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Originally Posted by RobT
With Ian's caution about possible lung damage due to abrasive dust inhalation firmly in mind I intend to build a blasting box and get a compressor.
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To those who are still unconvinced: Please do yourself a favor and google for silicosis! BTW, there's a host of severe health hazards associated with just about any sort of fine particles (i. e. "dust") - which also includes wood working!
[/QUOTE] unless the entire blade is uniformly black, the pits will show up loud and clear. I know this because I just spent about two years polishing the staining out of a wootz Kurdish Jambiya. ... The pitting and metal loss to this blade was severe but when the blade was polished mirror bright prior to etching, the pitting didn't look half as bad as when the blade was stained.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, pitting really is a nasty damage which tends to spoil the looks of a blade no matter what. That's why sellers usually don't touch rust encrustations - restoration tends to be a long, long uphill battle...
Rob, do you have before/after pics of that jambiya?
One possibility would be to protect the pit(tings?) with wax/etc. and only stain the smooth blade surface. That still will make the pitted areas more noticeable than in mirror polish: However, IMVHO some blades just look "wrong" if not stained properly...
Regards,
Kai