How to Polish G10?

J

jemelby

Joined
Feb 20, 2005
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280
Let's say I have a knife that I have put G10 Scales on. And let's also pretend that I want to put a mirror polish on these G10 scale. I have at my disposal a 6" buffing sheel, a belt grinder with a 400 and 100 grit belts. Assorted disk sanders, etc...

Is there a compund that will make G10 Shine? I doubt that I'd want to use metal polish. Also, is there something that I will want to seal it with? like a floor posish?

Thanks for the advice.
 
I'll move this thread to Shop Talk for you. The first thing the guys will tell you is you don't want to breathe G-10 dust. Listen to them.... :cool:
 
Polish G-10 like it was fiberglass (which it is,basically).Pretend you are doing a boat repair.
FIRST - WEAR LONG SLEEVES,GOGGLES,AND A RESPIRATOR.This stuff will eat you up - literally.
Sand with 100 to shape,sand with 400 until smooth.Use wet or dry paper and hand sand to 2000 or finer( 600,1000,2000,...).Hand buff (don't use the buffing wheel) with a good fiberglass polish (hardware/auto/boat store).The 3M wet or dry polishing sheets (the colored ones) work well,and go from 600 to 8000, in a set of six sheets.Most knife suppliers carry them.
Wet sanding above 400 is preferred by some people.
Stacy
 
AFAIK, the best way to polish G10 is polishing it to a, say, 600 grit and putting on it a good layer of acrylic or urethane lacquer, as they do for luxury sports cars or other similar goods.
I know that varnishing doesn't have the same appeal as a good, careful polishing, but there's a good reason they do it this way.
G10 is carbon fiber in a polymer base. No matter how well you polish it, you may still have "hair" here and there that will come up and off from the manufact during use, unless the whole surface is sealed.
That's why it's important to seal the surface, both for the health of the user and for the manufact duration.
 
I started sanding G10 and micarta over a bucket of water dipping the paper and knife often, this really helps in getting a good finish. Fine sandpaper fills quickly so you end up with alot of paper movemement with little sanding. This will make it quicker to get to the finish you want.
 
It buffs just fine on a buffer with green compound.
If you are using a 3450 RPM buffer, use a very light touch.
 
Do what BLADSMTH said and you will be rocking!

Yes, it's a LOT of work, but YES it will look great and be a show piece...

Slow and easy takes the race...

Charlie
 
Alarion said:
G10 is carbon fiber in a polymer base.
Click to expand...
Not that it changes much, but the 'G' in "G10" actually stands for "glass." They're glass, not carbon, fibers that will potentially (I don't have much experience, but from my book-learnin', properly saturated epoxy composites have just about 0 chance of this happening) popping out. CF is a beast of a different color.
 
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