Mirror polish question with pics

[Livin' On The Edge]

I have been sharpening for about a year now, I use an edge pro up to 8000 grit (1micron) then strop on a 1/2 micron, then a 1/4 micron, and finally a plain leather strop. I am totally satisfied with the sharpness I am obtaining, but I have a question about the mirror finish part. I will attach a few photos at the bottom, but it was hard to get a picture of what I am talking about. My edges are mirror bright and reflective, I can see my own face in the easily. But when I turn the knife to a certain angle to the light, I can still see lights of "scratch lines" from sharpening. If I stop one last time on some metal polish or something, will that go away? Or is this normal? Thanks!
-Lane

http://s1083.photobucket.com/user/lane_johnson1/library/?view=recent&page=1

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

I have been sharpening for about a year now, I use an edge pro up to 8000 grit (1micron) then strop on a 1/2 micron, then a 1/4 micron, and finally a plain leather strop. I am totally satisfied with the sharpness I am obtaining, but I have a question about the mirror finish part. I will attach a few photos at the bottom, but it was hard to get a picture of what I am talking about. My edges are mirror bright and reflective, I can see my own face in the easily. But when I turn the knife to a certain angle to the light, I can still see lights of "scratch lines" from sharpening. If I stop one last time on some metal polish or something, will that go away? Or is this normal? Thanks!
-Lane

http://s1083.photobucket.com/user/lane_johnson1/library/?view=recent&page=1

That's likely the most common bugaboo of mirror-polishing. Most of the time the 'mirror' is only as good as the relative dimness of the light by which it's inspected. Sort of a slap in the face at times, when bringing up the lights and taking a 2nd look.

The coarser scratches need to be reduced & refined in earlier stages, before progressing to finer grits. Need to closely inspect the grind pattern under BRIGHT LIGHT at each & every grit step, to recognize what each looks like, and therefore know when it's been completely replaced by a finer scratch pattern in subsequent steps. If that's done well, those ugly coarse scratches will be completely gone when the mirror starts to come up. If not, the coarse scratches will only become more evident among the more polished portions of the bevels (as you've seen).


David