rock tumbler or vibrator for polishing?

B

BLADECARVER

Joined
Apr 8, 2007
Messages
172
again i see i have too much time on my hands lol i got a brainstorm how about using a rock tumbler or a vibrating tumbler to polish knife components like guards buttcaps ect? would this work? or am i just trying to piss up a rope lol:) :)
 
Factory made knives are polished with vibrating tumblers all the time. Heck, even bearings are polished this way.
 
I have both types both large and small. There is a learning curve, but its not rocket science.

basicly if your doing 1 or 2 its kinda silly to get into all this, but in production even a small tumbler can clean, polish and burnish 20 or so knife guards at a time.

Personally I still must see hand polishing at the end for the right luster to be acheived, but it is a huge time saver on large lots of parts

Kerry Stagmer
www.baltimoreknife.com
www.fireandbrimstone.com
 
I watch the show "How It's Made" on the Discovery channel and they had a segment on putty knives. They put some pretty rough ground knives in a tumbler with sand in it and when they pulled them out they looked real slick.
 
jeremyjadams said:
OK, this might sound dumb... but if you have them in the tumbler at the same time... won't they bump into each other and get all scratched up?
Click to expand...

In a vibratory tumbler there is really no set number of how many you can do at once. Depending on the bowl and part size you can start off with a handful of stuff, and start from there. If the stuff is getting scratched, then take some out. Or work from the other direction. Start off with like 5 pieces depending on size and go up till you can hear that metal to metal sound. If the parts are really big, like full tang blades, then you might be able to get away with doing 2 blades at once. The smaller stuff you can get a feel for whats right.
 
either work well. Delicate parts MUST go into a vibratory.

Its actually cheapest to by your vibratory though a gun reloading supplier rather then jewelry supply.

I have and use both types. My larger tumbler is only about 8" across and 12" deep or so and holds 4 barrels at once, but I have several vibratory up to a 30 gallon.

Kerry Stagmer
www.baltimoreknife.com
www.fireandbrimstone.com
 
check it.

smaller...
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93252

Bigger... CV2001 model
http://dillonprecision.com/template/p.cfm?maj=16&min=0&dyn=1&

That CV is the biggest I have seen for the price. Others want up to $700 for anything with a mouth wider than 10". Anything longer like a bowie blade you need a homemade drum or concrete mixer conversion big enough to accomodate the length. Oh, and which is better? Well the drum takes longer to do the same amount of burnishing/polishing. Either way, depending on your media and what you want to accomplish, get used to the idea of having this thing running for 8 hours to 24.
 
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