Salaams All... Sand? New one on me... looks like that does not work...
You could start off at the low end of the scale on chemical cleaning with coke cola and work up the scale through all the different juices; pineapple juice works ...tomato sauce..I've had reasonable results with lemon salt... then onto the vinegar variations cold then more aggressively you could go for hot...but watch it as its pretty strong and very active...With vinegar you can paint it on and you should see bubbles fairly quickly.. Windex is good to rinse it with. Ferric Chloride is what the serious restorers use but unless you are used to it I would stick with the lesser dangerous methods... You will find all these ideas on library ...type in "etching" I suppose? Use 00 paper as after the treatment the blade goes greyish dull but responds to 00 . With any of the strong chemicals keep it away from the delicate decorative silver or gold Koftgari designs on the hilt or blade...
You can rig up a shallow trough and fill it with a litre of coke and drop the entire thing into that for a day at a time ... It will shift much of the oxidation and gunge.
To prepare the blade use acetone to clean it... Neutralising the sauces or juices is usually ok with hot soapy water ... but Windex on the strong stuff. For polishing the blade afterwards 00 or brillo or steel wool or those pan scourer pads all works ok.
Don't use ferric chloride unless you know your chemistry and always dilute it properly. Otherwise you will kill the blade! .... Type into search Etching.
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.
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