Hand finishing is hard

400 - 800 is good depending on the steel type for me anyway. Its still hard work! I like the 220 mirror idea best.
 
Wussy boy.


Funny thing, seems like just this time last year you made a post that forced me to call you a girly man.... ;)

-Nick-
 
I use baby oil as a lube when hand rubbing my blades,it smells better than WD-40..
I did forget to mention that when I was having the most trouble with my hand rubbed finishes it was due to the fact that I was using 4 different brands of sand paper,you wouldn't think that would be a problem would you.But Alex Daniels pointed out to me that what one company calls (say)320 another calls 400,if you don't believe me just try a experiment the next time you go to town,buy one sheet at the hardware store and then go to the auto parts store and if they have a different brand check the grits against the one you already have with you.Once I got all my paper one brand the finishes started looking allot better.
Bruce

PS: The palm grit sander will still cut your hand rubbing time in half or more ;) :D
 
Hey I'm really wussy - this is a carbon steel blade too. Anybody can polish these hammer jobs!

Nick, Try a hand finish on S30V - if you're man enough. ;) ;)

Seriously, tho I was spoiled on this one. I went from straight from a worn 50 grit to X45 Gator on the grinder. Then for hand work I started with 9 micron, then straight to 2000. It went fast. My whining is that I have a good 2000 finish, but keep leaving little imperfections that need working out.

Maybe I'll just ship it up up north and let a real man finish it.

Steve

:)
 
I rub S30V every day. Tough stuff! But S90V will hurt you gurly mun! It is almost impossible to hand rub.

The comments about different manufactures paper is a good one. I know its expensive but I stick with 3m. I have the best cutting life from their paper and the grit is the same every time from one type of paper to another.





 
using oil makes a fine grit last longer ( as with the others) if you are at say 1500 it don't take long
to wear it out dry, then you'll get weirder marks than you're looking for in a hand rubbing real soon.
on the other hand if your mirroring you'll want the last grit
to wear down then buff ever so lightly with white. that's my story and I'm
sticking to it :)
 
Mirror not good for using knives. Why not. Most people out there think that a mirror finish is just for looks. Not so. First it is not really a polish but rather a high degree of burnishing. This seals the surface micro structure..Making it more resistant to corosion. This makes the "polished knife more than desirable as a using knife. Perion Knive. If you will take a look at the finer knives that were carried on our frontier, from Sheffield England and Solagen Germany Not to Mention the California knives from makers such as Michael Price, I think you may change your mind. Finely finished antique knives have stood the test of time much better than their Crudly finnished counter parts. Then as now, Crude in just crude
 
I've seen Mark.He probably looks best in a mirror that is 120-220 finished.
Stacy
 
Darrel Ralph said:
400 - 800 is good depending on the steel type for me anyway. Its still hard work! I like the 220 mirror idea best.
Click to expand...
:D it sure would be an easyer path to take :D

I do agree that a mirror on high carbon is a must if you want to do less maintenance and have the knife look nice in the long run of working,
it makes it a lot easier to clean and maintain
and I'm talking working the knife in the field as in game.

SS to d2 by all means a hand rubbed finish or a machine finish is cool with me.I like the looks but I want to be reasonable too.
with o1 for a new customer (not a knife guy that knows better) I will always recommend to mirror it, always. they will get the lecture...either way :)


yes I know a mirrored user will scratch but were talking a user too...
the over all good is what I'm looking for, not what I prefer and may be limited to
be able to do for the customer, I might add,
for yourself
(not pointing at anyone here I hope yopu all know :( )
it's a totally different story..
 
I used to mirror polish a lot of really hard RC L6, so I figured the easiest way for me was to buff with diamond compound. Works great! Homemade hard 1" feld pad on the drillpress. Scratches disappear, and you have a perfect mirror finish. About mirror finishes on knives, I really do believe it helps on the prevention of rust. Water actually beads up on a mirror finish, and the blade is much easier to get good and clean.
 
one thing that might help with the "fish hooks" is to use a bigger sanding block, I was using a small piece of aluminum as my block and having the same problem, so I started using a larger piece, say about 2 inches wide, it blocks your view a little more, but when you hit the plung the block won't lift/rock as much. Don Bell gave me that tip when I took a couple knives to show him and he could tell exactly how big my block was... :D
Steve
 
also try.

once your almost there slip some paper towels 1 to 2 thickness between the backing and the paper..
this will help with those few odd stray peaces of grit hanging around
softening the backing up, of course your backing in the first place was to flatten the blade ;)
when you look into the polished blade you don't want your ears look bigger than they really are do you :D

I actually tape the paper to a polished granite plate. and move the blade as I want right up from the plunge and pull off to the tip.
and still use the paper towel as mentioned..
you should never get a fish hook in it. :( :)


oh I want to add,
under the paper I'm using, there is another heaver grit paper this helps the top paper from moving and it helps soften the granite but still maintain it's flatness... OK now you have the secrets ;) :)
 
What I found that works is to take a straigt peice of wood about .5"x1"x12";wrap the paper around it snug and put the knife in a vice and go to town on the blade. I use singer oil to lube. Oh and be sure to go in one direction "back and fourth works for me". Someone else here said that oil cuts the time in half "it sure does"...
Theres my .000002 cents.

Pj
 
Mr.Wrong said:
What I found that works is to take a straigt peice of wood about .5"x1"x12"; put the knife in a vice and go to town on the blade useing singer oil to lube be sure to go in one direction "back and fourth works for me". Someone else here said that oil cuts the time in half "it sure does"...
Theres my .000002 cents.

Pj
Click to expand...
as it would with any sharp tool :D
at 1500 grit
you have 1500 sparp tools per Q/inch :)
 
I do agree that a mirror on high carbon is a must if you want to do less maintenance and have the knife look nice in the long run of working,
Click to expand...

Just rub it to 600 and etch the blade, no sweat. Actually Steve, I normally don't hand-rub past 800 grit. This is high carbon, of course. Anything higher than that and it's straight to the buffer, mirror polish and the rub the grit of your choice. I also use baby oil from Bruce's tutorial. I believe I lasts alot longer then WD-40 and it's the only thing I do to my hands that's good .
 
i just hot glue my fine grit sandpaper to an old random orbital disk and use that, works really well. i can get the finest finish i want and never have to do anywork really. just make a few passes with with the sander and im done. this really works good on random orbitals, the plain vibating ones just done get the same finish.
 
John Andrews said:
I used to mirror polish a lot of really hard RC L6, so I figured the easiest way for me was to buff with diamond compound. Works great! Homemade hard 1" feld pad on the drillpress. Scratches disappear, and you have a perfect mirror finish.
Click to expand...
John can you talk about this some more? How'd you build your felt wheel, where did you get the diamond polishing compound, what grit(s), would it work on a normal buffing wheel? And more I'm sure, this sounds interesting. ;)
 
:D :D

Wussy Boy did it! A good lookin' 2000 grit finish.

Thanks! OK here's the direct advice I used:

Nick Wheeler - Having some punk kid call you names is always a good motivator for perseverance.

Dave Larson - Zen breathing and Cool Lube (and everybody for pushing the point)

Bruce Evans - starting high on the plunge cut and sliding down

Dan Gray - Paper Towels! (actually I used a napkin) This was the killer idea. It added just the right amount of give on the back of the paper to blend the finish. This really made the difference.

----------------------------
Here's a big problem I was having. I was making a long strip of paper and wrapping it around the sanding block. :rolleyes: Bad bad bad.

I seems where the paper bends around the leading and trailing edges of the sanding block, there a bit of a bulge and gap. In otherwords it doesn't perfectly fold around the block. This was creating fishhooks at the plunge and at the back edge of the block. When I switched to cutting the paper so it's only as wide as the block I could control it much better and bingo all cleaned up.

Thanks Guys,

Steve
 
Congrat's!!!!

Bet you don't have this problem any more :D Hand rubbing is just so much fun aint it,I belive that it is the part I dislike the most when making my knives.
Bruce
 
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