I've become obsessed with scratches...

scottickes

scottickes

Joined
Oct 27, 2005
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I keep hand sanding and hand sanding. I'm getting obsessed with little tiny scratches that just bother the heck out of me on my blade steels. Even when I'm going to etch it as in damascus, or cover it with a mustard patina as in my 5160 and 52100. I've convinced myself that those little tiny scratches will show up later, through the etch or patina.

What grit do the rest of you take a blade to before etching damascus?

What grit do you take a blade to before putting on your mustard patina?

I've been going to 1500 grit. It's probably not necessary to go this fine, but I can't help myself.
 
i thought i was the only one worried about tiny scratches. although i dont go as fine a grit or high a polish as you are, the knife i'm making for vg has made me the same way. while making it i worried about every little scratch i seen or if someone else would see one i would have them mark it. i got to thinking that each time i took out that scratch it would only be a matter of time before another one would appear. i just made up my mind that i wasnt going to worry about scratches until the time came to put the final finish on the blade. so far the knife has been scratch free as far as i can tell.
any knives i make in the future will have a satin finish that will hide most scratches and fingerprints.
 
Scott, I have yet to etch or patina a blade, but the scratches are a huge OCD trigger for me. Especially if I get them on the ricasso after the glue-up. I usually end up just screwing things up worse when I try to fix ricasso scratches and it drives me up a wall. On the up side, most people don't seem to notice them, but just knowing they're there is disappointing. I haven't been taking my grit very high, mostly because the time involved keeps me from getting the grinding down better. I expect to go higher as the blades become more perfectly ground. I'm planning on trying a patina using the technique given by Mike Spangler in an earlier thread - cold blue and then bleach - so if you ping me or bring up the subject again in the future I'll be able to tell you how that goes with a lower grit finish. I don't know what's worse, working harder than you have to for years or having to go back again and again to a lower grit and work it back up when scratches show up at the higher grits. Finishing is definitely the biggest time-consuming pain in the ass for me.

Regards,

Dave
 
Those little scratches drive me crazy too!! I am convinced you cannot get them out by hand :-) I have to use a buffer to get them out and even then it's not so easy for me!
 
I have the same problem. If you have a grinder mark left on the blade the acid will make it deeper and wider. Thats what acid does. It will remove metal from the bottom of the scratch just as well as the surface so you must get the surface smooth by going up in grit sizes. I dont like to buff before etching either because many times the buffer will burnish over the scratches and appear to be gone until the acid opens them up again.
Just use good quality sand paper and hand sand them out up to about 1500. Ive tried cutting corners only to get bit in the butt everytime.
 
The best advice I have had is to sand in different directions and really looks for scratches, seem if I do a really good job up to 400 grit the other grits go pretty fast. I have found that buffing with white compound be for green also helps. What I have not found is a way to prevent new scratches. I was polishing knife to wrap when the cloth had some sort of small debris in it and caused a pretty nasty scratch. I am now perfecting my hand rubbed finish.
 
scottickes said:
I keep hand sanding and hand sanding. I'm getting obsessed with little tiny scratches that just bother the heck out of me on my blade steels.

What grit do the rest of you take a blade to before etching damascus?
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Hehee. The thing I remember about the Loveless book on knifemaking is his paragraph on "getting out the last scratch".

The grit size consistency of your abrasive may be a little loose on your lower grits. Go down in grit, working lightly, then back up again.

Try EDM stones. I have recently started hand rubbing my blades with them and they surface aggressively and uniformly. With the boride stones that I am using, you can go straight from 220 to 600 grit. I suspect that smaller jumps would leave a really fine finish.
 
Keep things CLEAN ! It's very easy to contaminate buffing wheels etc. When wheels are not in use keep them in a ziplock bag .Each time you go to a higher grit was knife and hands to remove grit. The higher the finish the more obvious the scratches.
 
600 grit will be plenty if your going with mustard. The main problem that most have with hand rubbing is not having the blade ground good enough before you start. I have a halogen light right next to the grinder and use it while I'm grinding. I'll go from 50 to 80 grit making sure all the 50 grit scratches are gone. Then to 240 and making sure all the 80 grit scratches are gone. You can go down even smaller with the belt grinder but 240 will work. I then start hand rubbing with 220 and then to 320. A jump to 600 will work well after that. I tried the edm stones several years ago. Even at the finer grits they will cause scratches that are tough to remove. Everytime you switch grits make sure all the scratches are gone from the previous rub.
 
Raymond Richard said:
Everytime you switch grits make sure all the scratches are gone from the previous rub.
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I know you know this Ray, so this is directed towards other newbies like myself... a good way to tell if all the scratches are gone from one grit to the next is to coat the blade with a DyKem (or even a magic marker) and grind until all the dye is gone... makes the scratches MUCH easier to see, thus easier to work on!


...buffers scare the hell out of me. I avoid them at all cost. I'd rather work out the scratches with a live puff adder.
 
Matthew Gregory said:
I know you know this Ray, so this is directed towards other newbies like myself... a good way to tell if all the scratches are gone from one grit to the next is to coat the blade with a DyKem (or even a magic marker) and grind until all the dye is gone... makes the scratches MUCH easier to see, thus easier to work on!


...buffers scare the hell out of me. I avoid them at all cost. I'd rather work out the scratches with a live puff adder.
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The dykem is a great idea. I use it to lay out holes, draw center lines and all sorts of other stuff. I'm going to start doing this! Great tip!!! Thanks!!!!!!
 
I use a red magic marker for a guide.

A tip from Dan Farr at the Vt. hammer-in......

"If you can't get rid of a scratch in a minute, back up one grit on your sand paper"

This has saved me a ton of time AND sandpaper!! [Thank you Dan!!!]
 
I actually like scratches...

then you know the knife gets used, but i can see as a collector or for a competition peice it would be annoying .
 
I use 400 grit tool and die maker stones after coming off of the grinder at 400 grit. I then go up to 2500 grit for mirror finishes and 1000 grit for everything else.
 
I'm taking them to 1500 grit and then I'm going to do a mustard patina on them. I've only done the mustard patina at 400 grit and at 800 grit. I'm eager to see how much of a difference the nearly mirror finish will make on the mustard patinas' appearance.
 
ive usually take every knife reguardless of the steel (damascus,tool) to a mirror finish before hardening, then it's alot easier to clean up.unless i plan on a really deep etch then i'll take to maybe 400-600. sometimes after hardening, i bead blast the scale off, this works especially good at getting scale out of file work on spine.
 
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