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Cleaning corroded aloominum

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William

Darth Vader
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Or aluminium. Anyway, I have an old knife that my Grandfather got in the Philippines in 1945. Big sucker, looks a bit like a Bowie knife. The handle and sheath are wood (I forget what at the moment), the hilt is made of brass (supposedly from shell casings), and the blade is aluminum (supposedly from Japanese airplanes). The brass should polish up nicely (it's just tarnished) but the blade has some bad ally corrosion-it almost looks like bad tarnishing on silver. I can try to post a photo later (I'm not home right now) if it'll help.

How does one-or can one-revive old aluminum? I'm not after a mirror finish, but some shine, and less tarnish, would be nice.

-Wm.
 
Look for "Nevr-Dull"

That'll be the least "obnoxious" first try I can think of. After that it may be abrasives.
 
Simicrome and lotsa elbow grease always helped the old aloominoom wheels!!
 
I would stay away from anything abrasive. I was cleaning an 1840's era muzzleloader last weekend for our local museum. Should you ever desire selling it, collectors pay a better price for originality. When I asked a local collector different things about the gun, his answer was always "that's to be expected."
I would expect the same for an aluminum knife blade.
 
DougF said:
I would stay away from anything abrasive. I was cleaning an 1840's era muzzleloader last weekend for our local museum. Should you ever desire selling it, collectors pay a better price for originality. When I asked a local collector different things about the gun, his answer was always "that's to be expected."
I would expect the same for an aluminum knife blade.
Click to expand...

Good point...and come to think of it, I've NEVER seen an aluminium knife blade!!!! What would be the advantage of using THAT for a blade?? Cutting VERY soft things?
 
William: These two products are used by folks into building and maintaining airplanes.

alumiprep no 33

alodine 1001

Check this out at Aircraft Spruce and Speciality Co.

https://www.dxzone.com/cgi-bin/dir/jump2.cgi?ID=16147

I use these for carbs and other aluminum bits. The alodine prevents the aluminum from getting dull (oxidizing) after you polish it and this is a chemical reaction - much better than clear coating.
 
If it is corroded from dissimilar metal corrosion, there isn't much to do with it anyway. The corrosion will be all the way through the metal.
If it is corroded due to alloying with magnesium, same story.
If it is surface corroded 2000 series aluminium, it's only the aluminium part that corrodes and aluminium polish as mentioned above should work fine.
 
Thank you all for the replies. It is all for naught, however. Shamefully, the knife in question has sat on my shelf for years, and I never looked at the blade. Family legend had it being made of old Japanese fighter plane ally-a souvinir, mind you, not for cutting. Here it is in it's usual home:



And here it is on the table:



Where you can clearly see that the blade is steel, not ally. I will admit that I never inspected it closely, and I've had the thing for close on twenty years-my Grandmother gave it to me when I was in junior high. Makes it easier to clean up, however.

Finally, the head on the end of the handle.



Anyway, thanks for the suggestions.

-Wm.
 
Nice knife though!!! :thumbsup:
(I like old knives with history...I have an old Collins, #18, from the 1800s!)
 

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Yeah, it is nifty. I'm sure they made plenty of them during the war, for sale to GIs, but I've never seen one. The blade is about in the same shape as the one in your photo. Light surface corrosion-clearly a fingerprint in one instance-. I'd like to clear it up, since I'm not sure that whatever value the knife has would be destroyed by cleaning.

-Wm.
 
Good to hear that it's a steel blade. I can't fathom why someone would make an aluminum blade. As an "Aviation Maintenance Technician" a.k.a. Aircraft Mechanic, I'd highly suggest staying away from alodine for anything that is going to be for display. Alodine is great for protecting aluminum however, it stains the metal to create the protective layer. Great for an airliner that makes 10 legs a day, but horrible for something that you want to make it look nice. As far as cleaning your blade, I'd suggest using either a gray or blue scotchbrite pad. Those are polishing pads. Finally I'd finish up with some Eagle 1 "Never Dull". You can find that at almost any autoparts store, and it puts a great finish on steel!
 
:lol:

Black 7" Cold Steel "Tanto" blade and an 18" black machete with a nice guard onna handle. Usually within arms' reach.

The handle on that Phillipine one looks like teak. There were a lot of those kind of things sold there. Neat.
 
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