Brain picking time...Finish question

R

RobertHankins

Joined
Jun 10, 2001
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I recently learned of an industrial process of deburring steel that may work for knives.
Apparently they use very large "Vibratory Tumblers" with small Ceramic abrasive triangles mixed with some type of lubricant and a finer abrasive powder. This is used to put a finish on steel parts.

I was thinking of using a 4gal Heavy Duty Lapidary Vibrating tumbler. I have used a Vibratory tumbler for cleaning brass for reloading, but it would be too lightweight to be effective on S30V.

Anybody familiar with this process and the type of material they use?
Think it would work?
Maybe a source for the polishing media...
 
look up in the phone book mediam for blasting or lapadary machines. you might e-mail geogre tourchborne he also has a metal finishing biz. he probably has a clue as to whats needed. let me know what you find out.
 
Isnt that the "stonewash" process that MicroTech uses on their knives?

There was a thread about it in the past.
 
My buddy Les recently went through a whole thing with it. He was going to do that finish on his new Ripcord knives but discovered that the process is a pain. It generates a lot of messy dust and he was not happy with the end results. He tried many different kinds of media too. I think he opted for a satin finish in the end.
 
Robert,

The sky is the limit on what you can do with those tumblers. There is as much of a variety of media available for that process as there are belts for grinders. Stones come in triangles, squares, spheres, cones, stars....and in all sorts of grits and abrasive types with a variety of binders...all with specific applications.

The vibratory finisher that I've used had a recirculating flood system and no dust.

here is a link for more info:http://www.vallmons.com/html/pc_media.htm

Instead of abrasive media, I've also used a few buckets of small metal slugs and scraps.

I always thought that the finish would look nice on a blade. You can use electrcal tape to mask off areas not to be finished.

Good luck,
Rob
 
How would one know what to use,There are so many differnt types
and what kind of finish does it put on a blade?
 
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