10" San Mai Integral Sub Hilt Fighter - Work In Progress

How I got the pattern in the micarta.

sanmaisubhiltw25.jpg



Handle ready!

sanmaisubhiltw26.jpg


sanmaisubhiltw27.jpg


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Good pictures of the knife / sheath combo next week :D



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http://www.aescustomknives.com/


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Thanks for looking!


Ariel
 
To get to that mirror polish, once it's ground I use grit 80, then 150, then 220 and then 400. After that is polishing cloth. I don't have a belt sander, I use smaller diameter belt sand pieces on a rubber addaptor on that bench grinder you saw on previous pictures.

Here's a picture of an old tutorial showing this:

tutorialW1chain17_big.jpg



I got many questions as to why I mirror polish the blade instead of saving some time by skipping that step, so here's the deal.

1. When you acid etch a blade, it doesn't get rid of the outter layers of steel and that's it. Even if it eats up metal, it mimicks the relief on the steel, so the better finish you have on the blade before the acid etch, the better it will look after.

2. I always mirror polish every knife I make as it allows me to make 100% sure the grind lines and blade is perfect. Mirror polished are less than forgiving if you know what I mean ;) I kind of think it this way... "Would the customer like this blade grinds if he'd received mirror polished instead of acid etched?" If the answer is "yes", then it goes to the acid, if not, it's time to do some more work.

As with anything I post, this is not to mean this is the only way or even the right way, just the way I do it myself :)



My website
http://www.aescustomknives.com/


Sign up for my Newsletter:
http://yourwebapps.com/WebApps/mail-list-subscribe.cgi?list=79955


Thanks for looking!


Ariel
 
This is a great thread Ariel from how you do the ruff hollow grind to the way you get the pattern in the micarter gives us all something to remember. Great knife, could you give us a idea on how long this one took you to make start to finish.

Richard
 
ArielSalaverria said:
To get to that mirror polish, once it's ground I use grit 80, then 150, then 220 and then 400. After that is polishing cloth. I don't have a belt sander, I use smaller diameter belt sand pieces on a rubber addaptor on that bench grinder you saw on previous pictures.

Here's a picture of an old tutorial showing this:

tutorialW1chain17_big.jpg



I got many questions as to why I mirror polish the blade instead of saving some time by skipping that step, so here's the deal.

1. When you acid etch a blade, it doesn't get rid of the outter layers of steel and that's it. Even if it eats up metal, it mimicks the relief on the steel, so the better finish you have on the blade before the acid etch, the better it will look after.

2. I always mirror polish every knife I make as it allows me to make 100% sure the grind lines and blade is perfect. Mirror polished are less than forgiving if you know what I mean ;) I kind of think it this way... "Would the customer like this blade grinds if he'd received mirror polished instead of acid etched?" If the answer is "yes", then it goes to the acid, if not, it's time to do some more work.

As with anything I post, this is not to mean this is the only way or even the right way, just the way I do it myself :)



My website
http://www.aescustomknives.com/


Sign up for my Newsletter:
http://yourwebapps.com/WebApps/mail-list-subscribe.cgi?list=79955


Thanks for looking!


Ariel
Click to expand...



buy no means am i implying that i could ever do your caliber of work, but i just wanted to let you know i agree with your polish first theory, for this is how i was taught, and i still do this 99% of the time before i etch.

andrew
 
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