How to repair and sharpen a rusty knife

If the knife is not used for a long time, then its blade is covered with surface rust, which not only spoils the appearance, but also blunts the blade first. It is pointless to start sharpening a rusty knife right away - you must first remove the surface oxidation products.

Will need

To remove rust from the surface of the blade of a kitchen or cutting knife, we will use the usual tool for cleaning the stove.

We also need to prepare for work:

• shallow bath;
• sponge;
• water stones of various granularity;
• waterproof gloves;
• source of running water.

Algorithm for restoring an old knife

We set the tray on a stable horizontal surface, put the handle of the knife on its side.
We squeeze a small amount of cleaning agent from the plastic container onto the blade and, holding the knife by the handle with one hand, with the other we begin to rub the entire surface of the blade from the heel to the tip with a slightly moistened sponge.
We periodically wash off the cleaning agent and oxidation products with a jet of water and, if necessary, continue the process until all the rust has been removed from the blade.
Turn the knife 180 degrees and repeat the procedure for the other side. After completion of the rust removal procedure, the cutting tool is thoroughly rinsed with tap water.

Sharpening

We sharpen the knife on water stones of various granularity, pre-soaked for 3-5 minutes, starting from 220 if the knife was very blunt. With a stone of 800 we smooth out the traces that could remain from the 220th stone.
After the first preliminary sharpening on the stone, the knife blade is rinsed abundantly with running water so that larger particles of abrasive do not remain and do not damage the sharpening on the stone of lower grain size.
We make bilateral polishing of the blade using GOI paste.
The main sharpening is carried out on a stone with a grit of 1000.
Using stones 3000 and 8000 we sharpen, in particular, the cutting edge almost to the edge of the blade.

Knife Recovery Results

At the finish of sharpening and polishing operations, the blade of the old knife looks completely flawless, not inferior in this indicator even to a new analogue.
We now check its cutting properties and compare it with a new knife just removed from the factory packaging.
The latter practically does not cut paper on weight, but only tears and wrinkles it.
Our knife does it easily and simply in all directions and without a swing cuts in half a green leaf floating on the surface of the water.
Throw a tomato on a blade directed upward from a small height, and it is cut into two halves. Cucumber, butchered in any direction.
With the help of a restored knife, it is not difficult to perform any fruit and vegetable composition, not only, in all likelihood, mouth-watering, but also aesthetic in appearance.