Got this cuteaux from my grandma. My grandpa had it, and it actually belonged to his father (my family had a military tradition from both ends, father and mother, that goes to the late XVIth century).

It was in horrible shape, since it was ceremonial, the blade had a layer of chrome that peeled out in several places where it started to rust, the bronze pieces were all darkened too and the rubber sealer on the blade was dry and brittle. The metal scabbard was a pile of rust as well.

What I did was dismantling the whole thing (the tang was not riveted, but screwed in) and proceeded to polish everything by hand, same with the scabbard.

Used sandpapers of the grains 60, 100, 180, 240, 360 and 600; and finally to give it a matte finish (which I personally prefer over a mirror finish) I scrubbed everything with a kitchen's sponge soaked in WD40.

The last thing was to replace the rubber sealer, but with a leather one. For this I used 2mm hide soaked in neatfoot's oil so it became water resistant.