Polishing, tips?

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Buck268

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Nov 5, 2006
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Well, I've started polishing the 440 (A, probably) blade of my CCC bali (Cheetah) for some practice before I commit to dealing with my S30V Native (which I'm finding less and less satisfaction in owning). Anyways, its coming along good with wet dry paper. Started last night spent maybe an hour with 220 grit and I almost have the extremely slight hollow grind to flat with all the machine marks gone. Except at the base of the blade.

I've been sanding longitudinally and it barely gets the base; so I switched to vertically (spine-edge wise) and thats helping at the base, although I'll probably have to spend a lot of time fixing those marks (either horz. at the base or vert. the whole blade). Are there any tips to sanding and polishing the base more efficiently?
 
get some sand paper start at 200 grit and work up to 800-1000 or so. after that you can start using a buffer and various rogues/polishes. sand in 1 direction. use a piece of glass and sand paper for the flats and a wooden stick wrapped in sand paper for the grinds. also s30v is real hard to get a good polish
 
Yeah, I've been using my carborundum stone for flats with sandpaper wrapped around it. So far I've got the entire blade done up to 400 and just picked up 800, 1500 and 2000. I know those are some big jumps, but this is soft steel so it should be alright. I think this thing will look sweet flippin it around with a mirror polish! Now I just need to replace the hardware in the handles with some quality pieces and maybe, just maybe some PB washers. It should swing like a champ at under half the price of even a typhoon kit!


WOW! Its taking on a mirror finish (not perfect, but quite impressive) after only going up to 600 grit wet! This thing is gonna look good. I'm thinking maybe I'll leave a brushed finish on the flats towards the spine (its a saber grind) and mirror up the bevels and actual spine, leaving the stock finish on the swedge. Well, this one may be easy, but I have a feeling my Native will take FOREVER if I even do it...
 
Buck268 said:
Well, I've started polishing the 440 (A, probably) blade of my CCC bali (Cheetah) for some practice before I commit to dealing with my S30V Native (which I'm finding less and less satisfaction in owning).
Click to expand...

I haven't heard many negative reports on the S30V Native. What don't you like about it? I have one (from WalMart) and it has become my favorite EDC. It takes and holds a good edge, is a good size, and locks up tighter than a padlock. The only downside for me is the swedge makes it hard for me to keep the knife flat while sharpening it on my new EdgePro Apex - but that is probably just due to my relative inexperience with my new sharpener.
 
Well, it will take a nice razor keen edge on the 1200 grit DMT stones, but it just doesn't hold it for anything. Had a lot of chipping issues for a while but that seems to be subsiding. I'm trying some various microbevel angles now, putting on the edge with 600 grit DMT and throwing a steep micro bevel on with my washita, came out good, we'll see how it holds up. I can't say its a bad knife, but for all the hyp S30V has, to me its just not up to par. And much harder to sharpen than some of my more traditional steels (I gotta find me a nice 1095 or 51200 (thats the one the beckers use, right?) one hand folder..).

I'd really like to polish that blade up good as I find the machine marks on it hideous and horribly deep, and I might one day. but with S30V's poor grindability that will take a LONG time, especially with the hollow grinds on the Native... And then there is the issue of not being able to dissassemble it to get the tang polished, but I suppose thats fairly minor.


Anyways, I'm having trouble getting agood even finish with 1500 grit wetdry paper, but I suspect its because I jumped from 600 grit to 1500 grit (thought I had 800 but it was P800).
 
Ah! I see a big difference in our treatments of the S30V Native. I mentioned on another thread that I polish the edge of my carving knives to a mirror finish, but that is not so for my EDC knives. I like a toothier edge on general use EDC's so I never go to the finer grits to try and achieve a mirror finish.
 
Well, I'd hardly say the 1200 grit DMT leaves a smooth finish, and although the 600 grit is a common one for people to use, I have a hard time getting a good sharp edge with it. I've found the washita to give a great combination of push cut and slicing ability. Maybe not for a dedicated rope cutter or something, but I'm not a dedicated rope cutter.
 
I've polished up alot of S30V blades. Just take it thru a progression of sandpaper grits finishing with 2000. Try not to skip a grit in between. I usually finish with Spyderco's Ultrafine grit bench stone. They're beautiful when polished, and from my experience, the hold the edge very well. BTW, once you have the mirror, they strop back to scary sharp very fast when they start to dull.

NJ
 
Well, I'm talking about polishing the entire blade, not just the edges... But for my general EDC I don't like polished edges; they are less versitile than one with some bite to it.
 
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