If you haven’t cleaned a saw blade before, it looks like a pretty intimidating piece of work.

But actually it is rather easy.

Below is a picture story showing how I do it. This my way, and other people have their way.  Others use acid and/or electro-zapping to clean their saws.  I have tried these methods, and I prefer to use the following method. My way suits me and here is how I do it. 

The first thing to do is scrape off the rust that can be scraped off. Most of it will probably not come off if your saw is very rusty.

I use the blades that are used in a utility knife. I buy them in containers of 50 or 100 as shown in this picture. Other galoots like to use single edge razor blades. I don’t like them. This is just personal preference. 

The next step is sandpaper. The coarseness of the grit depends on how rusty your blade is to begin with. A very rusty blade responds well to a quality 150 grit for me. I do not try to remove every bit of the discoloration from the blade with this first sanding. I am only breaking the rust so that the next finer grit will have an easier time of cleaning. 

Wet or dry sandpaper is next. You need to lubricate the blade with WD-40 or paint thinner with a little oil added. You scrub with the wet or dry using a backing piece until you can’t tell what you are doing for the rust floating on the surface. Then you clean the blade.