HI Polishing Methods?

N

Nicholas

Joined
Apr 1, 2009
Messages
896
To all:

Recently, my father (a professional woodworker) got a good look at one of my HI's and was very impressed with how shiny it was: he was amazed it wasn't stainless. In addition to wanting to help out with some more wood donations, he's also asked how they polish these things! And that's the one aspect of the forging process that I can't seem to find information about on the site.

For dear ol' Dad's sake, does anyone know very much about how they do this?
 
there's a bit on the HI site HERE <-linky

partway down the page, they show the old hand turned drills and grind stones, since supplanted by electric power tools - note the 'to code' wiring! ;)

they also show the buffing wheels made of old rags, etc. & ref. the 'magic' stone and commercially sourced compunds used...
 
Something similar to red jeweler's rouge often remains in cracks and crevices on the handle and blade details.

I suspect the key ingredient is lots of elbow grease. Polishing is time- and labor-intensive, which is why matte finishes are more common on items produced by industrialized companies. If companies do choose a shiny finish, the cost of upgrading to stainless steel is less than the cost of mirror polishing steps - so they use stainless to keep things shiny. In Nepal, labor is much cheaper and polishing can be done by apprentices.
 
kronckew said:
there's a bit on the HI site HERE <-linky

partway down the page, they show the old hand turned drills and grind stones, since supplanted by electric power tools - note the 'to code' wiring! ;)

they also show the buffing wheels made of old rags, etc. & ref. the 'magic' stone and commercially sourced compunds used...
Click to expand...

Crud; I've seen that page, and forgot about it. Dumb ol' me.

The "elbow grease" part, though, I'd guessed. Just a few minutes polishing a khuk taught me THAT much.;)

Thanks, guys.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top