Need Help to salvage a M3

[Barryeye]

The clean up goes on. I was right there was a layer of black paint on the leather washers. Acetone did remove it but there appears to be another layer of green paint under the black. This layer dose not react to the acetone as the black layer did. Regular paint stripper does not appear to harm wood. How would it affect leather? The green paint can be removed by scraping with my pocket knife. Would this be the better option? I’ve come to a conclusion that at one time in its life this knife came into the possession of some children. No adult in their right mind could desecrate such a knife by painting it green, black and silver and bending the cross guard to look like some Hollywood pirates knife. It will never be a prize specimen of an M3 but I hope I can give it back some dignity.

[Guamsst]

Oh, you would be surprised at the ignorance of some adult children...LOL As to the green paint, I don't know how paint stripper would affect leather but since they recommend you don't get it on your skin I would hesitate to use it. Maybe try some on a piece of scrap leather first.

[Barryeye]

Good point. The scrape method is looking better.

[Dan Shapiro]

Re: scraping. Have you thought of using a fine grit sandpaper? Place the blade in a padded vise, use a strip of sandpaper so it rounds itself around the washers on the handle.

[Barryeye]

I have since tried to clean up the leather with my pocket knife and some sand paper as suggested. Took a few hours with the knife but I managed to get about 80% of the paint off. Then the sandpaper was a good help but only removed the high spots. Had I persisted I could have got more paint off but remove too much leather in the process. The dry old leather reacted to the sand paper faster than say wood might have.
Another hour with the knife and the job should be done. Then a light sand.