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finish question

R

renfrini

Joined
Oct 20, 2011
Messages
6
Hi, this time I bought a "Jackal". It came with a nice scratch. I thought the guard was pewter or some other kind of metal so I sanded the scratch away with some 5000 grit paper. Thats when I notice the color sanding off as well. I'm hoping some one can advise me on how to restore that finish.
Thanks.
-Jason
renfrini
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Not sure how to restore the finish, that part was more than likely chromed before it was assembled. Might as well do the rest of that piece, not sure what it is. Not a big group of fantasy knife guys here from what I've seen.
 
Do you think the finish is paint? anodizing? bluing? Ultimately, I'm trying to restore the color. Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome. Perhaps some one has colored a part of their knife similarly and can offer some ideas.
Thanks.
-Jason
 
What is the color underneath?
Generally a chrome finish is base steel under copper under nickle under chrome. The nickle and chrome layers are comparatively very thin but very tough. I would recommend stopping with any polishing you're doing and check to see if its ferrous (magnet test) - it may well be aluminum in which case its anodized. Not sure what it cost you, but either way it sounds like a plating (anodizing is essentially plating) issue. From a cost standpoint it might be best to polish it down to a base layer. Copper would be nice, raw aluminum will quickly turn a flat grey color. I think it looks pretty cool, but not so shiny anymore. Either way it may need to be re-plated if you want it to look "like new".

Then again, a fine polishing paper shouldn't have removed chrome or nickel plating, and a quality anodizing would hold up to that as well. Can you contact the maker? Might very well just be some sort of bluing or etch. Hopefully someone else will chime in with a bit more to go on.
 
renfrini said:
Do you think the finish is paint? anodizing? bluing? Ultimately, I'm trying to restore the color. Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome. Perhaps some one has colored a part of their knife similarly and can offer some ideas.
Thanks.
-Jason
Click to expand...
As I stated before, that looks as if it were chromed. Not the same thing as anodizing, "coloring", or bluing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrome_plating
The only thing you can do short of removing the existing finish and repolishing the section is to disassemble the knife (if possible), and send the secrion to be rechromed. Not exactly inexpensive timewise or financially.
 
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