Mirror finish on blade - by hand?

J

j22knife

Joined
Nov 18, 2006
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270
I've rubbed down a blade with #600 wet paper and the blade is pretty shiny.

Is it possible to get a mirror finsh by hand - no power buffers, etc.

Using paper? Some sort of rubbing compound?

Thanks
 
LRB said:
Yes, it is possible. In my opinion, not practical, but possible.
Click to expand...

I'm only going to do one knife.

I had to reprofile an edge, which caused me to scratch the surface. I'd like to bring it back to mirror.

It's OK if it takes 2 hours of rubbing - I'll do it watching CNN.

Thanks
 
j22knife said:
I'm only going to do one knife.

I had to reprofile an edge, which caused me to scratch the surface. I'd like to bring it back to mirror.

It's OK if it takes 2 hours of rubbing - I'll do it watching CNN.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Bring an extra finger.........
 
a good knife with well hardened steel will take a bit more than two hours to bring up a mirror finish, but if you must just keep on going 800 1000 1200 1500 exc, then a bit of rouge rubbed on a piece of leather should get it close. hard to say how long it would take anywhere from 5 to 15 hours depending on the the hardness and size of the blade would be my guess
 
Mirror polishing by hand might not be too much of a practical approach, but it sure it satisfying. I managed to get a mirror finish on my first ever "all my own work from scratch" knife with wet-n-dry paper on a sheet of plate glass. I worked my way through the grits down to 2000 then went at it with a leather strop glued to a strip of wood. Still got all my digits too, but I doubt that would have been the case had I been watching TV whilst i did it ! I guess it took about 10 hours of work on each side of my 8" blade to get a proper mirror finish but I loved the end effect.
 
Longstrider said:
Mirror polishing by hand might not be too much of a practical approach, but it sure it satisfying. I managed to get a mirror finish on my first ever "all my own work from scratch" knife with wet-n-dry paper on a sheet of plate glass. I worked my way through the grits down to 2000 then went at it with a leather strop glued to a strip of wood. Still got all my digits too, but I doubt that would have been the case had I been watching TV whilst i did it ! I guess it took about 10 hours of work on each side of my 8" blade to get a proper mirror finish but I loved the end effect.
Click to expand...

Great - some actual useful advice :)

Where do you get the finer grits. The finest I have is 600 paper that I got at an auto supply.

I'm in no hurry. I'm not a knife-maker. This is the only knife I intend to do. This doesn't have to be economically practical - from a time spend point of view.
 
I'm afraid I wouldn't know where to get the finer grits of wet-n-dry on your side of the Big Pond. Here in the UK I get mine from a company called Axminster Tools.
If you get the paper and you're willing to put the time and effort in, it can be a very rewarding process seeing the knife become more and more polished under your hand with each grit finished.
Mind your fingertips ! The finer grit papers don't feel as if they doing any harm as your finger tip slides over the edge of the blade and you keep going, to-and-fro... right up to the point wher your fingers suddenly sting like hell and you have no fingerprints left ;) Don't ask me how I know.... :)
 
J22
You should be able to get grits up to 2500 at a body shop supply house, look for one that carrys "house of kolor" paints and they should have the wet dry sand paper you'll need. sanding one out is slow but I still do it. from 600 jump to 1200 then 1500 make sure you have all the scratches out from the previus grit then go to 2000 and finally 2500. dont push down very hard as this will drag scatches and you will have to go back a grit or two.
after the 2500 is done you might try some soft cloth and "mothers mag & aluminum polish" for the final. it works well by hand. it to should be at the body shop supply.
it also helps to use a backer for the sand paper. wood, plastic, leather.....
something to keep your hands clear of the blade.
I cut my self on a regular bassis doing this same thing so do be cearful!


good luck
joe
 
Just look at the one on my site and tell me more. The one with the filework all the way down to the tip is hand rub up to a 2000 grits. And yes your fingers will know it is too. Have fun. ---------------:thumbup:
 
Keith_H said:
have you considered taking it to a friend's shop who has a buffer?
Click to expand...

I did consider that. I primarily collect interesting knives which I keep in pristine condition. I have one or two that I've deemed not collectable quality that I play around with. Use them, sharpen them, etc. I just wanted to see what was involved in putting a shine on metal.

So, following other's advice - I got some 1000, 1500 and 2000 paper (5-packs) at a auto body supply, and some Mother's Polish and went to work.

The results are great and it wasn't that hard. It only took me 2 episodes of This Old House and one Tony Brown's Journal.

I think there is too big a gap between the 2000 paper and Mother's polish so you can see small scratches from the 2000 paper that I wasn't able to polish out - if you use a lupe to look. But, it's good enough. Now to put the edge back on.

Thanks for everyone's help.

Maybe I can sell 4 3/4 sheets of 1000, 1500 and 2000 paper on eBay ....:)
 
I did the very same thing with my first 'from scratch' D2 blade. I used my old coffee table, which was glass, and wet-dry paper. It worked great, but it took forever. I stopped short of mirror, though. I went to 1500 grit.
It really is satisfying. Irrigate the paper frequently to remove any stry larger grit. Going to micron finishing can make you pull yer hair out when a stray grain from the last paper scratches across the blade!

Got an old hard drive you don't care about?
If I were gonna do it again, I would rip open an old hard drive and retrieve the two giant 'rare earth' magnets inside. These would be strong enough to provide a temporary handle on the upside of the blade.
Be sure to have a method of deglausing (demagnifying) the blade afterwards, though.
 
SterlingHammer said:
Got an old hard drive you don't care about?
If I were gonna do it again, I would rip open an old hard drive and retrieve the two giant 'rare earth' magnets inside. These would be strong enough to provide a temporary handle on the upside of the blade.
Click to expand...

Giant magnets? How old a drive you talking about? And IBM 2314 from the 60's? :)
 
maybe not big magnets but place on on each ear and they will squeeze your skull together... great fun to play with... and back to the topic..
 
No, buddy- just a desktop hard drive. The magnets in there are tremendously strong! And I plan on making use of a collection of them I have for blade finishing.
Their usually about an inch by 1/2 inch by 3/32, shaped in a 1/6 circle arc. There are two, and a voice coil runs between them which is how the head is able to move across the platter at sixty time a second.

...You can also buy them online, in just about any shape. B ut since you're already "back yarding" the project, I figure it would be another neat thing to remember about way back when you made that knife, 20 years from now. ;)
 
Neodymium magnets are cool. :) I've been tempted to buy one of these for a loooong time. :eek:
magnetfull3.jpg
 
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