Folks, I recently volunteered to sharpen a friend's Old timer skinning knife. I inadvertently made a few scratches on the blade, and was wondering if anyone could tell me the process of how I might go about buffing out these scratches. I tried some of Dremel's red rouge on a little buffing wheel, but it didn't do anything. Any help is GREATLY appreciated, TIA, and please reply to rfdillon@hal-pc.org
-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Help!! How do I buff out scratches from a friend's knife?
- Thread starter rfdillon
- Start date
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2000
- Messages
- 1,204
It depends on how deep the scratches are,Buffing is not the road to take to remove scratches.What type of finsih is on the knife,if it is a satin finish you could hand rub the blade out.
just some thoughts
just some thoughts
- Joined
- Nov 24, 1999
- Messages
- 4,981
Welcome to Bladeforums
Your officially screwed
Nah, just kidding. It can be done but probably not the way you would like too.
Since its from a sharpening stone, the scratches are probably a little much for just buffing out. You've basically gouged out a TINY little furrow in the steel. To get rid of it you have to remove enough material to flatten out the surface again. You could do it with a buffing wheel and rouge with the dremel but it wouldn't match the finish on the rest of the knife, unless its mirror polished. And then it would probably have a streaked look.
Instead, you'll probably get better results putting a hand rubbed finish on the blade. Since its minor scratches I'd start out with a fine grit of wet dry paper, like 320 and see how things look making passes in the same direction as the original finish on the knife. Concentrate mainly on the scratched spots.
Don't sand back and forth, it will leave circular scratches. Make straight passes starting in the same spot every time and going all the way from edge to edge or bolster to tip depending on what direction the finish runs in.
When you have the scratches out, switch to a finer grit. Go as fine as you want, or until you match the original finish.
Then resharpen the knife Its a vicious cycle
Chances are if your friend asked you to sharpen it, they plan on using it and won't be all that upset about a few scratches. Somethings you just have to learn to live with. It just can't be avoided with a knife you want to use.
I'm just assuming that the scratches are pretty deep. If they are really minor, there is a chance you could buff them out fairly easily wityh the right stuff but I don't know exactly what that would be.
Your officially screwed
Nah, just kidding. It can be done but probably not the way you would like too.
Since its from a sharpening stone, the scratches are probably a little much for just buffing out. You've basically gouged out a TINY little furrow in the steel. To get rid of it you have to remove enough material to flatten out the surface again. You could do it with a buffing wheel and rouge with the dremel but it wouldn't match the finish on the rest of the knife, unless its mirror polished. And then it would probably have a streaked look.
Instead, you'll probably get better results putting a hand rubbed finish on the blade. Since its minor scratches I'd start out with a fine grit of wet dry paper, like 320 and see how things look making passes in the same direction as the original finish on the knife. Concentrate mainly on the scratched spots.
Don't sand back and forth, it will leave circular scratches. Make straight passes starting in the same spot every time and going all the way from edge to edge or bolster to tip depending on what direction the finish runs in.
When you have the scratches out, switch to a finer grit. Go as fine as you want, or until you match the original finish.
Then resharpen the knife
Its a vicious cycle Chances are if your friend asked you to sharpen it, they plan on using it and won't be all that upset about a few scratches. Somethings you just have to learn to live with. It just can't be avoided with a knife you want to use.
I'm just assuming that the scratches are pretty deep. If they are really minor, there is a chance you could buff them out fairly easily wityh the right stuff but I don't know exactly what that would be.
It looks like Matt's got ya covered.