Polishing phosphor bronze washers and powdered graphite

Hairlesstwinkie

Hairlesstwinkie

Joined
Feb 4, 2013
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So while I was stropping my knife, I noticed that my Dauntless is getting a little gritty. So it's time to disassemble the knife to clean it out. When I took it apart, I saw all the lint and dust collected inside the knife as it's suppose to have. I then noticed that my washers are very dull orangy-bronze. An idea came to me about polishing my washers. I figured that if anything it should help the action. I used the 4 different compounds that I got from stropman on my strop to polish my washers. When it's nice and shiny, I put it back in my knife with some powdered graphite and very little bit of fluorinated grease. I thought that my Dauntless was smooth before, but now it's on a whole another level. It's even smoother than my Sebenza. I did the same treatment to my Sebenza and it made it smoother too! That's when I had realized that I should have done a before and after vid of the action.
 
And the very first time ANY debris-no matter how small, gets into the pivot, all the work you did will be for nothing.
 
Hairlesstwinkie said:
I put it back in my knife with some powdered graphite and very little bit of fluorinated grease. I thought that my Dauntless was smooth before, but now it's on a whole another level. It's even smoother than my Sebenza. I did the same treatment to my Sebenza and it made it smoother too!
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Fluorinated grease is used on the Sebenzas but I never heard of the two being combined.

Bill DeShivs said:
And the very first time ANY debris-no matter how small, gets into the pivot, all the work you did will be for nothing.
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Is that what's being alluded to here? The combination of the grease and graphite working together to attract the grit/gunk?
 
I like to polish the little scratches out on my Chinese 12k razor hone. Then I use Mothers Mag and Aluminum polish to shiny it up. Then a little dab of nano-oil. Its like hot butter after that
 
I have polished washers with 2000 grit sandpaper but just recently had some good success with a foam nail buffing block my mom had. The problem I run into is that my fingertips get destroyed by the abrasive because my fingers stick through the hole in the washers.

A tumbler and extremely fine media could work. Anybody tried that?
 
What is being alluded is that all that polishing will not last any time.
 
Stand Straight said:
Fluorinated grease is used on the Sebenzas but I never heard of the two being combined.
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It is a weird combination, but that's what experimenting is all about right? I figured that the graphite will still be worn down over time so the fluorinated grease is to help the initial actions.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
What is being alluded is that all that polishing will not last any time.
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Excellent point. But I figure, I'm already taking the time to take everything apart to clean it, adding the extra 3 minutes of work is worth it to me. My vantage was a little rough opening to begin with but she's much happier now :)
 
This probably sounds crazy but when I get a a new knife I take my 1micron stropping paste and put just a dab on my washers, use the knife for about a week take apart clean strop the washers and OMG it's a super fast way for me to break in and it also helps polish the blade area and handle area where the washers sit it's worked for me!
 
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I just rub them on a 8000 grit with slurry on it until the rough edges on washer are gone. I use about a feather weight in pressure.
 
Double sticky back tape on a small flat surface will hold the washer in place. Now you can hold this in your hand and very lightly make a figure 8 on the polishing surface until any high spots and a polished surface is attained. Using the figure 8 method helps to apply pressure evenly to the entire washer surface in every direction. Use care to remove as little material as possible. A knife like the Sebanza would not function properly if washer was made to thin due to the tight tolerances. Just my 0.02 worth.
 
I've used 2k wet/dry to polish the washers on my 566 several weeks ago and they have remained smooth though I EDC it every day and use it every day in a paper mill. It does get a bit of dust and grit in it but has not done any harm to the polished washers and it still opens very smoothly.
 
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