Rusty ol' blades

[Matt]

So, after six years of sitting in storage, I pulled my fencing equipment out of storage today. Surprisingly, my mask doesn't have a spot of rust on it (though it sounds like it'll be out-of-date in a year anyway), but unsurprisingly my foil and epee blades are all coated in surface rust.

Are these blades salvageable with some oil and a scrubby-pad? I certainly don't want to have to toss all of my blades if I don't have to.

What do y'all think?

Thanks,

Matt

[KidLazy]

Cleaning block (some call it pulishing stone) sell by Leon Paul (or other venders) can clean the surface rust right up. After clean them up, hit the wall (or floor) to see if them got "soft." If they did, then you should buy new ones.

[Blakeian]

Rust shouldn't be an issue. Hardware stores sell sanding blocks which are foam blocks with sandpaper on them for very cheap prices. They're very effective. If the blades seem brittle, overly soft or otherwise structurally unsound I'd look at replacing them.

[Purple Fencer]

If you have a bench grinder, use teh deburring wheel (the softer one)...works fast and with less strain.

[Tomas N]

I use an old sock to clean off my blades. It gets 99% of the rust off. If it's electric it also won't wear away the glue as much as the other options listed.

Ignore the advice about throwing out your blades if they are soft.

Tomas

[fencerbill]

I use 3M abrasive wheels which I buy in the auto section in KMart and use in a drill press. They will clean the rust off a blade in about a minute.

The advantage over cleaning blocks or sanding blocks is the drill press does the work and you just hold the blade. Use gloves and safety glasses.

You do have to be careful about wires. But if the wire is down in the groove, it will be OK.

[Joe biebel]

Don't spend any time on them until you flex them deeply several times in different directions. Make sure before you do all of the labor mentioned in previous posts that your blades are "solid" and that the surface rust has not before fissures that weaken and cause blade breaks. If they pass the torture test, then clean them.