Hello Kamal,
Quote:
I was able to get some corrosion off and can see some of the original metal, it is very heavily pitted, and a good deal of rust remained. So I caked baking soda paste and have let it sit about 24 hours.
Question, I have no idea of the actual age of the sword, I'm guessing it's early 19th century, and it really was in bad shape. Would it be bad for me to try to gently sand down the blade with high grit sandpaper (1000 or 2000) not to remove all of the patina, but just to give it a bit more of a polish and reduce some of the pitting, and to sand or plane down some of the horn handle
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I second the request for pics - without them any advice is mere guessing!
The first step should always be to evaluate if restoration really makes sense: Full cleaning of a heavily pitted blade may result in major loss of material and leave just a sponge-like matrix of extant metal. In some cases it may be preferable to leave it in a relic state and only try to stabilize to avoid further deterioration.
Since you already went ahead with partial de-rusting, there is little reason not to try to grind the blade, even with coarser grades of sandpaper. Any work with sandpaper will (partially or fully) remove patina and result in "white" metal while the pitted areas won't be affected; if you intend to keep the patinated surface, steel wool will be preferable (mainly 0000, be careful when using coarser grades; patience and lots of elbow grease needed, too); spots with stubborn rust may need dedicated treatment.
If you soak the blade in vinegar, fruit juice, or commercial rust removers, you'll also remove the rust from the pitted areas resulting in a surface with lots of "craters" - this can look pretty horrible and should be very carefully evaluated before starting such an approach: It takes quite a lot of effort to completely remove the rust - may help long-term preservation (of the remaining metal) though.
Regards,
Kai