meaning of a mirror edge

I tried my Skyline first, but the edge grinds are pretty darn thin on it so there isn't a lot to see. But it was enough to show me that I wasn't damaging anything, so I moved on to the knife I really wanted to polish, my brand new Blur (just arrived TODAY) :d

Well I gave it a try, my problem was that I kept cutting through the sandpaper. Even 2000 grit wasn't enough to get it mirror like, so I grabbed a piece of cardboard and some mag wheel polish and gave stropping a try.

It actually came out pretty darn good. I probably shouldn't have tried on a recurve right away, but the Blur is fairly mild in that regard.

I got most of it pretty darn shiny, but I'll have to work on the curved part some more, I need something round to wrap with sandpaper, maybe a paper towel roll.
 
knifenut1013 said:
I was going to save these for another thread but I figured what the he :D

Picture1425.jpg
Click to expand...

DING DING DING, we have a winner...GOOD LORD.
 
kwackster you truly do know the mirror edge . thanks for all the great pics & the inspiration. dennis. a hearty thanks to everyone for all this great participation.
 
SpartanSaint said:
i plan on getting a sharp maker, i heard they make ultra fine rods? would that be enough to get a mirror edge? and what do you guys do for a strop? i know traditionally its a big leather belt like thing, right? though i think i saw someone mention a wooden strop too.... so some pointers on essentials for the person new to polishing edges

also, how long does a mirror edge like that, stay like that? is it a redo it daily kinda thing or what
Click to expand...

I used an SM for a long time (and still do). The UF rods followed by a loaded strop are all you need for a great hair-whittling finish. You do need to use a strop, though.

My first strop was part of an old belt, I loaded it up with some cerium oxide I had laying around (I used to do a lot of gem cutting). It worked well, but it was a little narrow and the cerium cuts slowly. One of my favorite strops right now is just a benchstone-sized piece of obeche wood (an inexpensive and soft African hardwood). Pretty much any hardwood will work, just be sure that it's fine grained and the softer the better. Mane people use balsa. Then just load it up with your polish of choice (in my case, some leftover 100k diamond).
 
freq18hz said:
How the heck are you guys getting your edges so polished? That is nuts!
Click to expand...

You can either 1) place yourself in a deep meditative state and become one with the steel, allowing your years of sharpening experience to flow through your fingertips to create a perfect, blissful harmony of stone and steel which awakens the spirits of the ancient Samurai, or 2) cheat and get an Edge Pro like I did.
 
I'm patiently waiting for my DMT A4EE to get in. Until then my highest-grit stone is the Lansky white :(
 
Phillip Dobson said:
I used an SM for a long time (and still do). The UF rods followed by a loaded strop are all you need for a great hair-whittling finish. You do need to use a strop, though.

My first strop was part of an old belt, I loaded it up with some cerium oxide I had laying around (I used to do a lot of gem cutting). It worked well, but it was a little narrow and the cerium cuts slowly. One of my favorite strops right now is just a benchstone-sized piece of obeche wood (an inexpensive and soft African hardwood). Pretty much any hardwood will work, just be sure that it's fine grained and the softer the better. Mane people use balsa. Then just load it up with your polish of choice (in my case, some leftover 100k diamond).
Click to expand...

not trying to nit pick, but you say hardwood and then mention balsa haha...

i think i can get my hands on an old weightlifting belt, the big leather suckers
 
SpartanSaint said:
not trying to nit pick, but you say hardwood and then mention balsa haha...
Click to expand...

Balsa is a hardwood. Softwoods come from conifers, hardwoods come from flowering trees. The name has little reference to the actual hardness of the wood. Some hardwoods like balsa are very soft, while other softwoods like thuya are quite hard. The reason I didn't recommend a softwood (like pine) is that they don't have many pores for the compound to embed in.

A weight lifting belt will work great.
 
DSC00273.jpg
this old 06 hunter polished up quite a bit with cardboard & green paste. beginners can achive initial results with primitive means, however the results are fairly primitive as well. thanks guys dennis your pics & blades are truly increadible.
 
Finished reprofiling my Demko AD10 to about 26 degrees inclusive. :D









 
Its a work in progress but turning out better with time.

Full convex to top of saber, all by hand on water stones with a final finish on a 1 micron balsa strop to bring out the flaws. It was a test run and I wanted to test the skillz :D

Picture1671.jpg


It was OK but I wanted to see if I could get a Kasumi finish with my natural stone. The result is not bad and brought out a near damascus grain to the VG-10. The stone is only a 8-10k grit so on the curve of the edge the scratch pattern shows.

Picture1675.jpg


Picture1673.jpg


Picture1676.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top