I ordered some replacement scales and sanded the blades. It turns out the cell rot had caused quite a bit of pitting along both faces of one blade, so what I'd thought was mostly a buffing job turned into a long evening of sanding (600 through 2000 WD, then a pack of microabrasive pads). There are still a couple of pits on the tang, but they're ancient artifacts rather than active rust, so I'm leaving them for now.
I pinned the thing up (surprisingly easy to do) and it turned out pretty well. I'm not a fan of pakka wood in general, and blue pakka is pretty bizarre, but this is a tool and not a showpiece. Besides, the blue pakka had the virtues of being cheap and in-stock. Also, dispensible, if something went horribly awry. At the very least, I've rescued this blade from certain doom and turned it back into a useful tool. I can always rescale this blade with something a little more upmarket in the future.
Attachment 97080
Its twin brother is presenting a different set of problems. I got rid of all the active rust around the pivot, and cleaned off the residual gold wash. There was no cell-rot on this blade, which saved time, I thought. Wrong! I pinned it in its new stainless-steel scales and all it flopped all over the place. I unpinned it and discovered that the pivot hole is elongated and enlarged almost -- but, crucially, not quite -- to 3/32. The basic brass sleeve trick isn't going to work here, so I'm still pondering my next move. Currently, I'm thinking of making some sort of clenched bushing. It's an interesting challenge.