blade finish and handle finish

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knifemaking01

Joined
May 4, 2012
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g'day all, just a quick question, does the final finish on the knife depend on the type of steel used or how the maker chooses to finish it himself? to elaborate, i am wanting to achieve a more matte finish as suppose a chrome/mirror like finish so is there a steel i should buy over another or will it depend on how fine i go with my final sanding?

Secondly, on some knives how is the effect of the coloured lines achieved in the knife handle??? is this done by using bits of fibre spacers like this??

http://www.knifemaking.com/category-s/569.htm

and can they be stacked ie 2 or 3 layers to achieve a thicker line?
 
A matte finish is possible with every blade steel- if there's an exception, I'd be very surprised. Bead/sand blasting, stonewashing, scotchbrite, machine finish and hand sanding to 400-600 grit are all common ways to achieve this. Hand sanding is the most basic way, but in my opinion sandblasting gives the best looking matte finish. On the contrary, there are at least a few steels I know to be troublesome when it comes to mirror finishes. D2 supposedly takes on an undesirable "orange peel" look when polished, and S30V is from what I hear extremely difficult to polish. I'm sure many of the other highly wear resistant steels out there raise similar challenges.

Those spacers are often used, though I'm pretty sure you can find spacer-thin G10 that would serve much better in that role.
 
thankyou very much on that blade information, i didnt think about the sand blasting thats a cheap idea, how would the blade need to be prepared to then be sand blasted? I was going to use D2 carbon steel for my first blade

im trying to order everything from one place and that seems to be the only thing they i think is used for, this is the effect i mean, the black that seperated the two woods

 
Yes, go with the G10, fiber spacers will shrink on you. Alpha knife supplies is a good place to get some.
And for future reference, trying to get everything in one place is almost impossible. Working on an order now myself and the best I can do is 5 different suppliers. :(

Welcome to the forum by the way!
 
knifemaking01 said:
thankyou very much on that blade information, i didnt think about the sand blasting thats a cheap idea, how would the blade need to be prepared to then be sand blasted? I was going to use D2 carbon steel for my first blade
Click to expand...
With air-quenched steels like D2, grind the blade to final dimension (but not sharpened) and sand it evenly to 220-400 grit (if you're going to blast it, or as fine as you want if you're not going to blast it) before HT. If the blade is properly wrapped in foil it won't have scale on it, just oxide colors from tempering. This can be easily sanded off, with the same grit you finished with earlier. It's now ready for blasting.

t-davis and Patrice are absolutely right, use G10 for your liners and spacers. Alpha Knife Supply has many colors and thicknesses. You can stack it up however you like.
 
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well thankyou all for the responses, it is very very appreciative as not only the help from very talented knife makers but saving me on what would be alot of messing around not knowing what i was doing or using.....

Patrice Lemee, thankyou for the warm welcome and advice, the more i look into the more i realise that sourcing from 1 place is definitely not possible, but the more research i do also more i uncover, for example i found an australian supplier who turns out some very very elegant wood for pen blanks but is willing to cut some wood different sizes so being able to use some beautiful australian woods is great.

James Terrio, thankyou once again for sharing your wealth of knowledge, you have also somewhat answered a question i have posted here again, so really thanks mate appreciate you taking the time
 
I think "wealth of knowledge" might be overstating things a bit :p No thanks needed, we're all in this together. :thumbup:
 
D2 takes a very nice dark gray if etched in FeCl3
Very matt. and it is done after HT
 
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