Trying to mirror polish my 11...

B

BeardedNemophilist

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Apr 10, 2014
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By hand no less. Not getting anywhere it seems. I'll have to post pictures later of it since I left it in my locker at work and can't get it until tomorrow night when I go in.

I stripped the coating off (naturally, right?). Sanded with I believe 425 grit and then 600 grit sandpaper. Today I took some Brasso polish to it with some very fine steel wool for about thirty minutes while bored at work. No headway at all. So I went in the maintenance shop at work and found some 1200 grit sandpaper and went to town with it for about fifteen minutes before giving up.

Any advice would be appreciated. I'm about to give up on it even though I've been thinking so much about how beautiful the blade will look when I finally finish.
 
You'll need to start with a lower grit to get the grind lines off. 80 or 120 grit.
It will take awhile. Don't move up in grit untill the grind lines are gone. And as your moving up in grit(200,300,400,600,800,1200...), make sure all the sanding marks are gone from the previous lower grits. It's a long process, but rewarding in the end.

The key is to just take your time at the beginning. Use a low grit and sand away those grind lines.
Here's my BK11 way back when....


 
Just follow the guidelines posted by Jonny1280 and you will be fine. I would add something I learned from Nick Wheeler's videos about sanding. I sand in three directions. Lengthwise from the plunge line to tip, at a 45 degree angle from the spine and lastly 45 degrees from the edge. I start from the plunge and work my way to the tip. My final polishing is only lengthwise from the plunge to the tip. Be certain to mount the knife securely and work carefully. You don't want to round off any edges or the tip. The sanding block insures the polished surfaces will be true. The goal is to remove highs and lows as well as all tool marks and then impart the satin luster or high polish.
This is my BK14.
 
Good advice here from Jonny an HH. The only problem with a mirror polish is that it will only stay that way if you never use your knife. I got my 11 to a semi-polish, then used it....immediately patina started to happen, and I decided I didn't want to polish it after every use. It was still worth it to see it polished at least once, though, but only because of the mods. I don't think I'll do it to any of my unmodified Beckers.
 
I polished my BK11 and got pretty decent results. I still have a few scratches visible, but I got plenty of time to work those out. I started with 150, then 500 grit after stripping it, when I got everything (almost) uniform, I went dremel with a polishing attachment and green compound (like you load a strop with). For my last step I used oven cleaner and a buffing attachment.
 
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