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First mod-BK-11 strip & polish

D

dorpmuller

Joined
Oct 25, 2010
Messages
93
I snagged this from Amazon as I, unlike many, prefer serrated. (I always keep in mind that with the complete stupidity of drivers around here, I'll have to cut a seat belt some day-'nother subject.)

Didn't like the quality of the black finish on this one, not as good as my other Ka-bars, so...

DSC00217.jpg


Paint stripper followed by finer grades of sandpaper 'till I got to 2500 grit, then #0000 steel wool followed by Flitz. Lots of work! At certain angles I still have very fine scratches though... any idea how to get 'em out?

And now to do something about the fugly tan micarta-I'd like to dye it; read up on the Ritz method here-what'd be a good contrasting color?

Also looking for a source for a belt clip sheath that's not so damn big...

Thanks and enjoy,

Rich
 
Looks great.
You have to sand at each grit until all the previous scratches are gone. Only way to end up with a mirror finish.
 
Looks good, did the same thing to my Benchmade Elsishewitz AXIS-Lock blade.
The BT2 coating they use must be really soft when first applied, as nearly all of my Benchmade knives came scratched right out of the box.
I have some Nimravus Gen-1s and Cubs with BT2 coating and every one of them has scratches from the factory, even my numbered prototypes.
It's a pain to get off too, took several grits of Micro-mesh for me to do so, so I can appreciate the work it must have taken for you to get your knife down to the white.
As for removing fine scratches, only thing I can think of is using progressively finer grades of Micro-mesh perhaps followed by a cotton felt wheel loaded with green Stainless Steel rouge?
That's what I used on my Benchmade 154CM blades to remove scratches but great care must be taken not to snag a polishing wheel doing 5,000+ rpms and pulling a razor-sharp blade into flesh.
I used an old single-speed Dremel and a rheostat to control motor speed, along with solid felt wheels and green rouge, yet I can still see the original machining marks on the blade despite removing all the Teflon & scratches.
 
It is your knife, but man I wouldn't worry about the little scratches because it looks good!
 
That looks really nice.

At certain angles I still have very fine scratches though... any idea how to get 'em out?
Click to expand...

If they are only scratches from your sanding, then you need to go back to one grit above the scratches and go 45deg/45deg until there are no longitudinal scratches from the previous grit. Then brush that out longitudinally until there are no 45deg scratches. Move up a grit and repeat. if you don't get out all the previous grit's scratches at each step you will reveal them as you move up and not be able to do anything about it. It's a zen process.

Note that if you haven't done this to ~360grit PRIOR to heat-treat, you're in for a ton of work sanding on hardened steel. I agree, add to the scratches by using it. I would have stopped at 600grit, 1000 max. But you could put it on a buffer at 600 and make it pretty dang shiny. But sharpened knives plus buffers.... *eeeeek*.

In fact, what I would REALLY recommend is that you go back to 600 or 800, brush it out even, and put it to work. You'll have a nice satin finish that will overcome all the previous leftovers and still be easy to maintain.

-Daizee
 
Thanks for the compliments! I don't have a Dremel yet and I do everything by hand with hand tools. Used progressively finer grades of 3M sandpaper as I've read up on that here-I'm being a perfectionist as you really have to work to see the scratches at a certain angle.

I don't have really fine cloths to polish-I used a soft terrycloth towel with the Flitz and I think the scratches are caused by the towel itself.

Rich
 
I'm a big fan of that serrated Necker. I got mine last week, and I'm loving it for a work knife. If I were trying to use it as an outdoorsman's knife, the serrations would suck for things like whittling, but I've been using mine for routine chores like cutting poly banding, rope, and nylon webbing; all tasks that dull a plain edge blade in short order. The plain edge tip slices through stretch film like a razor, and the 11 also makes a great steak knife.

I am going to have to get a plain edge 11, too, as well as BK-14. I think the 14 would be an ideal backup woods knife with it's carabiner hole to secure it to a lanyard, and I want another Necker to hang next to my computer when I eat or for opening mail and stuff.
 
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