How To Polishing a blade?

[TomN]

Hello,
I'm new here and I'm also new to knife making but I wanted to ask for some advise and I was hoping someone here would be able to help me.

A few years ago I bought a machete on a trip to Costa Rica. It was pretty basic and I wanted to clean it up and install a nice wooden handle - the original was plastic. The blade itself has a lot of scratches in it and I wanted to clean it up and if possible get a nice polish on it. I'm thinking of sanding the blade with a belt sander (I have 60 and 120 grit paper) and then sanding it by hand with finer grit sand papers like 400, 600 and finally 1200. Finally maybe get some car polish and buff it out.
I'm wondering if I have planned is a good idea or if maybe there is a better (more correct) way to do this?

Here are a couple pictures of the blade as it is now...

 

[Grayzer86]

Hand sanding will be far better than a hand held belt sander if that’s what you mean. Also 60 or even 120 in a belt sander can make a real big mess quickly if you haven’t used it in that way before. If it were me, I would start hand sanding with 120 or something like that and progress up from there, like 220, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 12-1500. Alternating sanding directions each grit step to make sure you can see that you remove all visible marks from the previous grit. After that you could buff on a cloth wheel using green buffing compound.

 

[Hengelo_77]

youtube nick wheeler hand sanding

 

[Okie405]

Hand sanding will be far better than a hand held belt sander if that’s what you mean. Also 60 or even 120 in a belt sander can make a real big mess quickly if you haven’t used it in that way before. If it were me, I would start hand sanding with 120 or something like that and progress up from there, like 220, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 12-1500. Alternating sanding directions each grit step to make sure you can see that you remove all visible marks from the previous grit. After that you could buff on a cloth wheel using green buffing compound.

What this dude right here said and then after you finish up with 1500 wet move to a buffing wheel with green compound till you can use it as a mirror.

youtube nick wheeler hand sanding

These videos show you how to actually do the sanding, its not just grab a piece of sandpaper and start rubbing like you might think.

 

[john april]

i would go 600 or 1000 grit satin lengthwise on the blade. if you take the time to do mirror, you will not be happy when you chop some trees and the blade gets stained from sap and whatnot on the first day. ( i am assuming it is high carbon, not stainless) the satin is easy to touch up. you can put some tape on the guard and hand pull a new looking finish in a few minutes. here is my "landscaping bowie" in 1084. all it cuts is wood, brush, and grapevines. just want you to see the staining before you spend all that time polishing DSC_0241 by john april, on Flickr

 

[TomN]

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate your guy's input. I will definitely check out the sanding video from Nick Wheeler and am now leaning towards a satin finish for the reasons John mentioned.