How can I rehabilitate this?

[TomD]

This is not a glamor knife though it is nice by street standards. It is a off-the-shelf Mcusta worth new in the slightly more than $100 range. I've carried folding pocketknives for pretty much my entire life and this has been my daily carry for almost 2 years.

Below are pictures of the knife new and a few minutes ago. The grips are cocobola and were quite nice when new but are now sweat and oil stained down to an unappealing black color. Is there anything that can be done to recover the original color? If that is so, what about a sealer to keep them? Failing that, what about replacements?

For some reason, I can't get the site to take my 2nd picture, I'll have to post that as a reply.

I welcome any suggestions.

[TomD]

here it is now

[Terrill Hoffman]

For what it is worth....
When refinishing old military rifle stocks that have been sitting in oil for years I often use oven cleaner to remove the oil. However, you want to use it lightly and it may take several applications. The idea is to leech the oil out wihtout saturating the wood. Too much of anything soaking into the wood may lead to cracks. Good luck.

[Buddy Thomason]

Steel wool? Might bring some or most, if not all, of the original grain back without sacrificing too much wood. It may never be the same color again though. Keeping a good coat of wax on the handle might protect it pretty well after recovery. Sometimes a factory will have a good replacement/repair policy. Might be worth contacting them.

[TomD]

So far I've tried a large number of applications of engine cleaner, isopropol alcohol, about 1/2 roll of paper towells, and about an hour of 000 & 0000 steel wool. There is a discernible color after all of this but far from the original. Currently I have the grips in my case tumbler with walnut media. I'll try that overnight and see what happens. If the tumbler does work, I think I'll do Buddy's suggestion and wax the devil out of them.

[Andrew McLurkin]

Tom, if you really want them back like they were, you can take 400 grit wet/dry sand paper followed by 600 grit. You will need to take the scales off and use sanding blocks that maintain the contours in the scales. Four hundred grit will fairly quickly get down to wood that hasn't been oxidized and 600 will bring up the polished appearance. Just remember that time will return them to a dark brown; repeat as desired.

[TomD]

I tried some carburetor cleaner but didn't get much from that. Mostly I used various grades of steel wool, the 400 grit block really helped, and several hours. The grips aren't as nice as new but are much improved. I'll finish them off with a little more polishing work with several layers of carnauba wax.

Thanks

[Andrew McLurkin]

Looks good! In the picture it looks like you have some grit residue in the low spots in the grain. Might try some paint thinner to clean them out before the wax.