All About Pocket Knives

I got this knife at a garage sale a couple of months ago. The guy says; "I looked it up, it's called a Lady Remington". I was pretty sure a Lady Remington was an electric razor, but for 9 bucks I wasn't gonna argue. I didn't pay alot of attention to it 'til I found a couple other old Remingtons. So now I have a Remington collection, and have started doing some reading.
I found out that what I thought was a blade etch may actually be Ink. There is a short thread about it in the archives here. If you look closely there is some black crud on the blade. I'm afraid to clean it because I don't want to lose any more of the blade etch. There is more left than you can see in the picture. So how stable is the ink they used? will rubbing alcohol or acetone ruin it? I even hesitate to use my thumbnail, My "go to" crud remover.Thanks.
Bruce

Hard to tell from the pictures, without knife in hand, but you might try the sharpened "lead" end of a pencil. Gently rub the lead on the crud, a little at a time to see if it removes it. Stay away from the etch. Wipe gently as you go with a soft cloth to remove the graphite residue from the blade. If you like the results proceed accordingly. If not, you won't have done any damage. Depending on what the crud is, you may or may not be able to dislodge it with the pencil lead.

Ken

I'm with Ken. Stay away from the etch and the pattern number. Speaking from experience it takes very little effort to remove a Remington ink etch. Nothing is more disappointing than to realize what you have just done when it is gone forever.

It looks like a inked pattern number.

Harold

I tried the pencil, didn't help much. It got some of the thicker places off but still left some staining. If I didn't know better I'd say it was tar of some sort. Anyway I've decided to just leave it alone and consider myself lucky to have a "lady" with a past. Even if the past was cutting asphalt shingles. Thanks
Bruce