Any advice for cleaning rust? pic inside

[Pile Driver]

I would like to attempt to clean this rust off of this stainless steel blade, cuz I would think as is its kind of ruined

[AdmSlc]

I'd try Balistol and a green abrasive scrubbing pad. 

[Luna Knife]

soak in coca cola for 10 hours

[Crow]

Rub it with lemon and salt, or potato and salt.

[Zed]

Where is Sparky 

[Crow]

Where is Sparky 

Probably being busy with his mountain of treasures

[Sparky415]

@Zed 

@Crow I haven't forgotten your Gaz thingy 

@PD
All of the above will work, if you don't have cola try vinegar 

[comis]

I did some quick search on youtube about using varies household solution to de-rust, looks like vinegar or apple cinder vinegar works quite well.  Coke may work, but be very careful not to let it touch the joint or it may gunk up.

[comis]

@Zed 

@Crow I haven't forgotten your Gaz thingy 

@PD
All of the above will work, if you don't have cola try vinegar 

^^^  This gentleman is our resident Axe restoration expert, and brings countless rusted tool back to life, definitely have my vote of confidence. 

[Sparky415]

Not sure about expert but I do own a lot of rust 

I think he should try Adm’s or Crows advice first
Then the others

[Pile Driver]

Does that amount of rust scare anybody? Does it seem too far gone? I am a novice when it comes to this stuff but I like the knife, I wont damage it/ruin value by using a vinegar solution? It wont hurt the stainless blade?

[hiraethus]

If you've not had it long, just send it back to Leatherman for a replacement.

[Crow]

Most hurt has been already done with rust itself. So anything dissolving it will not hurt it that bad. Abrasives might hurt it if used wrong...

[SAKnight]

If you've not had it long, just send it back to Leatherman for a replacement.

I think they may be surprised to receive a Winchester 

[Crow]

If you've not had it long, just send it back to Leatherman for a replacement.

i wonder what LM would do to it...

[Pile Driver]

Most hurt has been already done with rust itself. So anything dissolving it will not hurt it that bad. Abrasives might hurt it if used wrong...

If i go the potato embedment route or a salt/vinegar route, would anyone have any suggestions for polishing rags/dremel bits?

I'd like to try and get the blade back to as close to original as possible (or am I a naive noob)

[comis]

Does that amount of rust scare anybody? Does it seem too far gone? I am a novice when it comes to this stuff but I like the knife, I wont damage it/ruin value by using a vinegar solution? It wont hurt the stainless blade?

No, it definitely not too far gone.  I'd recommend to check on many posts from Sparky415 in the axe subforum, many of the tools I've seen him brought back to life are far worse than what you have shown.

If you are really concern about vinegar, I'd recommend to dilute it to 50/50 and check on it regularly(for example, every half hour). 

[SAK Guy]

Got great advice from Grathr. He said put my blade in diet cola overnight then rinse and dry...works great, have done several blades this way ....no rust but the pits if any will remain.

[Crow]

Most hurt has been already done with rust itself. So anything dissolving it will not hurt it that bad. Abrasives might hurt it if used wrong...

If i go the potato embedment route or a salt/vinegar route, would anyone have any suggestions for polishing rags/dremel bits?

I'd like to try and get the blade back to as close to original as possible (or am I a naive noob)

Try first to get rust off. Like potato and salt. Then you see, how it has affected your blade. You can get it close to original and beyond, but you will have to remove some material as you go,  especially rubbing combounds will remove material.

So now you can try about anything that has been suggested. Just check occationally how it goes, and what works good. There is not only one way to get it perfect.

First remove rust. Then start using abrasives like combounds or sand papers depending how bad it is pitted. Work your way up on grits.

[Pile Driver]

Got great advice from Grathr. He said put my blade in diet cola overnight then rinse and dry...works great, have done several blades this way ....no rust but the pits if any will remain.

Some say to scrub with aluminum foil the more I've looked into this? Would anyone be able to speak to how evasive/necessary the aluminum foil scrub would be?

Thanks

[SAK Guy]

Got great advice from Grathr. He said put my blade in diet cola overnight then rinse and dry...works great, have done several blades this way ....no rust but the pits if any will remain.

Some say to scrub with aluminum foil the more I've looked into this? Would anyone be able to speak to how evasive/necessary the aluminum foil scrub would be?

Thanks

I saw on the net people scrubbing bike handle bars and such but I would never do that to one of my blades so I just immersed it in the cola and the next morning all the surface rust was completely gone. Worked so well that I keep a six pack of diet Coke just for de-rusting blades (never drink that stuff esp seeing it work on rust). On carbon blades, it leaves a light patina that comes right off with a little Flitz. On stainless, it probably won't do anything to it but de-rust it.

[Crow]

Aluminium foil goes to abrasives category.  Will work with Coke and vinegar bath. Might leave scratches.

[captain spaulding]

Just soak it in Coca Cola for a few days. Switch out the cola every 12 hours. Wash it with soap and water when done. I have done it countless times.

[SAKnight]

What's the mechanism of action in coke, phosphoric acid or something?

[SteveC]

^ Bingo 

[Joe58]

The Coke trick has worked for me. I recently found the WD40 rust soak that I had good results with as well.

[THE_LONGBOW]

+1 On the WD40
Had a rusty screw driver soaked a couple days in WD40, rust was gone.

[dks]

LIDL sells a cheap rust remover spray that works really well

[rebel]

I need to clean the rust off a nice folder. How are you guys soaking the blades without immersing the whole knife and ruining it?

[comis]

I need to clean the rust off a nice folder. How are you guys soaking the blades without immersing the whole knife and ruining it?

By tall glass, if you don't want it get into the joint.  Many SAK users will pop the cellidor out if they are old, and just soak the whole thing in.