I always enjoy your reviews and was surprised to see you do a restoration one. Great restoration and vid!

Just bought a new Balow pocket knife a couple weeks ago from the hardware store. Blade already has a spot of rust. Probably had it when purchased. Cheap stuff.

Great to have a sheepsfoot on a Barlow! You could try a good soak in Evaporust. That stuff is kind of magic.

Looks really nice TK! The biggest thing is to get rid of the rust to avoid pitting, and you got that done. There is something very satisfying about cleaning up an old knife. Thanks for sharing, my friend!

After watching a few Ugly Knife Challenge videos I remembered my SIL had a few knives she found in her garage after buying a house several years ago. Earlier this week I asked my wife to see if she still had them and she did. Years ago when I first saw them I thought they were too far gone. My mindset has changed since then and I took another look. One is a Barlow just like yours made by Imperial of Rhode Island...She is the best of the three and in much better condition than the one in this video. Because of my amazing results with 50/50 vinegar and water on cast iron skillets I will use the solution on the rust. Fifteen minutes of soaking should take care of it and then some deep cleaning with some swabs and polish with Flitz. The second one is an Ulster made in Kingston NY probably between 1920-1930. Other than some rust much of the main blade has been ground down. Someone used the heck out of this knife and sharpened it over the years so the blade edge is about 30% less. The main blade is still workable and the second blade shows little use. Can't call her ugly though...just used. The third knife is a Camper made by Ideal of RI circa 1950. At first glance she seems ok then you realize there are no scales but based on the design, it does not immediately stand out. The bolsters and the body of the knife seems to be the same material and other than the pins standing proud because of the missing scales you would think it was an all metal knife. It will be fun returning these noble tools back to serviceable condition.

I have used rust erasers to clean some old knives and they come in various grits. These are used for cleaning fret boards on guitars. It has worked well for me. I've used Baroque 180,400,1000 grit kits from Amazon sales and Garryson which are offered in 36,60,120,240 grits. 4/0 steel wool and Scotch Brite pads are a plus.

If you couple the ultrasonic cleaner with Evaporust, it will do an excellent job of removing even the hidden rust trapped between surfaces. I don't understand why more tool guys haven't figured this out yet.

These knives were the poor man’s or school boy’s knives. They sold them in the 1960’s in an open cardboard stand on the counter where the clerk could watch them . Different patterns from stockman and others . They all had the faux saw cut beige plastic handles with tin bolsters crimped to the liners . If I remember correctly they never replaced the sold knife in the cardboard stand until all knives were sold and a new stand would replace them .I used them and they got the job done as well as an expensive slip joint folder .

I always enjoy cleaning and using an older slip joint. Thanks for showing your process.

That came out awesome, lots of cool character left. Thanks for sharing this one with us. I love that sheepsfoot main blade.

My wife uses an ultrasonic cleaner for all her jewelry. I don’t think she would ever let me put my knife in there but I guess I could get my own. Looks like it does a pretty good job.

Cleaned up really good, I like some blemishes left on the blades, no need to remove a lot of metal from the blades, thanks for showing the process!

Awesome knife makeover Thrifty 🔪 fine steel wool does wonders taking off pesky blade rust

You saved a classic there. Something that is not around any more. Nice job.

Nice job saving that old knife! You could use Milliput to patch that cover if you wanted. I’d use that puppy proudly.

Wow! You really did a great job saving that knife! You can be proud of your “new” pocket knife. I think it always will have a place of honor in your collection.

Very nice. I like that you cleaned it up, but didn't mirror polish it as some do. I love seeing these old pocketknives with pitting and wear, which to my mind, is character and tells a story. Thumbs UP!

Restoration "101", Good Job! I've done several that I thought I did OK on. Sometimes you can only do so much. After you rubbed a lot of that surface rust off I have found that Flitz does pretty good on the blades & bolsters.

Ideas here will be helpful as few months ago I became custodian of my dads knives and at first glance some of the vintage ones are going to need some deep cleaning.

It was in a pretty rough condition, but you sure got it cleaned up nicely. Thank you for showing TK.

Great restoration pal lovely old Barlow ,my favourite part of collecting old knives is restoring them and the anticipation when you add some oil and wait to see if you have some snap , keep up the great work 👍

Great job looks nice and great working condition!!

Thrifty your gettin fancy on me over there ultrasonic cleaner wow!!!!! You don’t play around…… I’ve always liked doing restos…….. I find it very relaxing…… your a very thorough guy nice restoration bud very naive cleanup thanks buddy stay well 😊

Thanks for posting this! I'm sure there may be other videos on KZfaq where others have used an ultrasonic cleaner for cleaning a knife, but yours is the first I've seen. I plan trying Evapo-Rust in my u-s cleaner, sometime soon. Thanks again.

Very interesting sympathetic clean up, I like it. I’ve been collecting old knives for years and usually don’t do much except oil and clean. You did a great job. To me, the most interesting thing was the minimal blade wear. Usually when I find these knives they’re worn to a nub.

Thanks for this! Definitely just saw a few tricks to help me clean some blades up

Wow, you brought it back from the dead. Well done man, very well done.

Job well done. Cheers!

I have a knife like this. What I like is, the blades are carbon, so they are really sharp. I've been wondering if anyone put on different scales on these before?

Pretty good rehab, TK! So far I have used only vinegar, will try the glass cleaner next time.

I think you are doing a super job considering you dont have any steele wool. Great job! You really got the steel on that shiny, and scary shaving sharp. Take care 😊

Okay it will never be a beauty queen but too far gone is always a judgement call. The question really comes down to how much time you want to spend on the knife and are your happy with it.

It really turned out nice You did a great job.

There's not many of those sheepsfoot barlow...lol I love these old colonial & imperial barlow's they are pricey on ebay thank you for sharing

Turned out great. Love a knife with character

Sabre has bone handle Barlows near that color on fleabay. They go cheap and are an excellent deal for what you get. The bone is near translucent and looks stunner after polishing. Nice job on this one.

I'm sure everyone has their own recipe, but with razors and knives, I've also had good results by adding coffee maker descaler, and a few drops of dish detergent to the ultrasonic cleaner. Good job, and like you, I don't typically aim for a full restoration. What remains after a decent cleaning is "character".

... the ultra sonic is great Thrifty..... just be careful on wood handles though. Dont leave the knife in there for longer than a couple of minutes.

You did quite a nice job! I hear that little rolled up bits of fine steel wool does a good job inside those channels. push them around with your stick. Don't you just love a patina on an old blade? I sure do. Nice video, Subbed. 😊

Oh btw , I had a Barlow like that and a soak in Break Free really helped. Your's turned out great .

Fantastic job, buddy. That knife looks great! 👍

Bringing it back to life 1 blade at a time 💥💥👊🥃 great vid man

Nice job! 🙂

Great job tk looks good.thats all my dad would ever cary.

Thanks, TK, for the share. May I suggest a Dremel tool with a set of polishing wheels, wire brushes, and ultra fine sandpaper (600, 1000 grit paper)? I think you could then bypass the ultrasonic cleaner. Some work but it looks and sounds great! Thanks for the share.

Get a paint can stirrer to use as a brace for the blade while polishing and working on it

WD-40 and 0000 steel wool

Soaking in vinegar for four hours wrapped in vinegar soaked newspaper really loosens the red rust

Nice job .👍 It has character. Informative video . Peace , Be Free .

You have to get the KPL swabs they are fantastic the next time you get a bottle of KPL pick up them little Q tips they work wonders

Thrifty stick the knife in a vise and get like 1000 grit sandpaper and pull back in one direction maybe wrap the sandpaper in a little block of wood and pull straight back one direction…… I think that you’ll get even better results thanks buddy

Hey TK , I've seen these long thin plastic sticks with a fine cotton point for cleaning in tight place's . Do know where to get them ?

Sweet

Great job restoring this Barlow; lots of patience, eh?!?

Not bad TK.

I found a BARLOW on a trailer i recently bought. At the time knew nothing about it but added it to the collection. Can one knife be defined as a collection? Cleaned up I noticed milling marks on the big blade so assumed very low use. Was and still is dull as a butter knife. Didn't want to screw up something i know nothing about. Plus I don't carry a knife. It's scary enough shaving so why double the odds. Cool video

Nice

Good job.

You need to look up metal rescue it supposedly Only attacks rust will not harm any other Material. So they say.

Wouldn't dropping the knife into some cola product have eaten off all the rust in just a few minutes?

Nothing like getting your hands on an old Barlow unless it’s getting your hands on an old one in new in the box condition Keep rubbing it Thanks