Hello Roland,
IMHO it does not look too bad - will be necessary to keep this blade very well oiled and free of dust in a dry environment though. Longtime soaking in alkaline oil may help to remove most of the active rust; in the pittings there seem to be leftovers of inactive rust, too.
I do understand that it wasn't feasible to grind off all the pitted areas and agree that it was preferable to not loose too much of the material.
When going for a full blade restoration like this, I try to remove all rust (which includes tedious manual picking) before the final (or pre-final) grade of sanding; stabilizing the surface of these crevices with tannic acid and possibly hard wax will help to avoid active rust to reappear during etching and later storage. Quite difficult to achieve given the vagaries of international processing/shipping though.
Regards,
Kai
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