Preferred Finish for an EDC?

W

Will Leavitt

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Jul 28, 2006
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We're having a discussion amongst the makers and some people say 400x, some people (mainly me) say 600x and some are saying Scotchbrite. :confused: Now I'm talking about a handmade knife, of course if it's a custom knife you would select your preferred finish :p Unless it's a custom handmade and then......

What do you as a custom/handmade knife buyer and user prefer? I like a 600 because you can see the edge quench or temperline if there is one. I could see where a 400x is nice to have.
 
I love a nice hand rubbed (600 grit or more) finish but for a user I have found rough (400) or mirror polish is easier for me to keep lookinjg good. The rough finish is well hard to scratch up and the mirror polish if ya have a buffer is easy to buff back up. I am the first to admit a mirror polish is not exactly my cup of tea but on a user it keeps rust to a minimum and is more practical than most people know. For most of my edc I go with a blade a little on the rougher side then there is no worries.
 
If a blade is fully hard, a correctly done mirror polish is the toughest of all. Unless you have something like a titanium nitride finish applied. But on a softer blade, it doesn't hold up well at all.

M. Lovett
 
I'm thinking a Scotchbrite for the Burn Swinger in my future.
 
I think it's more in the quality of the job. A VERY well done job in as coarse as 320 can look great.

Tim Hancock goes to 400. Period. Look at his carbon blades :)

I've seen guys touting 1200 or 1500 grit finishes, but if poorly done, they look like crud.

All that said, my "standard" is usually 600. My Js knives were 1200 and 1500, except the polished one that was taken to 2000 and then polishing powders up to 0.3 micron (which is NOT a friendly user grade finish :D )
 
I like 400 for a user, as it's easier for me to clean up as necessary.
A well laid down 600 for a display piece. Higher can look really good, but the higher you go the more imperfections show and harder to keep nice.

I prefer damascus though. What a surprise. ;)
 
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