How to achieve that mirror finish?

Big_Red

Big_Red

Joined
Feb 23, 2009
Messages
669
I see some of these perfect mirror finish edges on folks knives and wonder how do I get there?

My final steps are an extra fine DMT stone and a leather strop with green compound. My edges look good, but they are far from the mirror finish that I see on some of the pictures posted here.

What step am I missing? I could strop for days and I might get close. :D

Example of my finished edge using the system described above:

S5001558.jpg
 
I go all the way to a 16000 grit Glasstone, then lapping film all the way to .05 microns for super mirrors, but by my Shapton 8000 grit Glasstone the edge is a very nice mirror without stropping. At 2000 grit a lot of steels are mirroring out nicely as well on Glasstones, but 8000 grit really gets the edge to pop in terms of the mirror. It basically takes practice and consistency and fine grit finishing stones or stropping. I used to not care at all about my how my backbevels looked (I use micrbevel) until I decided to try to make one nice after my Dad ragged on me about sharp but ugly edges and managed to get a pretty nice mirror. A little more practice and it is pretty amazing how easy it now is to get a nice polised edge on a knife, though some steels like S90V don't like to take a nice polish and take more effort. CPM M4 takes a great polished edge, probably the best of any high performance steel that I have sharpened. My Rift takes a very polished edge nicely, so a bit more practice and finer grit stones prior to stropping (or maybe just more time stropping) you will be getting some nicely mirrored edges pretty quickly.

Mike
 
That Rift (pictured above) is the best result I've gotten thus far....

Maybe I just need to spend more time on the extra fine with very light pressure? It doesn't seem like the extra fine is accomplishing anything though. You can 'feel' the fine stone work, but the XF just feels funny to me.
 
i think i know your problem, it may be that extra fin to strop is to bid of a difference, also remeber to use very very light pressure when using extra fine and stropping. you way want to try dmt extra extra fine (8000 grit) and move onto a strop. You may also want to try a hand american diamond spray
 
i took knifenut1013 advise & ordered a new stroup with some diamond paste. my initial results were very positive especially on a queen d2 . d2 is'nt known for hi-polish but it really was impressive.i think i'm going to try an 06 custom hunter next. i'll bring the bevel way back so i can have a good surface to photo if the results are good.more on this later.
 
Does anyone powerstrop on a belt sander? I would think that very light pressure with a leather belt loaded with green compound would polish the edge pretty nicely. It should be sustainable for many minutes without all that much heat generated if the pressure is kept light.
 
The last few steps I do are all strops for my Edgepro consisting of black compound, then green, then Mothers Mag & Aluminum polish. Mirrored beauty! :thumbup:
 
Your jumping from 1200 grit to 50,000 grit, ya need a few other abrasives between ;)

Your edge need to be sharpened to a very fine point before using a compound at .5 microns otherwise you never see what .5 can actually do.
 
knifenut1013 said:
Your jumping from 1200 grit to 50,000 grit, ya need a few other abrasives between ;)

Your edge need to be sharpened to a very fine point before using a compound at .5 microns otherwise you never see what .5 can actually do.
Click to expand...

Makes sense... So what is the most economic way to achieve a better finish? Buy some grittier compound, order another DMT at XX Fine, something else?
 
The EEF is a option but its not cheap and the break-in process can take a while, you could also get the DMT 3 pack of compound and some balsa wood. The compound is 6,3,1 micron so its a easy step down from the 9 micron EF stone. Its actually how DMT recommends to do it.
 
Would the Spyderco Fine Ceramic stone be the next natural step? Looks like the Extra Fine DMT is at 1200 and the estimate for the Spyderco is about 2000-2200 I believe.

In theory, shouldn't I double the grit?
 
If your going to buy another stone then get the EEF, the Fine ceramic has no grit rating but is said to be 6 microns.
 
knifenut1013 said:
If your going to buy another stone then get the EEF, the Fine ceramic has no grit rating but is said to be 6 microns.
Click to expand...

I ordered the extra extra fine DMT stone and their aligner clamp while I was at it. Maintaining the proper angle on the belly has been a challenge. This is with my home made honing block which is preset at 15 degrees. More practice needed.
 
Gadgetaholic said:
Does anyone powerstrop on a belt sander? I would think that very light pressure with a leather belt loaded with green compound would polish the edge pretty nicely. It should be sustainable for many minutes without all that much heat generated if the pressure is kept light.
Click to expand...

I power strop with leather belts on occasion. You don't need to though. I've gotten better results using an old wore out 9 micron 3M Micron Belt. While flexible, the polyester belt material is extremely hard. Once the abrasive has worn off the belt, it will leave a near mirror finish. If that's not good enough for you, proceed to a bench strop (I prefer MDF) loaded with diamond and you will have a shiny mirror finish after just a few swipes. It's just as fast as changing to a leather belt and there is less risk of accidentally rounding the edge.
 
I like using a Japanese finishing stone for polishing bevels. It has no tendency to round off the edge like a leather strop can. Don't mistake me, a strop will polish the bevel and leave an excellent edge. A finishing stone just leaves the edge a tiny bit "crisper." None of it matters if the bevels aren't ground right in the first place, of course.
 
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