Schmidt & Ziegler 5417

[Jerlin]

Several of you have told me knife repair/restoration would become habit forming when I first started a couple of months ago. I believe I have been sucked in, at least part way. My brother-in-law told me over the phone recently that he had a couple of knives he had been given by neighbors. They had been stored in attics. He didn't want them, so he was sending them to me. They arrived in yesterday's mail. Both knives are fixed blade. The blades on both knives were black and no stampings could be read on one of them. I decided to start cleaning up the blade on the one where the stampings could not be read. Eventually I could read Schmidt & Ziegler on the mark side and Solingen Germany 5417 on the pile side. I started cleaning the blade by hand scrubbing with WD-40 and 400 grit sandpaper. Since the 400 grit didn't seem to be removing much of the crud, I kept going to the next lower grit until I was at 180 grit. The two after photos are close-ups of the pile side, which is the worst side. There are three or four slanted gouges along the edge near the tang. At the point end, the blade is pitted. Can these gouges and pitting be removed? If so, is it something a rookie like me can do? If so, how? I don't know what the knife is worth. Probably not much considering the condition it is in. I saw some online and one listing said the knife dated back to the 1930's.

Pile side before cleaning.

Pile side after cleaning; note gouges along blade edge

Pile side after cleaning; note pitting at point end of blade

Jerry Johnson

[doglegg]

Sweet old knife Jerry. Glad it wound up in your hands.

[philco]

You would have to remove a lot of metal to eliminate the pitting. I'd leave it be if that were my knife.

[Meridian_Mike]

You would have to remove a lot of metal to eliminate the pitting. I'd leave it be if that were my knife.

Yep.... I agree with Phil.
You can chase pitting until the blade is so thin that there just won't be much steel left.
Clean it and enjoy it.