Polishing of the pivot?

[redsst]

I have decided to follow the advice of several fellow forum members and polish the washers and bearing on my Seb. So I picked up a bottle of Flitz. My question is how do you do the polishing? Do you use a Dremel?
If so, how do you hold it? Do you just hold the Dremel in one hand and the washer in the other? Or do you put the washers in a vise...or the Dremel in a vise? Just seems like it can be an awkward process so I curious how people here do it.

 

[tsiloics]

I wouldn't get a power tool anywhere near those parts. Finger pressure on a well-supported cloth or piece of leather would be my approach - like stropping, only on the flat.

 

[Gary W. Graley]

tsiloics is zactly right, bring no power to bear on those parts!

What I do, is use a flat Spyderco UltraFine sharpening stone
I press down with my finger and just move in circles around the
stone until any uneveness is removed and you end up with a
highly polished side of the washer.

Note, you need only do this to ONE side of the washer, the side
that will face the tang of the knife, and you will NOT be removing
much if any material.

As to the pivot, I would just clean that and then lube everything
with the lube you buy from CRK, in fact that lube makes reassembling
much easier as you sandwich the washers and pivot spacer back on
to the knife, and carefully slide it back in between the handle slabs.

G2

 

[redsst]

I mean a Dremel with a buffing wheel attached. I have read where several other forumites have done this before.

Gary, it seems like the sharpmaker stone would remove more metal than a cloth buffing wheel would?

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Not at all, it's the UltraFine stone, feels like GLASS
it burnishes/polishes, does a very nice job
the thing about using a flat stone, you get an EVEN
polish acrosss the washer as you allow the stone to
support the thin washer. Edited to add that doing this
you are evening out the surface of the washer, so it will
be a smooth polished surface against the tang of the knife.
When you make your first pass across the stone, take a
look at the washer and you'll see where there are hits and misses,
high and low spots.

I've done this many times, and the results are an extremely
smooth opening knife, just as I say, only do the one side
that faces the tang, no need to polish the scale side,
as that will be fixed against the scale.
G2

 

[tsiloics]

Think twice/cut once. It's a lot easier to take it off than it is to put it back.

 

[Justabuyer]

I place my washers on a smooth hard piece of leather and swirl them around on some very fine abrasive powder. 12,000 grit or so. About 30 secounds of this polished the washer nicely.