How should I finish this...?

FriskyDingo

FriskyDingo

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Dec 13, 2009
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I've got my blade pretty much to the shape I want it, but I'm having a bit of trouble polishing it up pretty and making everything look totally even. Any tips? There's just a bit of slag left over from the heat treat that I can't seem to get off. Anyone know how to remove that last little bit of carbon?

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When you find out, let me know about the last little bit of carbon. 12 hours with vinegar didn't work. Although I may not be using the right kind of vinegar. Is it Ti scales? Heat colored or anodized?
 
The blade should have been hand sanded and polished before the handles were installed.
 
That's Ti heat anodized. The pins haven't been made into rivits yet so I can remove the scales. I'd prefer not to have to hand sand that thing tho, I don't particularly think it's a durable finish and it shows scratches too easily. This is a work knife, I think I might just hit it with the orbital sander and see how she comes out. It'll give it a faux stonewash finsih
 
you're not even through the decarb layer yet, take it apart, finish grinding and sanding your blade, then reassemble and sharpen, there are no short cuts, sorry dude

-Page
 
Yeah I figured that, I'll take it down tomorrow and finish it up the right way. Like you said, no shortcuts in this business lol.
 
You will most likely find a bit of a depression where the carbon scale is.
Fresh belt!!!
 
Show us the tang, please. You might want to try electric anodizing. After building one, I watched a youtube of a guy building one with 9v batteries and borax. Simple google search for "9v titanium anodize" brings up plenty of results. What they don't explain on most of them is that the number of batteries changes the color.
 
Right, I've tried out anodizing the Ti using Coke and Lime juice and just giving it about 20 volts on a power supply. It worked alright but didn't get quite the color I wanted. The color is actually a lot more brilliant in person than the pictures, the light is somewhat overexposed. I'm pulling the knife down as we speak tho to go over it with the final anodizing job.
 
What's the story on the drilled out divots? Are you planning on doing anything with those, or are they a finish detail of their own? When I see that my mind naturally moved toward mounting gems in the handle... which is silly, of course... but that's what such dimples seem to beg for. I have a couple hundred semi-precious stones of various colors that I've often though of using in that way... but probably never will.

- Greg

P.S. Assuming they are a detail of their own, I think you ought to spend a little time with a needle file smoothing them out.
 
Two divots will be filled with moon-glo epoxy so they'll glow in the dark, the others (dimples) will have an anodized finish in them similar to the Blackwood Skirmish. That's what initially inspired me to do that sort of thing on my knives.

Now that you mention it I've got a bunch of Garnets that my GF and I dug a couple months ago, Idk if you've ever heard of this but there's an open garnet seam off one of the local highway's in Garner NC, and one can park on the side of the road and all the rocks are filled with Garnets. Most are about the right size, but they're kind of a muddy brown and I'm not sure how much I like that color. I'm still looking at options, worse comes to worse I'll leave the holes there like I do on a lot of my knives to add some extra grip.
 
I really like the style of the knife and handles. Do not do anything with the "dimples" other than smooth and anodize, I think they look awesome. BTW what knife number is this, second, third?
 
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