I stripped the black coating on my kabar mark 1 because it was scraping away and looking ugly, also I feel id be able to make it more personalized. But I'm new to this stuff so I have a few questions. My knife is carbon steel, which as we all know, rusts like hell. So I would probably force a patina on it. But is there a way I can polish it up and maybe give it more of a shine?
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How to get a proper shine on my blade?
- Thread starter JDX
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Can you polish it? Sure, but you'll lose any patina in the process. A polished finish is going to resist corrosion better than a rough one, but it's still not going to do the job as effectively as a patina.
If you do want to polish it up, I'd start with smoothing everything out with some high-grit sandpaper, then take some metal polishing compound (Flitz, etc) to get it gleaming. It will take some time to do this, and you will need to keep it well-oiled after you get it polished up. Be prepared to re-polish it from time to time if you use it often or hard.
If you do want to polish it up, I'd start with smoothing everything out with some high-grit sandpaper, then take some metal polishing compound (Flitz, etc) to get it gleaming. It will take some time to do this, and you will need to keep it well-oiled after you get it polished up. Be prepared to re-polish it from time to time if you use it often or hard.
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I stripped an entire machete (condor golok) with 220 grit sandpaper in a few hours.
If you're trying to mirror polish it, you need to sand it all the way up to around 2500 grit, then buff it with flitz or something similar. If you have a dremel, that will speed up the process.
If you're trying to mirror polish it, you need to sand it all the way up to around 2500 grit, then buff it with flitz or something similar. If you have a dremel, that will speed up the process.
Bill DeShivs
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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Cold blue offers no rust protection. In some cases, it can promote rust.
Rust bluing is "real" bluing. It can be done at home and provides the best protection of all the bluings. That said, no bluing process protects or wears well at all.
Rust bluing is "real" bluing. It can be done at home and provides the best protection of all the bluings. That said, no bluing process protects or wears well at all.
This is a BK9 that I stripped and sanded with 220, 400, 600, and 800 grit sandpaper. Once you get the coating off a Kabar or Condor, in my experience, the metal underneath can be pretty rough. I could have spent more time on a lower grit to get rid of the grinding marks but I only wanted to spend a couple hours on it.
If you want to patina it I highly reccomend putting the blade in lemon juice. I put the above BK9 in a plastic-wrap-lined baking dish with lemon juice overnight, woke up the next morning before work, flipped it over to even the patina, came back 10 hours later and pulled it out. It gave it a very even dark gray patina that I really like. I tried doing the hot cider vinegar patina first which was more complicated and didn't result in as even a patina for me.
If you want to patina it I highly reccomend putting the blade in lemon juice. I put the above BK9 in a plastic-wrap-lined baking dish with lemon juice overnight, woke up the next morning before work, flipped it over to even the patina, came back 10 hours later and pulled it out. It gave it a very even dark gray patina that I really like. I tried doing the hot cider vinegar patina first which was more complicated and didn't result in as even a patina for me.
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Here is a recent thread about a guy who polished his blade.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1201984-First-polishing-job
As for the patina, browse the threads here or do a simple google search. You can get some pretty wild designs or some super simple ones
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1201984-First-polishing-job
As for the patina, browse the threads here or do a simple google search. You can get some pretty wild designs or some super simple ones
Thanks for the reference. This is the first time I've been able to maybe be of use on here instead of just asking questions. Anyway the process I used is in the link up there but I wanted to add that it was the first time I'd done it and I learned a few things to do differently next time.. Firstly I shouldn't of stopped sanding at 2k. Buffing didn't completely remove the 2k scratches. Most of them. No one notices but me. On Amazon for $9 you can buy a pack of 3m polishing papers. The last 3 are 4k, 6k, 8k. That's what I'll use next time. Might not even need buffing after that. Maybe just the mothers by hand. I'm interested to see how the polishing papers work on an edge as well.
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Hard to say without being able to see and feel the condition of the blade after you get the coating off. The only way I can tell you and be sure is to say start where I did. Think it was wet dry 120. Where I started and consecutive grits are in the link up there for the earlier post I made on polishing. Just remember to go higher then 2k before buffing if you want it pristine. Also I was in a hurry and didn't want to wait for the auto part store to be open the next day. If I had I would of gotten maybe 1200 or something between 600 and 2k and saved myself some time
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Walmart should have the proper grits up to at least 2500 maybe 3000.... i just goot 400, 800, 1000, 1500 , 2000 nd 2500 from there for sharpening (i think those numbers are right i cant remember exactly)
Make sure you take your time at each grit and have removed all the scratches from the previous grit. It's worth it to just do it right the first time.
Make sure you take your time at each grit and have removed all the scratches from the previous grit. It's worth it to just do it right the first time.
I had to find a local hobby store to get myself some 3M polishing paper. I used it on my Esee4 with good results, sharpest I've personally gotten was with the 3M paper.
I used the 30micron-1micron set. http://www.amazon.com/Zona-37-948-P...1406530799&sr=8-1&keywords=3m+polishing+paper
I can still see areas for improvement (I'm a novice) but I'm positive this is the right grit range to get a real nice polish.
You'll have to go by eye. One tip is to sand in one direction then when you switch to a higher grit go in a different direction. That way you can identify the new scratch lines easily. If the older lines aren't getting covered by the new ones you need to go back down a step to even out those deeper scratches. Take your time, even a couple days if you need it. I just spent 2 hours to get the results you see in the picture there and there's still imperfections.