mirror polishing damascus... WOW!

[J. Neilson]

Thanks to Dan, Bill & Nick for the thip on mirror polishing my damascus blades before etching. Wow!!! what a difference. This is definitely the way I'll be doing them all in the future. Thanks again, guys.

 

[Dan Gray]

NICE any time J
how was your time?

 

[RHINOKNIVES]

great pattern and over all knife!

 

[SPryor Knives]

Nice looking knife J.. Just curious, did you use *paint shop pro* to put that pic together..? Thanks.

 

[J. Neilson]

It didn't take that long. I don't remember the exact time but, it went pretty quick. Also, it is only a 3 1/4" blade, not like that 6" bowie I did before. Now that I've done a good mirror polish, I'm really not too crazy about it. So many little scratches can show up just from cleaning the blade. I think that takes away from the mirror finish alot. Don't get me wrong, I'm going to keep mirror polishing my damascus blades prior to etching (hell, on the high points of the blade above, I can still see my own reflection) but, in general I think I'll stick to my satin finishes. I will try my hand at hand rubbing next, though. Any tips?

Steve: PhotoImpression 2000

 

[Dan Gray]

They all have their place. J
I'm getting a lot of orders for mirrored but these
will be in the case stuff

The big thing on users is it helps in keeping the maintenance down
for the customer
on the high carbons, 01 the 10 hundreds ecct. I think you know that anyway,,
food for thought though

I had a customer I made a knife for a while back show me
a Randall he bought and it had rusted and he didn't understand why?
I told him why,
He should have been informed of the why's, if's, do's and don'ts
when he bought it.

 

[misque]

Man, you guys floor me with these stunning knives ya'll are turning out.
Gorgeous knife J.!

 

[ddavelarsen]

J that's beautiful! Very powerful pattern, a real standout. I also like the way your handles are developing, they seem to have a shape related to Terry Primos' handles, which I think are the cat's pjs. I like it! I'm pretty sure you still have my address, send it on over and I'll put it in my new Kennedy toolbox with its Ringtail brother.

Dave

 

[Will52100]

She looks great! What's the handle material, and the damascus mix?

 

[clint c]

Beutiful work, J. Funny this should come up. I was going to try mirror polishing my next damascus one as well. Some polish, etch, boil in H20 and baking soda, then polish again. The boiling is supposed to keep the dark stuff in the low spots, but it appears that step may not be necessary by the looks of your blade.

Clint Chisan

 

[John Andrews]

J., WOW!!!!

 

[J. Neilson]

The handle wood is walnut burl. The damascus is 600 layers of 1095, 5160, mild & pure nickle. I etched with a 1/3 mix of ferric chloride and distilled water. I etched it for 10 min, took it out cleaned it and put it back in for another 10 min.

 

[Nathan House]

Nice work,also are they PP quills in the picture?

 

[Bruce Bump]

Nice piece, very nice piece,

 

[southriv]

Superb ! hope to see some of these new ones in person.

Bob

 

[J. Neilson]

Thanks all. I have to give Keith Bagley www.oldpineforge.com some credit here. He's the one who taught me damascus making this past summer. Keith's not much of a computer guy but he's one hell of a smith. Yep, they're PP quills. Coop's helped me out alot with my photo skills. I had to leave one corner of the picture bare for the sheath Tess is making for it. She'll probably make a sheath that out does the knife, like normal.

 

[Frank Niro]

That's a nifty looking knife, and I love that wide pattern . Frank.

 

[B . Buxton]

J. glad you like the mirror polished etch, we all have different ideas of what the end results should be, but by the looks of your knife I think you've changed a few opinions about mirror finishing before etching, Beautiful Job.

Bill