Is this the Highest Level of Polish You Can Get on Stabilized Wood Scales?

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I've been reading forum posts in multiple forums for hte past hour or more and am really spun in many directions. My main issue is this. When I am at 4 coats of tru oil now and the finish is nice looking and the tru oil is smooth. With this knife, I would like to get a wet look if possible...or at least the highest gloss I can achieve at this point, because I am still learning, and I want to use this as a learning experience. Once I have what is presumed to be "enough coats" I want to be able to maximize the gloss of the finish. I have heard all kinds of crazy methods.

ie.
Wet sanding,
swirl remover,
do nothing,
paste wax,

So what do I do at the point when I am done tru oiling to maximize my gloss? Paste wax? Swirl remover seems like a bad idea. I read about using this on some guitar forums but those guys end up having such a thick glaze on their wood that I don't think it would be the same. All of my tru oil seems to be in the wood, as it should be. Therefore, if I swirl removal it, I assume that solution is going to seep into the wood. ...and I assume that would be bad.

Here are some pics after the 4 coats so far. Please disregard the ugly muddiness that i couldn't get out in a lot of areas (still pi$$ed about that!). Also, I noticed that there are still some holes in the wood. I guess I sanded right past my superglue!?

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That's looking pretty good. Keep going. Ten to fifteen coats or more is not unheard of. When I wet polish with tru oil I use 4000 grit polishing paper from 3M, works pretty well. If you are looking for that dipped in liquid glass look you are on the right track, just keep going.
 
AVigil said:
Why? What was the problem. Many of the very best makers buff their handles such as S.R. Johnson and the Loveless shop. If done correctly it brings a high luster.
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Generally, I find it unnecessary. The sheen I get from high grit sanding and burnishing with denim is all I need. Also, in those first few handles I noticed that the buffer (which uses a single speed motor that had very little torque) had a tendency to give uneven results. Sometimes it would smear, sometimes it would do fine. I always ended up using denim anyway, so it just seemed a pointless step for me.
 
dzlvs8 said:
Also, I noticed that there are still some holes in the wood. I guess I sanded right past my superglue!?
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When you applied super glue, did you also use a debonder, to help the glue work deeper into the pores of the wood?
 
K guys I have been experimenting today with a potential new way of glossing handles. Purely experimental at this stage though and I have no idea how durable the finish is.

I have been using future floor polish on the handles. You have to use multiple coats.

Before applying any of it I take the handles and the pins to a 2500 grit finish with rynowet paper using it dry.

This in itself is slightly glossy but not the "wet" look that most people desire.

After its sanded I wipe it down and try to remove as much dust as possible.

After that I take a microfiber cloth and wet it with future and as quickly as possible give it two wipes down the handle in the same direction. The reason for this is that it dries quickly and will gum up is you scrub it any longer.

I let it dry for a half hour even though it will pretty much be dry after 10 minutes.

After that I take green strop paste and buff out the handle. After the green shade is gone from the surface after being sufficiently buffed , I take a clean micro fiber cloth and buff again. If you did this right and you look in the light there should be visible parts that have that "wet" look you desire. So you simply keep adding coats and repeating the process until the whole handle is this way.

Right now I'm almost done with one side of my handle (I'm doing one side at a time)

When I'm done I will post pictures
 
You are using "Green" compound. If you use "Red" compound you will get a high luster.
 
It is called Jewlers rouge and does a great job at getting the high level finish.
 
So to answer my own question, once I let the handle dry or ???? hours/days I should buff it with pink jewelers rouge? Is this correct.

Also, in regards to the superglue and using a debonder, if by debonder you meant my finger, than yes! Also all I had at the time was super glue GEL. I will have the right stuff next time.

In regards to the experimental processes: that's what drives me nuts. Unproven processes being a explained on the internet. Thankfully the process above was identified as experimental.
 
Debonder is a separate product that essentially thins/melts super glue. Good for removing it from finger too. ;)
 
dzlvs8 said:
So to answer my own question, once I let the handle dry or ???? hours/days I should buff it with pink jewelers rouge? Is this correct.
.
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Yes, when everything is cured nice and hard you can work it with the rouge. You might want to use 0000 steel wool first on the handle and then follow it up with the rouge.
 
0000 steel wool is used on hand rubbed finish. I usually stop there because I like the sheen it provides. And no it does not leave scratches and dull the finish.

You can use the 0000 wool to smooth out your finish and make sure it is nice and smooth and give a nice finish. You can take it to the next level in luster by using rouge after the wool in your hand rubbed finish
 
Great, my steps to take are clear. I will report back with what I get....as long as I have the motivation to do 8+ more applications of tru oil.

One last thing: When buffing, can I use a dremel and cotton wheel with the jewelers rouge over the true oil? The dremel is what I usually use to polish things. I can keep it moving around well enough so the surface doesn't heat up, but I have never buffed tru oil. Also, how long would someone recommend that I wait for it to be hardened enough to be safely buffed? I don't think a person can tell when tru oil is fully hardened. ...at least, I can't. It feels fine to me after 10 hours, but I'm pretty sure that's probably not long enough to wait until buffing. I have heard of anything from 24 hours to a month before it is fully hardened.
 
Using gel super glue won't help much. Since it is thick it does not go down into the pores very well.
Best to use the thin CA glue so it can go down into the pores.
The new handle is looking a lot better.
But.....spalted woods are tougher to get a high gloss finish.
Hard wood with small pores tend to take a higher polish. Even when stabilized.
 
AVigil said:
Why? What was the problem. Many of the very best makers buff their handles such as S.R. Johnson and the Loveless shop. If done correctly it brings a high luster.
Click to expand...

I've gradually made my way into the no-buff camp. I find that once I get it to high enough hand finish, hand buffing with oil then wax gets exactly the same result, but with crisper lines overall.

Also, I'm not saying this happens in all cases, but I would say that cupped liners, raised pins, uneven rounding of corners, etc. from over buffing is probably by far the #1 finishing defect I see in other makers work (not saying my work is necessarily better, just a personal observation).

On the other hand, many respected mid-range production knives have buffed handles. One of my Wustofs in the kitchen has a severely raised tang from overbuffing.


To be honest, if I had a variable speed grinder, I would probably still power buff, but on extremely low speed and only to remove the excess dried oil/wax before hand buffing.
 
You guys need to learn how to use a buffer!
Buffing a handle with a Dremel is about the easiest way to get an inconsistent finish.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
You guys need to learn how to use a buffer!
Buffing a handle with a Dremel is about the easiest way to get an inconsistent finish.
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Exactly +1

Ian,

If their buffing technique is poor they will get that exposed tang. To avoid that try to always buff from the metal first, not from the handle material first. Like I mentioned before some of the very best makers in the world of knives use a buffer on their handles.

It is one way to do it....of course there are others.

I personally do not buff handles much at all because I do not like the high polish on most knives. But on some knives it is an option makers need to have in their bag of tools.
 
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So I still haven't heard from anyone on how long (how dry) before I can buff the handle. I took the knife into work today so I could apply a lot more coats in one day. I am up to 10 coats. The coats are ultra thin. I wipe on and wipe off almost immediately. I wait two hours inbetween coats and then steel wool. The knife doesn't seem to look all that different from what it looked liked with 5 coats on it. So I thought that maybe it was time to buff. I tried to buff a very smal area on the bottom of the handle and it didn't shine up at all. ....like not even a little bit. ?? So I assume I need more tru oil. Maybe I'm just used to the chrome polish because I need very little buffing and light pressure. Doing so with the rouge didn't even brighten up the one pin I went over. It still looks exactly like the others. Is my rouge broken?!???? :S I was afraid to put more pressure on it since I didn't know if the tru oil was dry enough yet.

Also, it started staining the wood with the red/pink rouge. I assume that is because the tru oil wasn't hardened enough yet. Is that true or am I just going to run into that problem every time with a light colored handle? Luckily I was able to steel wool out the red marks easily. Needless to say I am tru oiling some more now.

Here's a pic and a video after 10 coats next to my knife I did a few months ago with BLO, chrome polish, and old english. I know the tru oil knife is good enough. But like I said before, I want to take it as far as I can as part of my learning process. It is also helping to test my patience.

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The video shows the gloss level a lot better. Again, jewelers rouge did nothing to this finish. Hand or power buffing.

[video=youtube;fyUIb-Gg0Ns]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyUIb-Gg0Ns[/video]
 
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