Question for the Experts.

E

Erik Fritz

Joined
Aug 6, 2002
Messages
1,115
Why hand rubbed finnish on a blade instead of mirror polish? mirror finnished resists corosion a little better from what i hear just something that has been nagging at the back of my head as of late. Most of the higher end knives that i have seen or handled be it forged or stock removal seem to be hand rubbed is there a reason?
 
Scratches and finger prints will be more visible on a mirror finish.

A mirror finish can be, and often is hand rubbed. I assume you mean a hand rubbed satin finish? I prefer the look of a nice hand rubbed satin finish that gets close to a mirror finish, but not quite. Maybe up to about 1000 grit.

A hand rubbed mirror finish will take longer and cost more than a satin finish.
 
A hand rubbed finish just looks beter than a mirror finish IMHO. Most of the customs now days have a hand rubbed finish but mirror polish used to be the norm back in the day. They're still a few top makers doing the mirror thing and doing good with it.
 
I think a handrubbed satin finish looks better, plus it doesn't show scratches as easily. With a mirror polish, any minor imperfection in the surface shows up as clear as day.
 
I really like a hand rubbed satin finish as well.That being said I have a few fixed blades that are mirror finished and with the materials I think they look great too. I had to add an expert I am not:)
 
thanks for the replies everyone the reason i am wondering is up to now most of my work has been driveing towards mirror finnishes but talking to some of the current JS and MS it seems that most collectors and JS judgeing committee look for a hand rubbed finnish so am working on perfecting that. Just wanted some insight from the collectors and makers that hang out here.....again thank you all for the replies.......Erik
 
Mirror polish is passe' in my opinion.Especially fixed blades.:barf:
Own a couple of autos that are mirror polished.Old school stuff.
Nice hand rubbed is way cool.
Randy
 
Hand rubbed satin finishes are done by hand.

Mirror polishes are finished on a buffing wheel. Therein lies the difference.


Perception is everything.
 
I have seen some hand rubbed finishes that I would swear are a mirror polish. I know one guy that will take his hand rubbed finish all the way to 6000 grit.

One thing I have noticed about buffing wheel finishes is that the edges of the bevels can sometimes look smoothed out. I much prefer these lines to very sharply defined.
 
I much prefer a hand rubbed satin finish, but, there are some knives that to me would look out of place if they didn't have a mirror finish, loveless style fixed blades come to mind. I'm not saying I wouldn't want a loveless style knife with a satin finish, but it wouldn't look quite as authentic to me.
 
As a gunsmith, I see metal that hasn't been thorougly polished as a half a$$ed job.
I want every single grind mark gone before the metal is " finished". This includes 400-800-1000 grit marks. I dont want to see it !
Acid can give you " satin" after the metal is properly finished.'
I s'pose this comes from working on high end custom guns more than ' users" so mirror finish is stuck in my brain.

I sometimes had people tell me my bluing work was too shiny.

"Take it to Maaco ! " :barf: :barf: :D
 
in my opinion the term "mirror polish" is often misused in relation to knives. i have a very nice loveless style hunter by john young. the blade was carefully ground and then the blade with its remaining grind marks was polished, probably on a buffing wheel (?). this results in a shiny surface that is not entirely smooth, as the marks, although polished, are still there.. i wouldn't be happy with a mirror like that!

i have seen only one real mirror polished blade, it was made by the german maker richard hehn. the perfectly flat ground blade was meticulously polished, there were no marks or scratches on the surface. in watchmaking we often use 1'200 grit "tetrabor" (boron carbide) on glass to flaten a surface (that means you REMOVE steel from the piece) and then "diamantine" (Al2O3) in an ethereal oil on a special tin plate to polish (that means you MOVE the steel from the "peaks" into the "valleys"). a special type of diamantine consists only of round instead of rough edged grains. this results in a perfectly polished surface, but it takes a lot of time and a very clean working environment. a blade like that would probably cost several times as much as a so called mirror polished blade.

brightred
 
Don Maxwell is one of the best at polishing blades.Sometimes satins the flats and mirror polishes the curves.Drop dead beautiful.
Randy
 
nifrand said:
Don Maxwell is one of the best at polishing blades.Sometimes satins the flats and mirror polishes the curves.Drop dead beautiful.
Randy
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I had a Brend 25th anniversery knife that was mirror polished on the bevels and satined on the flats. It was perfect, not even a hint of a rolled edge between the bevel and flat.

I have seen some good mirror polishes, some of them look black at first glance, in the right lighting.
 
A mirror polished fixed blade is definitely not for me. However, I do very much like a rounded mirror polished spine to contrast the fine satin rubbed flats. It's a feature you'll find on a lot of Russ Andrews and Burt Foster knives, to name just two.

orig.jpg


Roger
 
Erik Fritz said:
Why hand rubbed finnish on a blade instead of mirror polish? mirror finnished resists corosion a little better from what i hear just something that has been nagging at the back of my head as of late. Most of the higher end knives that i have seen or handled be it forged or stock removal seem to be hand rubbed is there a reason?
Click to expand...

Erik....

I see it as just the way current trends work.

Everyone seems to like the handrubbed finish these days....but go back to the 70's and early 80's and you'll see most custom blades were polished.

Personally, I like a blade that is not quite a mirror, but polished....and it will resist corrosion better in many circumstances. Handrubbed blades can hold oil better but they also provide the same surface for holding corrosive agents too.

Cutting something abrasive to the blade can "take out" many hrs. of a maker's hand rub job in one cut and the user can be hard pressed to fix it back right. But then again, many handrubbed masterpiece knives won't ever get used.
 
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