Finish Help

TheBadGuy

TheBadGuy

Joined
Jul 24, 2002
Messages
5,868
Greetings Blade Gurus,

Recently I had a custom utility knife given to me as a gift. It appears to be very old and had some kind of black finish that was wearing on it. So I took some sand paper and went to town for about a half hour and removed most of the finish. Now that the finish is gone, there appears to be small grooves, like grind marks going down the blade. Although it gives it an antique look, I would prefer that it was smooth. Is there anyway for me to remove these grooves without power tools or equipment?? Thanks
 
It will take a lot of elbow grease (since the steel is already hardened and those are pretty coarse grind lines) but you will need to find or make a hard sanding block that matches the radius of the hollow grind (It is hollow ground isn't it? The picture seems to indicate a hollow
grind.) Then you will need to start with a fairly coarse grade of SC wet/dry paper and work you way up to the finest grit you want to end with. Don't go to a finer grit until you are sure you have all those coarse grind marks worked out.

One thing though, I wouldn't try and finish the flats of the blade. Since the handle is already attached you would have a very hard time getting it to look nice near the front of the handle slab. Leaving the flats finished differently is not an unusual thing to do.

You'll need to be very careful so that you don't "wash" out the existing grind lines, but like I said with a little patience and lots of elbow grease you can do it. Good luck!

Any idea who made the knife?
 
Well to be honest I thought that it might be impossible, but you have given me hope. As far as the original maker, I have no clue. Its a nice little knife and well made. I had no clue those grind lines were under the finish or I might not have tackled the job to begin with. But I am excited to see the finished result. Thanks
 
I will take you up on that thanks. I still have your number and will give you a call some time this week, Let me know what time would be best and thanks allot :D
 
That's a good deal! Mark can clean that up with his grinder in no time. I thougt you just wanted to do it by hand to build character or something!:D
 
Grinding it is the NON-MASOCHISTIC way to do it. Doing it by hand in the same way as satin hand rubbed finishing is definitely character building. It also great aerobic exercise. You might still have to do some hand finishing after its been on the grinder.

As a tip, here's how I do satin hand rubs on hollowground blades. Instead of building a cupped surface to match the hollow, I use 2 pieces of Kydex, ensuring that the edges are chamfered. On reasonably large-diameter hollowground blades, the Kydex will be flexible enough to fit into the hollows with any downward hand pressure. Be careful not to fuzz out the grind termination to the flats.

Many, read as A LOT of "machine finished" blades have a multitude of very deep gouges sitting hidden amongst the finer grinder marks. Its only when you do what you did that you figure out where things are at. It takes a bit of experience to be able to see those deep gouges by examinaing carefully in bright light. Those look like 36 or 40grit grind marks from the very first rough grind.

Cheers.
 
That is a pretty nice looking knife by the way. I'm with Jason, those look like original grind marks. That had to be intentional (as opposed having been done by a maker with limited patience) based on the otherwise nice grind and design. But I think working them out will be a big improvement.

Dave
 
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