mirror polished papoose

[J. Neilson]

I finally got the mirror polishing figured out. I've been playing with it off and on (I normally do satin finishes) but, since it seems more of the knives I'm making are ending up in "collections?" I figured I'd better get it together with that nice shiney finish. Boy, does that add some time to your knifemaking.

http://www.mountainhollow.net/papooseneckknives.htm

 

[Bruce Evans]

The mirror polish looks great,so does the knife.And I know what you mean about it adding more time to the finished blade
Bruce

 

[Dan Gray]

Nice J
yup add more time all right..
are you and Tess
going to the mass show this week-end ,,today or tomorrow?

 

[J. Neilson]

Thanks.

Dan, I didn't even know there was a show in Mass. this weekend. It's not on the NCCA calender, is it under soneone else?

 

[Dan Gray]

It's a gun & knife show this weekend in Marlboro, MA, right up the street from where the NCCA have their shows. It is at the Royal Trade Plaza

 

[indian george]

Shine, shine, shine miss one stroke your white a$$ will be mine. Looking good.

 

[J. Neilson]

Dan-didn't even know about it. Got a spare flyer you can send me?

George-

O.k. Now that I've figured out how to do this, more than likely, the hard way, does anyone know of any tutorials on mirror polishing (or wants to tell me their method). I'd like to compare different methods. I checked out the one on CKD by Rob Brown but, it was a bit out there for me, no offense. One thing I love about knife making, and I say this constantly, is that there is always something different to try.

 

[Dan Gray]

Sorry I don't have a flyer,
I got the word from Jim Siska..

J I take the grind down to at least 15 micron
then hand sand first with 1200 grit then 1500 then litely buff with white rouge then just a little green.

 

[rlinger]

Darn right it puts extra time into it! I like the satin for usage and the shine for looks.

Roger

 

[ddavelarsen]

Man you are right! The extra time does pay off though, the work looks more "professional." That papoose is great! I like the long slim blade.

I don't know any easy way to do a mirror polish. Since Bruce Evans posted the palm sander trick for hand rubbing, I've been running every finish down to 1500 with that, then either buffing in the mirror polish with pink or hand rubbing in the 1500 finish.

That only works well for large blades with big flats. For smaller knives and hollow ground blades I've used Steve Johnson's cork belt method with mixed success.

There you take it to 400 (maybe 220) on the grinder, then switch to a 400 cork belt impregnated with green chrome, then 600 cork with green chrome. Then polish out on the buffer, I usually use pink. I only have had mixed results, seem to leave some 220 scratches behind every time... I seem to remember Steve goes straight from 60 to 400 though. (Maybe that's where I'm screwing up, the 60 marks would be more obvious among the 400 than the 220 are. Maybe? Dunno. I'm gonna try that next.)

But J, you make more knives in a month than I've made my whole life, so you should be telling me how it's done! You said you must be doing the "hard way," care to ellaborate?

 

[J. Neilson]

Ok Dave, put me on the spot. I did my third mirror blade today. It was a 5 1/2" bowie style blade with file work and a false bevel on the clip. The damn thing took me four hours to mirror polish!!! From heat treat I took the blade from 50 grit to 220, 400, 600 (this is where I normally would stop and use a grey scotchbrite belt) then 800. Then I sat my butt in front of a buffing wheel (loading it continuously with green chrome polish). About 3 1/2 hours later I moved to another wheel loaded with Matchless white to finish it up. I still have a tiny bit of scrathing that seems to be from the polish (the wheels were clean and I tried pink "no scratch" too, with the same results)and also some I guess you'd call it wave in the finish. The wave I mean is not a grinding flaw but, more like scratches that were streched out like rubber, if that makes sense? The blade is a real mirror. in certain lighting you can't see anything but yourself and in others you an see the above mentioned micro-scratches and wave. Any tips or comment would be appreciated. The things I mentioned above I've seen on other makers mirror polished blades, so I'm not sure if that's the way it is or I need to do more.

 

[Dan Gray]

J
You are buffing way to long (to get out grind marks,)
You're buffing your grind valleys as well as your grind peaks,
it's like record groves turning into waves, you need to remove
the groves and peaks ( grind marks) before buffing..
what I'm getting here from you is
your heat treating at 50 grit, is that right??
I'd finish to 400 grit then heat treat, then start at 220 after
the heat treat, then go to a 30 micron or equivalent
then to 15 micron then you can go to a 9 1/2 micron after also..
now between each grit make sure all the grind marks are removed
from the last grit( very important)you'll have to look very close.
Then hand sand 1000 or 1200 grit to 1500 grit then you can
lightly buff with the white.
if you use the green to much your going to
cut little divots in the finish cutting out the softer
steel from between the grains.
a 5" blade should buff out in about 5 minutes or less IF
your finish is right from sanding.

sand paper is a lot cheaper then buffing for 3-4 hours and still not getting what you want for a finish.
A little trick I do is, I do the hollow or bevels(in a flat grind) first,, THEN flat sand the sides THEN finish them, this keeps the
transitional lines crisper..
I hope this helps you cut your time down....

 

[ddavelarsen]

Dan that rings a perfect bell for me. One thing I've always heard and never done is go back to 220 after the HT at 400. Since I keep finding what I'm sure are 220 scratches I'm going to try this on my next blade.

Dave

 

[John Andrews]

I've been using diamond compound goo in syrnge tubes for years,'bout the quickest stuff you can imagine! My first knives I ground from industrial hacksaw blades.HARD HARD HARD! diamond compound was only thing that worked,really did put mirror polish on.It didn't take long to get away from that and go to proper stuff to grind,but still use a little diamond compound on occasions.

 

[Dan Gray]

Dave
I go back to the 220 because you have to get that outer
bad layer off the blade and the 220 will do it pretty fast
and if you don't get this outer ( I call dead skin )layer off
you'll get a cloud you can't seem to ever polish out.
going to the 400 grit then heat treating lets me see what
I've done and adds less possible stress cracks from the
deeper grind marks in the H/treating.

I started 3 knives today 2 in 154CM
( rough from the foundry )
and one in O1,I should have them done Thursday.
(of course with some time used in messing with this Dang putter too )
they will have bolsters of S/S on both ends of the handle front ones
dove-tailed and all mirror polished with in-house heat-treating.
if I spend to long polishing I'm loosing time on
making another one. I love My job... sorry I meant FUN

 

[simko]

LOLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLOLOLOOLOLLOL "PAPOOSE" !!!!!!!!!! AHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAA LOL! thats a nice knife but still, the sound of the word papoose, LOL!!!! no offense to whatever the background is of the word, what is it also? its a nice knigfe

 

[J. Neilson]

The name for this style knife came from the "papoose" style neck sheaths Tess was making for them. Then I had some customers that asked for a few with belt sheaths but, since it started that way, the name still stood.
Dan, I'll give that a try. I guess I'm trying to buff out too much hard, raised steel?

 

[J. Neilson]

The name for this style knife came from the "papoose" style neck sheaths Tess was making for them.

Then I had some customers that asked for a few with belt sheaths but, since it started that way, the name still stood.

Dan, I'll give that a try. I guess I'm trying to buff out too much hard, raised steel?