Well I'd like to teach myself so I can do it to a multitude of blades. I did it with a cold steel spartan before, because it has such a big flat I used a power sander with 600, 800, 1500, and 2000 grit sandpaper which worked pretty well. I wanna learn to do it better so I can do a full polish on my D2 710 and a cold steel american lawman
Good. Sounds like you know your way around tools, and don't mind spending some funds on them.
For mirror polish, I only recommend powered options.
Approach 1) 6 or 8 inch bench buffing/polishing wheel.
$39 and it gives you 2 wheels, which is all you'll need.
The tight nit for CrOx, loose cloth for diamond
While the single-speed bench buffer I referenced is cheap and reliable, you may consider using a variable speed one, if you are trying to dual purpose it for sharpening station. Being able to change speed allows for more control (but will cost you more).
Approach 2) Dremel with polishing bits.
$28 for Dremel
And maybe 10 bucks for polishing tip kit. 1 Inch and 1/2 inch tips work well.
$8.50 for green stick
20 bucks for diamond spray
You can buy them from different places, but those are the ones I've found and have used before.
When deciding between buffing wheel and dremel (if you must choose one),
note that each can be used for different purposes. For example,
by spending additional 20-30 dollars on paperwheels, you can turn your bench buffer
into a paperwheel sharpening station.
With dremel, you can do lots of intricate work. For example, in my picture, I've turned my PM2 into a wave + bottle opener. You can do it with bandsaw or router, but it's just as easy to do with a dremel. The choice is yours.
Obviously you can mix and match for better efficiency,
but for polishing purposes, you can get perfect result with either.
I have used many different abrasives white, black, gray, green, red rouge sticks, along with many different sprays of diamond and CBN.
After experimentation, I've settled to one configuration - Green stick (Chromium oxide), followed by 1 micron diamond spray. Some abrasives work better than other for blade steel. Many super steel containing gritty carbides (like S30V <- vanadium carbides), are trickier to get mirror polish. They tend to haze, and are in general finicky. Diamond sprays with light pressure, I have found, do consistently good job with almost any steel.
One note about sprays. They are expensive, and they tend to fly off when you spin the rotor. You can spray on lightly, wait for them to dry, then spin the rotor, but that is inefficient work flow. Instead, I dilute the spray into 1 part in 3 or 4 into another spray bottle. I have gotten just as good of a result from diluted spray for polishing purposes as the original. You will need to experiment for yourself on this.
The rough procedure goes like this:
1) Sanding. Sand with 220, 400, 800, (1500, 2000, optional) dry then wet. Sanding direction is unidirectional starting from 400.
2) Green buff (CrOx) on wheel or dremel
3) Diamond buff on wheel or dremel
There is no magic to polishing of this kind, and it is surprising easy. I've taught a few friends to polish knives, tools, motorcycle parts, etc. on their first try. You just need these tools.
