I have a couple old pocket knives that belonged to my grandfather. I've looked at a lot of information about removing rust, polishing, etc. I used a gun cleaning solvent with wet/dry sandpaper to take off the heavy rust and brass wire brushes. I have polishing cloths and metal polish. I got them looking a lot better, but there is some damage to the metal itself on the oldest knife. It looks dimpled. Is there anything that can be done to help with the damage short of machinery to refinish the blade or something? I'm pretty new/inexperienced so I'm open to suggestions as long as it doesn't require buying expensive tools. The knife that is the worst was from my grandfather's tackle box so it was used hard.
What kind of cloth are we talking about using here? I've seen so much conflicting information online about this topic. It's really crazy. What I used to clean the oil and cleaners I used on this knife was a Caribbean gem polishing cloth. This is something I saw recommended on something I was reading about cleaning up old knives. I've seen people say not to just use any old rag, but I don't know what is what now.
I totally get it. The problem is that there's multiple goals with knife maintenance amd preservation, so you end up with conflicting information that looks like it can work for every situation, but doesn't really.
Me, if I'm taking an old slipjoint like that from rusty but intact, I'll use whatever rag is handy. Old t-shirt material, flannel, denim, whatever. Shop towels work great too, those cheap and rough ones in particular.
Since the goal with your specific situation was to get rust gone, the solvent is what matters, not what you use to do the rubbing. If you're dealing with something that's got fragile handle materials, you want to watch what you use. And, you do want something that isn't linty because those little fibers can get into moving parts, but for just oiling and derusting, anything works since you'll follow up with a thorough oiling anyway.
See, there are knives where you essentially have nothing useful but blades, or where blades need replacing or reshaping, and that does change what you can do, and what you should do. Some knives have high monetary or historical value, so you have to approach them with that in mind. So you run into knife geeks that only approach a given knife through the most conservative lens possible, but also ones that are purely utilitarian because that's the kind of knives they deal with most.
My take is that even a crappy knife that you plan to use should be treated with minimum removal of material. The life span of a knife is in the steel. The more you sand or grind away, the less life is left, no matter what kind of preservation would be involved.
That can look different based on conditions and resources, but that way of thinking helps a lot. Now, you aren't going to fuck up a knife blade that's at least relatively intact by hitting it with metal polish and some shop towels. Or by light scrubbing with other abrasives that are fine grained, or otherwise can't dig into the steel itself.
It also helps to Indiana's understand that there's more than one kind of job possible. You can clean a knife, which is just getting rid of dirt, grime, and any surface discoloration; followed by oiling and sharpening.
You can repair a knife, which would be fixing broken parts, possibly regrinding things as needed, but generally taking a knife that isn't usable and making it usable. This isn't something you do with antiques or historical items, but a knife for use is no problem.
You've got restoration, which is not making it like new, that's refurbishing. Restoration is a form of preservation where you stabilize existing parts, and make sure they last while also hopefully making it usable if it wasn't. The goal though is mainly to make the knife suitable for display and collection, so you do the bare minimum intervention. This is what you do for collections and displays.
Refurbishing though, that's when you're taking a knife as close to new as possible without entirely replacing everything. You'd possibly sand or otherwise resurface the blade. You'd replace or repair parts as possible and needed. But you aren't trying to preserve anything other than usability, negate because once you're done, any monetary or historical value is gone, and all you have is a useful tool again.
Your knife, there's no historic value there, or monetary, because they're fairly common and easy to find still. So unless you're super into collecting for the far future, all you have to worry about is keeping it in working order. So you don't have to worry as much. It's a matter of just not making things worse as much as trying to make things better.
You run into old farts like me, we tend to do the bare minimum. Why spend a week futzing around with tasks that don't bring anything to the knife? Why grind when you can scrub? Why scrub when you can just soak and wipe down? The less you have to do, the less you change what doesn't need changing. You could spend hours carefully grinding and sanding to get flat sides and shiny steel, but for what? It's still an old knife that looks old, so why not let it look uniquely old? The more you change a given knife, the less of its history is there anyway, and you might as well just buy a new one.
Which is all long winded, I know, but it's important to understand the why more than techniques. There's dozens of ways to achieve a goal, but figuring out that goal in the first place takes a bit of theory instead of application.
I appreciate all the information you have provided in your comments. Thanks!
Knife stuff is pretty niche. A lot of what people do is based on experience and conjecture rather than a complete understanding of what they’re doing.
Your pocket knife, while cool and sentimental to you, is only a little more complicated than your dinner knives. You wouldn’t want to wipe down your dinner knives with a dirty shop towel and risk a chunk of sandpaper grit scratching them, or risk leaving behind a gross residue. But a disposable shop towel, paper towel, or clean cloth is fine for cleaning them. Maybe a q-tip for smaller spaces.
Polishing cloths have (minimal imo) value in handling heavily polished knives, those that have been taken to a very fine aesthetic polish. Not a typical concern.