Knife polishing materials and techniques?

[Dakki]

Usually I don't care about this sort of thing but I've picked up a "gentleman's folder" at a yard sale that is just ridiculously scratched up. What's the best way to take off the scratches and restore a mirror finish? What about a satin finish? Do I use the same stuff on the bolsters as on the blade?

Before anyone asks, it doesn't look like a rare or collectible item, and I'm going to have to reshape the blade some as a largish piece of the tip has been broken off and there's several bad nicks on the blade as well.

 

[ginaz]

for the blade, progressive grits of sandpaper. bolsters, try some flitz polish or maybe brasso.

 

[Dan Seaver]

Japanese water stones are the best way to bring it to a polish. Start with a file to remove the nicks and existing scratches, then onto water stones starting with 180# or 240# for removing the scratches left from the file, move onto 600# until all the scratches from 240# are removed, next 800# until all the scratches from 600# are removed, then progress in the same pattern with 1000#, 2000#, 4000#, 6000#, and 8000#. This is very time consuming but is known to bring out the best polish. When polishing start with movements perpendicular to the scratches left form the file, assuming that "|" is the scratches from the first stone you should have the scratches from the next stone "/", then "\", then "/" and so on until your polish is achieved. Clean and look the blade over very carefully to make sure you removed all the scratches from the last stone before moving onto the next one, as you polish further the tiny scratch left over from a 240# will become very noticeable and very very hard to remove.

For a cheaper alternative use a file to remove the nicks then use sandpaper starting with 180/220 grit then move onto finer grits until you achieve the polish you want.

Mechanical buffers work but can affect the blades hardness due to friction causing heat.