Bowie project

D

Daniel Bright

Joined
Jun 18, 2018
Messages
16
I am almost finished with a handmade bowie. I can't get a good mirror polish. I can't afford power tools. please help. I am using d2 steel, and 2000 grit is still leaving scratches
 
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Daniel Bright said:
I am almost finished with a handmade bowie. I can't get a good mirror polish. I can't afford power tools. please help
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You gotta start with rough grits and get down to the very fine.
You need to remove the previous grits scratches before moving to the next grit.

What steel are you using ?
As I understand some steels don't exactly take a mirror polish like others.
 
Hickory n steel said:
You gotta start with rough grits and get down to the very fine.
You need to remove the previous grits scratches before moving to the next grit.

What steel are you using ?
As I understand some steels don't exactly take a mirror polish like others.
Click to expand...
D2. It still scratches at 2000 grit
 
2000 grit will leave faint scratches. What you need to do now is buy a polishing compound, put it on an old cloth, and wipe the blade over and over for a few hours. Lots of elbow grease here if you want a mirror polish by hand. I usually use turtle wax from the car section at wallyworld.
 
If you are seeing a haze type scratch from the 2000grit I’d recommend using some mother’s mag polish on a rag and you’ll have that baby mirror shined in no time. Serious.
 
Hickory n steel said:
What kind of scratches ?
We need to see a picture of them.
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No, we really dont need pictures. As others have mentioned, you are going to need time and a series of even finer grits. Emery, chrome oxide, jewelers rouge, car polishes, Flitz metal polishes, etc etc etc.

No doubt the knifemakers here can give you more detailed instructions on this aspect of knife making.

We have a subforum for it.
 
Yeah, you need to use polishing compound to get the final scratches out. You might also want to go to 5000 grit sandpaper before polishing. As others said though, D2 is famously hard to mirror polish.
 
TAH said:
Party pooper. :p :D
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Well, I mean we DO need pictures of the knife! :thumbsup: We want to see it!!!

We don't need pictures to figure out how to get a mirror finish by hand. Start polishing and keep polishing. For a long time.

It can be done by hand. But on a big Bowie? Yikes.

And I do like Bowies with a mirror finish.
 
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Dr Heelhook said:
Yeah, you need to use polishing compound to get the final scratches out. You might also want to go to 5000 grit sandpaper before polishing. As others said though, D2 is famously hard to mirror polish.
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^This.
 
1. Use windex with your 2000 grit instead of water.
2. Purchase and use some 2500 grit with windex.
3. Polish with white notebook paper.

if the notebook paper doesn't do it, get the Mother's.

Here is a D2 blade that I removed the etch from
canoemarbles.gif

starting with 220 grit and worked my way thru the grits up to a near mirror finish.
 
I’m also interested in the idea of using a cloth polishing belt with polishing compound at low speed on a belt grinder.
 
Dr Heelhook said:
I’m also interested in the idea of using a cloth polishing belt with polishing compound at low speed on a belt grinder.
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This reminds me of a video where a guy uses a paper wheel on a bench grinder to sharpen his knives. May be a quick way to add some polish on there with some of the fine micron compounds

Here's one I pulled up quick from youtube
 
bikerector said:
This reminds me of a video where a guy uses a paper wheel on a bench grinder to sharpen his knives. May be a quick way to add some polish on there with some of the fine micron compounds

Here's one I pulled up quick from youtube
Click to expand...
I’m definitely curious about the paper wheel thing for sharpening. I’m just a bit afraid of overheating if I were to use the bench grinder for polishing the whole blade, because of the speed.

If you have a proper belt grinder, you can turn the speed down really low to reduce friction heat. It’d take longer time, but it beats rubbing it by hand with a rag.
 
Dr Heelhook said:
I’m definitely curious about the paper wheel thing for sharpening. I’m just a bit afraid of overheating if I were to use the bench grinder for polishing the whole blade, because of the speed.

If you have a proper belt grinder, you can turn the speed down really low to reduce friction heat. It’d take longer time, but it beats rubbing it by hand with a rag.
Click to expand...

True. I don't know if they exist but a bench grinder with a speed setting would be nice. I think I've seen high/low options but never anything with a dial speed control unit. I know we performed a few mods like this in a custom item manufacturing environment to better control our processes for making nutritional supplements as the mixers kept burning the product from mixing too fast.

I think the felt belts on a belt grinder would be the same idea as the paper wheel. Softer backing and let the polishing compound do the work.
 
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