Mirror polish?

B

Bob V.

Joined
Dec 27, 2004
Messages
4
1st Q. OK, I have tried alot of things to get that nice mirror polish on my knives but I have found it to be costly and timely :mad: What do you do to get that nice mirror polish in a short amount of time with out going bank rupt with buying those lousy micron belts. And YES, I did call them LOUSY! They dont last long at all?

2nd Q. You have 2 machined surfaces wood or metel. They are perfectly flat and you need to glue them buggers together. You dont want any gaps at all....NONE! So, what kind of miracle glue are you going to use to PERMENTLY KEEP them together??.......???....???? :confused: And yes, I have made sure all surfaces are clean and scuffed up so that the glue can get a good bite. :D Below is one of my knives that I'm concerned about. I dont want any of those pieces in the middle to pop out. Thanks.

Bob V.

vinyardknives8mk.jpg
 
Mirror polishing: After grinding to nearly finished dimensions with 60 grit, use a fresh 400 grit belt to erase the 60 grit scratches, then a fresh 800 grit belt to erase the 400 scratches. Hand rub lengthwise with 1200 grit wet-or-dry silicon carbide paper using WD-40 as a lubricant. Make sure you have all the 800 grit scratches out. Then buff with a sewn buff and pink compound. Finish up with a loose buff and pure green chrome compound to eliminate any cloudiness.
I've been using this sequence for about 6 months with exellent results. With a little practice, it takes very little time. By the way, thanks to Jeff Higgins for the hand rub with WD-40 idea -- it helps avoid the problem of the grain showing up in the steel, which had been a big problem with ATS-34 of late.

Securing the small pieces: Just an idea, but how about a pin lenthwise through the two stainless (?) spacers and the turquoise to lock them together, then hidden pins under the turquoise and through the tang?
 
I did a lot of handles with a half dozen or more different matirials, stacked on the tang. I was installing horizontal pins through the material, along with hidden pins. The whole stack was glued up with Brownells Acra Glas Gel. I would end up with this big ol' stack of oversized stuff on the tang to grind down. We are talking silver,brass, wood, antler, and such all glued together. Some of the brass was thin shim stock. Then, I would take it to the bandsaw and cut off lengthwise pieces of excess material to save some grinding. The scraps ended up being thin strips of all the materials glued edge to edge. The dang thin scrap strips wouldn't break. That Acra Glas made me realize just how strong the 'glas really is. The horizontal pins weren't even necessary. I carry small scrap strips to show just how dang strong the Acra Glas is when talking to customers. The things paramount to strong bonding are properly roughing up the surfaces to be glued and absolutely removing all oil and foreign material.
 
I've been using polyurethane glue recently. Seems to work fine but I can't say how long it will last. It's waterproof and no mixing.
 
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