LaClair Buffallo knife...Pics added

[joekeith]

I just got one of these from a fellow TGer.  Nice knife, I like 'em big.      
 Gotta problem with it though.    Somebody took some sandpaper, or something, to the blade.  Looks like they were trying to get rid of the darker blue color of the blade.  They got rid of about half of the color, and left a lot of scratches on the blade.  

I don't want to buff out the scratches cause I think it'll just end up all shiny, and I don't want that.  Any ideas on what I could do to the blade to get back the original color ?  
  I don't want to try and take off the handle.  Afraid I won't be able to get it back together as it was.

So any ideas from my "almighty knife gods"?  Please help before I go and do something stupid.  Thanks...    

[Bobby Urban]

Polish it and then re-blue or put a patina on it by soaking it in vinager or stick it through an onion, apple, potato, etc..  Carbon steel will take a patina rather easily after you polish out the scratches.

[D.Ellis]

Yup, that's what I'd do as well........I'd use wet dry sandpaper in fine and then finer grits till the scratches are gone, and then use it in the kitchen for a few weeks. If you buff it, the patina will take a bit longer to grow, the W/D sandpaper will leave the steel more suseptible to staining.......a good thing in this case.
Darcy

[kbaknife]

You can't remove scratches by "polishing".
They need to be removed with finer grits of sandpaper.
Realize you've got a screwed up blade now and it's gonna take some effort to make it what you want it to be.
I'd start out with some 400 and see if that will remove what you have.
Then maybe 800.

[tippit]

I'd take it to my belt grinder to clean up the blade then hand finish...tippit

[joekeith]

Sounds good.  I'll try to get some more wet/dry tomorrow.  Done wore out what I had, me too.....Thanks  

[Lamey]

just use it!

[joekeith]

Well I went and some wet/dry paper and got to sanding.  Well after a bit I get tired and a little sloppy holding the block with the paper wrapped around it.       OWww.

Note #1... Sharpen knife AFTER all sanding is done.

Well most of the sanding is done.  I decided to file some vine work on top oh the blade.  Got a couple of more scratches while filing.  Oh well, more sanding.

I think I'm gonna cold blue the blade.  I want the finish to be more even, and dark.  Whenever I get her all done I'll take some pics for ya's.  Thanks for the replies...  

[Frenchymanny]

Those buffalo knives are great! Looking forward to the finish pics

F-Manny

[joekeith]

OK, finally got it done, for now at least. Well I ended up using Brownell's Oxpho-Blue.  Cheap, and easy to use. They say to heat the blade up before applying so I used my heat gun for this.
 
They say 6 or 8 coats should do it.  I ended up with about 2 dozen coats.  Maybe a little overkill, I don't know.

Here she is after a few coats and dried.
 

 
This looks like it oughtta be enough.  I ended up using a little under 2 oz.  Seems like more than necessary, don't really know but she does look good.

 After all done applieng coats I heated her up again with the heat gun and rubbed some 3 in 1 oil on the blade.  

After all that she came out looking pretty good.  Oh yeah, I did go ahead and do some filework on the spine.  Maybe not the best, but then again I'm not the best.
   
Got a question for ya'll.
 
   

 Since it is a Buffallo knife, and I've got the blade pretty darn dark, do ya think the handle should be black buffallo horn ?  or should I just leave this one be and buy a different one with the buffallo handle ?  What do ya'll think ?

Thanks for the help guys....
Oh yeah, one piece of advice would be to either wait to sharpen the blade till after you're all done with it, or tape over the edge.  It just might help...
 

[D.Ellis]

That's a gross looking scratch ya got there! Knife looks good though. I like the vine work.
Darcy