Recommendation? Mirrior Finish Question

[Zachary Dunn]

N/A

 

[Bill DeShivs]

80 grit sandpaper is way too coarse to use on any knife.

 

[kreisler]

scnr

 

[Zachary Dunn]

N/A

 

[Zachary Dunn]

N/A

 

[kreisler]

there are 3 main origins of polishing scratches (percentage):
1) grit rating of the stone\compound\diamond (S1)
2) roughness of the grit carrier\buff (S2)
3) defects\contamination\accidents (S3)
4) abraded metal particles\microburr\slurry (S4)

the maths is that
S1 + S2 + S3 + S4 = 1.0 = 100.0%

unexpected clouding originates from S4, where you don't treat the surface with clean pure 6000grit (S1) but happen to scratch up the surface with a slurry of 6000-compound and abraded metal particles which floats between your blade and the 6000stone.

there is no simple or straight-forward solution to the problem, it's a science (and art) and academic people still do doctoral thesis research on how to balance the phenomena S1 S2 S3 S4.

 

[Shmackey]

Pics would help.

 

[Mr.Wizard]

80 grit sandpaper is way too coarse to use on any knife.

I cannot agree with that. I have used 50 grit when thinning by hand.

 

[Zachary Dunn]

N/A

 

[kreisler]

whetstones aren't optimal for MIRROR polishing, they are contra productive

 

[Zachary Dunn]

N/A

 

[kreisler]

are you polishing the faces or the bevel

 

[Bill DeShivs]

A quality fine ruby stone will leave a mirror polish.

 

[Zachary Dunn]

N/A

 

[Zachary Dunn]

N/A

 

[kreisler]

i doht have experience with water whetstones though

for polishing faces i use either chinese RUBY3000 (with or without oil, experimenting) or Spyderco Ultra Fine (also experimenting with and without oil). sure, takes forever .. because faces are 2-dimensional. polishing bevels is 10x less difficult.

 

[kreisler]

Any you recommend?

they're seemingly all the same and all made in chinese. search term <ruby whetstone> on AliExpress, and choose a big size. 1inch width is too narrow for serious sessions imho. they're inexpensive and have a 3000grit rating. they're a musthave in any sharpeners toolbox. imho

 

[WValtakis]

Why would you bother with tiny stones for polishing the flats? An 8"x12" sheet of wet/dry sandpaper on a sheet of glass will do a better job, faster, for less cost.

 

[Zachary Dunn]

N/A

 

[WValtakis]

That is what I did though, both results were cloudy

Sounds like you're not clearing the slurry away fast enough, if you can try with a steady trickle of water that may help.

One other thing, you should be sanding in a uniform direction with each grit, and changing directions when changing grits. Even a high grit can look cloudy when the scratch pattern is random, and it makes it much more difficult to tell if scratches from previous grits are gone.