Polishing a blade

[HKG36]

Whats a good way of polishing a blade after youve made a knife?

What methods do you use?

 

[ANGRYMOB]

Seeing as how I just spent all day on this very thing, the answer is relatively easy, alot of elbow grease, more patience than you think you have. Whatever grit belt you use for final grind, say if it's a 400, start with 220 grit wet/dry, use a piece of wood or another equally solid object, I used a file, and as you graduate to each successive grit, go horizontal/vertical/horizontal/vertical. I would suggest 220 to 320 to 400 to 600 to 1000 to 1200 to 1500 to 2000 grit for a mirror polish, you need to secure the knife in a vise with leather jaws or something to protect the handle if it is already attached and DO NOT GO TO NEXT GRIT UNTIL YOU HAVE SANDED ALL THE SANDING LINES FROM THE LAST, and you will have a beautifully polished blade. Some people also buff after, but I don't have a buffer and my blade came out sweet.

 

[rebeltf]

Successive grits of emery cloth/sand paper , if I want to go that extra step I can always buff with my dremel and some compound.

Learnt a lot on here , found out it is way easier to wrap your cloth around something when your polishing , for uniformness. i.e a flat paint stick or maybe even an worn out file.
Sometimes though I do it freehand , depending on what i'm doing.
I always finish up with some Flitz polish http://www.flitz.com/ , brings out that purtiness

 

[clw3]

How do you folks access and clean up the scratches up next to the plunge? I am having trouble cleaning up those areas, especially when sanding perpendicular to the plunge line.

 

[Sweany]

sratches in the plunge

sanding blocks.
cut a block of hardwood at a sharp 45 degres thsat gets it right up to the plunge. I use wood clothepins cut this way for small areas the paper wears fast and the clothes pins makes it easy to change

 

[howiesatwork]

I agree on the plunge sanding, just don't sand across the blade, as you might find a line sanded into the flats where the side of the block opposite the plunge is...
Does that make sense?

 

[jonvalblades]

i think it might be a bad idea to wrap sandpaper around a file.
I was just recently doing the same thing and had a blade up to 1500 and the corner of the file bit through the paper and made a huge scratch the whole way down the blade
i have heard other people mention that granate slabs are useful but i have not tryed that myself yet.

It is also easier to sand in diffrent directions/angles each grit and then check in a bright light for any leftover grit scratches

hope this healps,
Jonathan

 

[Gossman Knives]

I use to buff my blades on a sisal/cloth buff with compound. Now I clean up the blade after heat treat on a 220 ceramic belt the finish it on a scotch brite belt leaving a satin finish.
Scott