty180

Hey all, I've been attempting my first restoration a Wade & Butcher. Really enjoying it so far. I purchased a dremel tool and some antique polisher, which the hardware man said "will do the trick" and it did for the surface rust but there seems to be some marks where the surface rust was. Is there a hidden secret to removing it or am i doing something wrong?
Any help would be great!

There is a limit to how deeply you can go to eliminate pits in a full hollow. The blade is so thin that you can destroy the blade trying to eliminate the pits. Now if you are dealing with a wedge, then that's not a problem. To remove the surface rust or residual pits, you have to sand, or buff, the surface to a point where the entire surface is level. That is, you need to bring the entire surface to the level of the lowest point of the deepest pit if you want to make the surface pristine.

A dremel with metal polish does not have the abrasive capacity to cut the amount of steel you need to remove in order to eliminate the pits. You will need to use sandpaper to remove more steel. You can find information on handsanding in the Wiki.

Sounds like you've got Devil's Spit. It's that black stuff that's really in there. When it's deep, you have to remove metal to get it out. That black metal is no longer steel like it used to be. If you start buffing it and it starts coming out, it will leave pitting behind, and then you need to get THAT out too. (Unless you don't care about it)

Thanks heaps for the fast reply much appreciated!
I think by the sounds of things I'll just leave it on there and i suppose it does give it a bit of character.
Thanks again.