Recommendation? polishing out scratches from an old Traditional blade?

[JimChall]

Ladies and gents, our apologies.

Due to technical difficulties beyond our control, the original thread,

"Did your Traditional knife get a workout today?"

has become discombobulated beyond all recognition, you should pardon the technical jargon. It had to be moved offline. At the moment, I cannot even find the original post. All we can do is start over again.

So,
What did you do with your traditional knife today?

I used my Queen mountain man to cut some twine for staking plants in the garden.

I couldn't find a more specific thread...so here goes...
I recently acquired an old 1971 or 2 (dots are hidden somewhat) Case Cheetah with swing guard. It has been lightly sharpened. Not enough to hurt the factory edge, but enough to leave scratches on one side of the blade...I hate the polishing wheel. And so I wondered if anyone has had experience removing scratches and polishing smaller blades by hand. Maybe using a Jeweler's Cloth or similar ? Again...hate the polishing wheel and don't trust 'sand paper'. Thanks for any advice.

 

[kreisler]

Since i have an internet connection and there are people who read me, i am an expert at hand polishing

you could use a dremel

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

If the scratches are very deep or coarse, it'll likely require at least some sanding in a grit sequence to fully remove them for subsequent polishing. Simple polishing won't likely be aggressive enough to do the job by itself. If the scratches are deep, then polishing alone would likely make them even more obvious as the adjacent smooth areas become even shinier and bright.

Looking online at images of a 1972(ish) Case Cheetah, it looks like they used a sabre grind with flat primary bevels below the shoulders of the sabre grind. If those wide bevels are indeed flat, that could make sanding a lot easier. Lay the bevel flush to sandpaper held very tightly & flush over a hard backing like glass, stone, or hardwood. Then move the blade over the sandpaper in a linear direction perpendicular to the edge of the blade. Starting somewhere around 400-grit or so, do this through a sequence of grits (400 > 600 > 800 > 1000/1200 > 2000). Somewhere in the 1000 - 2000 range, the finish should begin to approach a mirror shine. Should be mirrored enough at 2000 to then follow with polishing.

BEFORE doing anything, it'd be helpful to post some pics of the blade and the scratches. Depending on how rough it looks (or not), it may make a big difference in what approach to take. No point in sanding more aggressively, if the pics indicate it's not quite so bad as it sounds. You'll always get better advice with good pics.

Edited to add:
I'm also seeing some stainless steel versions in 1971/2 vintage. Those ones appear to have a hollow grind, and not the sabre grind seen on the carbon steel versions of the same vintage. Again, this is a good reason to see some pics, so we know what approach to take.