Polishing question

Got it. Sorry I wasn't there, School got canceled for the day so I checked my thread and went back to bed. It IS possible that the heat treat is a little wonky, I know almost nothing about such things and it just seems weird that there's a hazy spot that won't polish out when everything else came out with no problem at all. In that case I suppose I'll have to go back a step and dull the finish a little so that you just can't see it. It's a little more mirror like than I thought anyway. To answer your question, yes the blade is hard, I tried using a file to put a beginning edge on it and the file wasn't cutting very well at all. It almost looked like it was polishing it's way through so the blade is pretty hard.
 
Go back to a lower grit and remove all the "smudges" and remaining heat treat scale. Work your way up in the grits, then start with the scotchbrite. The SB pads are not going to be removing much material at all, you need a better base of abrasives to start with. I start with VERY low grit ceramic belts, and work my way up all the way to finishing belts. If you buy a belt sander, don't try and flat grind against the platen unless you buy a REAL grinder, the 30 dollar harbor freight rigs are going to give you horrible chatter if you try and grind against the platen.
 
If I buy a belt sander it'll be only to put finish on a knife. I won't be doing any real grinds with it.
 
Even refinishing a knife against the platen (say a flat ground knife) is going to chatter on the cheapo 1x30s. To save you some money and headache, i'll also tell you that the SB belts will not work on the cheap HF sanders either, they're too thick and you will just hear the motor run.
 
Well what type of belt sander do I need? I don't want a big heavy duty one, all I want is to be able to finish blades. Suggestions?
 
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