How do you polish your blades?

[bstrickler]

As the thread title asks:

How do you guys polish your blades? I'm working on a folder, and I'm at the point where I'm ready to sharpen it, but first, I want to polish the blade first, to prevent stupidity from happening.

~Brian

 

[Nasty]

Almost every knife I do is convexed...therefore, the entire blade is polished as it is shaped. Slack belt grinder across a range of grits, then to the buffers down to the final sharpening and finally finished by hand on a strop.

 

[bstrickler]

I forgot to mention that I won't be able to use belts, as the knife has a texture on it, and using a belt would remove that texturing.

I can try to post a picture tonight of the knife, when I get back from class.

~Brian

 

[Nasty]

Any kind of coating or texture will impede the efficiency in cutting. if it's jsut a showpiece, I have no idea as all my knives are tools.

 

[nuphoria]

How about Brasso?

 

[Hawkeye5]

Most of us that use straight razors polish the blades using MAAS, but those blades don't have texture.

 

[TwinBlade]

Any kind of coating or texture will impede the efficiency in cutting. if it's jsut a showpiece, I have no idea as all my knives are tools.

This exactly.


Nasty, we are destined for barkfu bro. It is too tough to let stuff go by ain't it?

To the OP, do you want to simply polish your edge? If so, start with a grit that will raise a burr. Depending on where your edge is currently at will depend on what grit you start at. Grab a leather belt, throw a piece of 280 or 400 grit on it and sharpen one side until you feel a burr on the other side. Flip the knife over and make a few passes until you flip the burr to the other side. Go to the next higher grit ...eg...600...and repeat. Work your way up through 1000, 1500, 2000, and 2500 and then hit refining compounds. These are basically polishing pastes or crayons with refining grit embedded into them.

After a little practice, you will truly know what "sharp" is.

 

[Patriot]

I've always been a knife enthusiast but I honestly don't understand the question. Are you talking about the cutting edge or the grind?

If you're referring to the edge I guess we'd have to know why you want to "polish" it vs. just sharpening it. If you're talking about the blade, minus the edge it sort of depends on the grind of the blade and the coating that you mentioned. If it's coated with an epoxy you might consider removing it but that involves more than just "polishing." If it's uncoated already and depending on the current finish you might try a scotch bright pad, steel wool, or 400 grit sandpaper depending on the finish you're trying to obtain.

A few month back I removed the epoxy finish from the grind of a Tom Brown Tracker and used 220 grit sandpaper for the first step. It took a bit of work since I didn't have access to a belt sander. That would have made things much easier.

A picture of your knife would be invaluable and I'm sure the fabricators here would have the perfect solution at hand for you.

 

[bstrickler]

Sorry guys, I completely forgot about this thread.

Here's a pic of the knife so far, as of about a week ago, I think:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y85/Bstrickler/SNC00113.jpg

It's fairly obvious what I want polished now, after having taken my dremel to it, with 1/4 of a tube of steel polishing compound. It's also obvious that there is no coating on it (and I doubt I'll be putting any coating on it, either)

I think I'm just going to stick with the dremel+polishing compound right now, as I have plenty of that, and I don't have much money to spend, to go out and buy the various grits of sandpaper.

This one is currently a prototype that will be for me. I have 3 people already that want pocket knives out of D2, and like that texture. The fun part for those though, is going to be getting the plates, so I can plate quench the blades, to ensure they are straight as possible.

I will not be putting an edge on it until I get around to getting the stainless bar stock for making the handle (I enjoy making everything from scratch. I can't really explain what it does for me)

Are there any specific brands/types of oil you guys favor, to keep the knife from rusting?

~Brian

 

[Patriot]

Here's a pic of the knife so far, as of about a week ago, I think:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y85/Bstrickler/SNC00113.jpg

It's fairly obvious what I want polished now, after having taken my dremel to it, with 1/4 of a tube of steel polishing compound. It's also obvious that there is no coating on it (and I doubt I'll be putting any coating on it, either)

Oh ok, so you're polishing the grind. I can see from your picture that it's very shiny but there are also a lot of grind ridges left over in the polish. Without a belt sander or wheel of progressive grits I don't see how it will be possible to avoid this look. On the other hand there's a lot of subjective art involved with this stuff so if you like the look then roll with it and make it your personal stamp.

 

[bstrickler]

Oh ok, so you're polishing the grind. I can see from your picture that it's very shiny but there are also a lot of grind ridges left over in the polish. Without a belt sander or wheel of progressive grits I don't see how it will be possible to avoid this look. On the other hand there's a lot of subjective art involved with this stuff so if you like the look then roll with it and make it your personal stamp.

Yeah. I haven't gotten around to fully finishing it. I ran out of compound.

Just tryin to save up some money, so I can get more, to finish polishing it up. That was just the rough polish, because I knew I wouldn't have enough compound to polish the entire knife to what I want.

Been looking up methods for at-home etching on a budget. I have the Ferric Chloride, so that's not a problem. Just figuring out a way to etch a crisp logo onto it.

~Brian