Mirror Polishing

Pete1977

Pete1977

Joined
Apr 15, 2002
Messages
3,376
I have been searching the forums for the last twenty five minutes or so for a thread I JUST read this morning on mirror polishing, and for some reason, I can't find it. I thought it was in the blade discussion forum, no luck there, then I figured it might have moved to the tool shed, but no luck. So I did a search, nothing. I might just be blind but I have the day off tomorrow and want to do some tinkering. I have a few projects in mind like making a SS police "grippier" (I need to get a hold of a used PE one first :)) and mirror polishing a few blades.

I don't have a police to dremel up yet, so mirror polishing it is!

How would I go about doing this to a bead blasted blade, like a kershaw vapor? what would I need, sandpaper grit, polishing paste, dremel bit, etc, and where would I find the more exotic needs for a project like this?

thanks

pete
 
My mistake :)

I didn't mean bead blasted. I meant satin finished blade. sorry

pete
 
You can get it close to mirror by hand polishing. A dremel will not give you a quality mirror finish on anything larger than a 1/2" square. This requires real buffing equipment and experience. Anyone who tells you otherwise doesn't know what they are talking about. I do.
First, remove the blade from the knife.
Start with 600 grit autobody paper. Sand lengthwise until you remove all the satin finish. Use shaped sanding blocks to get into the concave and hard to reach areas. Use a flat sanding block on the flat areas on the blade. Do the flats last on each grit sequence.
Then do the same with 800 or 1000 grit paper.
Then use 1500 grit.
Then 2000 grit.
Each grit size will require longer sanding periods.
If you see any marks left from a previous grit, keep sanding until they are gone. Do not go to a finer grit until you are sure.
After 2000 grit the blade will be near mirror polish.
At this point, you can use Flitz or Simichrome to brighten the blade.
Be very careful not to cut yourself. Intentional dulling of the edge is a good idea.
Take ibuprofen for your sore arm.
Bill
 
BTW- the autobody paper is available in Walmart's automotive department.
Bill
 
Excellent information. It worked like a charm.

I started actually with 220 grit, then 400, 800, 1000 and finally 2000, as these were the only grits available at walmart. The 220 probably can be phased out though. And for the final polishing, I could not find flitz or simichrome, but I did manage to get some mothers metal polish, and that works superbly! I practiced on a crappy winchester to get a feel for each step and an idea of how long it would take, and for my first project, i polished the blade of my brother's small gerber keychain knife. now to go through my box o' knives to see what comes next!

pete
 
I have gone on a spree of mirror polishing this weekend, on some of my lower end users. I did a gerber silver knight, which came out beautifully, a small schrade uncle henry stockman which took a very very shiny polish, although some of the use scratches were very deep, and a camillus yello jaket canoe, which was easy because of the flat grind broad spear point blade. With all these knives, I finished with the 2000 grit sandpaper, and then used stainless buffing compound with the dremel, followed by the dremel polishing compound, and finally jewellers rouge. I cleaned the blade up with the mothers polish, and came out with a very close to factory mirror polish. Now all of the used scratched knives I found are like owning totally new, mirror polished knives!

pete
 
This seems interesting, can you post some pics please? The before -> after would be nice too :)
 
SanShou said:
This seems interesting, can you post some pics please? The before -> after would be nice too :)
Click to expand...


Yea this is an interesting thread,, I would like to see some pics too....
 
it is a little too late for before pics on the ones I have done, but I have multiples of some models. I will try to do a before and after, or post a pic this afternoon or evening.

pete
 
I have found that Dialux grey rouge works well for mirror finishing after sanding to about the 1000 grit mark. I know you can get it in the States, and here in New Zealand.
 
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