bigpete wrote:Don't use a wire wheel. Soak the tang in vinegar. Then use fine steel wool or something similar to clean the rust off. The blade if you want shiny you should rub back with various grades of wet and dry sandpaper as fine as you can go. I'd put the pommel back on AND epoxy the tang
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Rank Amateur knife maker here, bigpete is spot on. Use vinegar to soften up the rust and you should be able to scrub it off with some Scotch Brite pads and elbow grease.
If you want to shine up the blade get some wet and dry sandpaper, start off at 320 grit, if the new scratches look too fine compared to the finish on the knife drop back to 220 or further if you have to, or go up to 400 or higher if needed. Get a flat wooden board clamp the blade to that and once you start to get towards the finish you are looking for start to keep the strokes going all in one direction so most common is to start near the Ricaso or near the guard and pull towards you and lift off the blade, don't go back towards the handle.
Be warned, with carbon steels you need to keep them oiled or they will start to rust pretty quickly.
You can order materials for the handle spacers in brass, copper or synthetic spacers online Google Gameco Artisan supplies, just one place of many. Or shout out here on the forum, someone will have or be able to source some Antler or horn of some kind. You could also try boiling the snot out of some cow bone with bicarb soda to bleach it. You could also try some nice hardwood.
You might have to get a tap and die set to re-do the but cap or pomel piece. Again aluminium, stainless or brass could be found at Gameco or your nearest engineering supplies place.
Keep the threaded section on the tang, otherwise you would need to rely on an epoxy, but use this too, it will help stop moisture getting into the handle, you can use a 5 minute epoxy but the longer setting the better, 24 hour would be fine.
If you use any power tools to assist in rust removal or polishing be sure not to over heat it. If you see a golden sheen, straw or brownish color stop, if you see purple or blue come up on the cutting edge you have just over heated it, ruined the temper and stuffed up the blade.
You might have to live with the nick closer to the handle, you could file the heel of the blade so it's not so pronounced but without knowing how far the hardened area goes up towards the spine of the blade you could be sacrificing too much of the hardened steel leaving the heel of the blade too soft.