We had a brief, very antiseptic visit with my mom today. (As New York and New Jersey are both hot zones, we were concerned about even this, but didn't want her to spend all of Mothers Day alone.) During the course of my visit, she gave me my dad's old Swiss Army Knife. Apparently, she had just recently run across it. Dad passed many years ago, so it hasn't been used in a very long time. I remember it well, as they were not so commonplace when he got it. I think I was in my late childhood or early teens. I have cleaned the rust spots off the blades, can opener, file, etc. But there is also some dirt and probably rust embedded in the grooves and I haven't the first clue how to clean that. I would be grateful for any suggestions.
Simplest way would be a dunk in hot water and Dawn, then scrub out all the crevices with a fine kitchen brush or toothbrush. That's what I just did with the two I got out of the Box. Or better yet, Scrubbing Bubbles and toothbrush. You mentioned it has rust spots, is it old enough that it has carbon blades? Wow! If it does, make sure the whole thing is thoroughly dried when you finish (can of compressed air helps), and maybe add a layer of oil to things that may rust again. Any spots that are left, meaning rust and not dirt or grime, could be sanded out with little sanding tips that look like Q-tips. Would love to see pictures when you're finished.
One way to remove rust is to spray it with WD-40 and let it soak for about 15 minutes. Then spray it again to loosen the rust. And if needed, use a very fine steel wool, 0000, and lightly remove what didn't come off before.
I am going to send it to Victorinox for a cleaning & sharpening. I have no doubt they can do a better job than I can.
As far as I know they've always used stainless steel so it should clean up pretty well. I have one my grandfather gave me almost 40 years ago when I was around 11 or 12 and it's a little beat up but it's never rusted on me even though I treated it the way you'd expect an 11 or 12 year old to treat it. They still sell the exact same model today so they've been around a while. They're riveted together so they're not easy to take apart for cleaning. Unless you want to get really serious, about all you can do is blast it out with some penetrating oil or WD40. Victorinox should be able to get as serious as needed on it so I think that's a good idea.
Thanks folks. A little more about the knife. My dad got it at least 45 years ago. Back then, I don’t think they were quite so commonplace. He was (like me) a Science teacher and would occasionally use it in class, to fix a broken model- they sometimes need screws tightened. His students were fascinated with it and called it “Mr. Silverman’s Mission Impossible knife.”
