Yesterday I went in to Value Village to pick up a used HDMI cable when I stumbled upon a couple of beat up knives for a couple of bucks. One of them looks like a cleaver of some sort, and the other one is your run of the mill carving knife. I don't expect them to be usable, as the handles are full of rust and shit I don't want to think about, and they have some grind marks on them that make them fairly unsafe to work with food. But I have to admit that I have a fascination when it comes to knives, especially well used ones. I just hope they weren't used to murder anyone.
They look... super gross. The first thing I had to do was get as much rust off the blades as possible. To do that I made a paste with baking soda and a bit of water. Baking soda is an abrasive material that works really well at getting rust off.
First one up was this guy. It took a lot of elbow grease to get even a bit of it off, but the paste really works.
After about an hour I got it all nice and not rusty looking. Unfortunately while I was scrubbing I found some chips along the blade... This does not bode well for its future as a kitchen ornament.
The other knife looks to be in ok condition as long as you didn't pay attention to the handle... and the grind marks. I'm very mad at the person who tried to grind the shit out of these knives.
The other knife cleaned up pretty nicely as well. They both look almost new now.
I have no idea what the make of the big one is. It's in Kanji and I can't read that for shit. If anyone knows what it says, let me know and I'll investigate further. Here it is up close:
Tomorrow my goal is to sharpen both of them and maybe get rid of some of the grind marks.If anybody has any tips on how to do this, let me know.
