How do I get a polished edge?

You'll need progressive grits up to 1000 at least. The higher you go, the better the polish. Are you hand sharpening or do you have a guided system?
 
The finest stones I have, are with my Sharpmaker. I have the UF stones for it. I am not sure of the grit of these (maybe somebody can tell me), but they will mirror polish a blade quite well.

The biggest thing I have found, is just a LOT of light strokes, will do the trick the best.

I really want to get the fine and ultra fine Spyderco bench stones (already have the brown). I like the fact that they have a LOT more cutting power than my Sharpmaker, and am sure that they would give me the mirror edge that we all like. But in shorter, better order.
 
I have not tried the Spyderco bench stones, but I don't think ceramic stones would be what I'd recommend to mirror polish an entire bevel. I have used the Sharpmaker for years, and it produces a very sharp edge. However, I long ago found it futile to try to polish a whole bevel with it. Now I back bevel at either 7, 12, or 17 degrees per side and add a micobevel with the Sharpmaker stones (freehand, 15, or 20 degrees per side). I do my back bevels with a 220 or 1000 grit water stone. When I do polish the entire bevel (rare), I use a 220, 1000, and 4000 grit water stone set. This is just shy of mirror polished. I want to get an 8000, but they are prohibitively expensive at the moment.
 
me2 said:
I have not tried the Spyderco bench stones, but I don't think ceramic stones would be what I'd recommend to mirror polish an entire bevel. I have used the Sharpmaker for years, and it produces a very sharp edge. However, I long ago found it futile to try to polish a whole bevel with it. Now I back bevel at either 7, 12, or 17 degrees per side and add a micobevel with the Sharpmaker stones (freehand, 15, or 20 degrees per side). I do my back bevels with a 220 or 1000 grit water stone. When I do polish the entire bevel (rare), I use a 220, 1000, and 4000 grit water stone set. This is just shy of mirror polished. I want to get an 8000, but they are prohibitively expensive at the moment.
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Depending on the brand right? I bought a Kitayama 8k stone for $78. I've seen some for twice that price, but again, depends on the brand you're willing to use.

Honestly though, powered sharpening systems are what I would go to in order to get an easy polished edge. Either paper wheels or the Worksharp with aftermarket belts. Less work, less time, though not nearly as satisfying. Still, I can't imagine how agonizing it would be to polish some steels, say S125V, with stones alone:eek:.
 
Minimum 2k. The higher the better though , and you need to have the right progression , each follow up stone needs to be able to remove the scratches from the previous stone. So say go from a 2k to a 30k stone , even though a 30k stone can make a mirror , it wont be able to remove the 2k scratches.

Theres more to getting a mirror polish than just having the right stones though.
 
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Right now, the Kitayama is out as well. Locally the King 6000 stones are pretty affordable, <$30, so I may go that route if I need to.
 
I see recommendations for 1k 2k then we have waterstones mixed in and ceramics which technically don't have a grit. In all there is no standard in this thread that defines what stones, abrasives, or method that will produce a proper polish, we do however have a bunch of speculation and confusion.

The first question is,

What stones are you using now?
 
For a user knife, it's my opinion that a true mirror polish is not worth the time and effort. By true mirror polish, I mean a polish so fine that you don't see scratches. When I sharpen a knife, I take them to such a fine grit that from a few feet a way, the blade edge looks mirror polished. But if you look at eye level, you will see very uniform fine scratches. To get to this level of shine can take a long time already depending on if I have to reprofile an edge. I will go into the tenths of micrometers in terms of grit. That's how fine I will go, but no more.

Reprofiled a friend's m390 knife that had something like 56 degrees inclusive...omg that took so long. I took it down to 26 degrees inclusive. It was mirror polished, but not a true mirror polish. I don't even think I have the stones fine enough even in the .3 micrometer that would yield a true mirror polish.

There is no point to a true mirror polish anyway. Use the knife once on anything that's slightly course and edge is scratched.

Remember, each grit will scratch the edge. The higher the grit, the smaller the scratches. At some point you will scratch the edge so fine that it will take a microscope to see the scratching. This is when you reach a true mirror polish because your naked eye can't detect the minute scratching without aided vision.

I think the problem with most people that sharpen knives is that they move from one grit to the next higher grit prematurely before they get rid of the larger scratches. If you do this too many times, you'll have portions of the edge with a nicer polish and then portions of the edge with scratches that look like the Grand Canyon.
 
knifenut1013 said:
I see recommendations for 1k 2k then we have waterstones mixed in and ceramics which technically don't have a grit. In all there is no standard in this thread that defines what stones, abrasives, or method that will produce a proper polish, we do however have a bunch of speculation and confusion.

The first question is,

What stones are you using now?
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An excellent point. Even with the cross grit charts it can get a little confusing. Best to pick one brand, same type and stick with it. Either all DMT, all Edge Pro, or all sandpaper. Results are much more consistent.

harkamus said:
For a user knife, it's my opinion that a true mirror polish is not worth the time and effort. By true mirror polish, I mean a polish so fine that you don't see scratches. When I sharpen a knife, I take them to such a fine grit that from a few feet a way, the blade edge looks mirror polished. But if you look at eye level, you will see very uniform fine scratches. To get to this level of shine can take a long time already depending on if I have to reprofile an edge. I will go into the tenths of micrometers in terms of grit. That's how fine I will go, but no more.

Reprofiled a friend's m390 knife that had something like 56 degrees inclusive...omg that took so long. I took it down to 26 degrees inclusive. It was mirror polished, but not a true mirror polish. I don't even think I have the stones fine enough even in the .3 micrometer that would yield a true mirror polish.

There is no point to a true mirror polish anyway. Use the knife once on anything that's slightly course and edge is scratched.

Remember, each grit will scratch the edge. The higher the grit, the smaller the scratches. At some point you will scratch the edge so fine that it will take a microscope to see the scratching. This is when you reach a true mirror polish because your naked eye can't detect the minute scratching without aided vision.

I think the problem with most people that sharpen knives is that they move from one grit to the next higher grit prematurely before they get rid of the larger scratches. If you do this too many times, you'll have portions of the edge with a nicer polish and then portions of the edge with scratches that look like the Grand Canyon.
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It's just for fun really, pretty therapeutic almost. Whether it's a waste of time or not really depends on the usage. On a kitchen knife for fruits, vegetables, and boneless meats, that mirror edge should stick around for a while.

I also believe most carbon steels and easy to sharpen stainless like AEB-L takes much less effort to get that mirror edge on.

It's good stress relief to slap on a mirror edge on a kitchen knife with a couple of Japanese waterstones, the old fashioned way:thumbup:.
 
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