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.
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.