Tumbled Finish? Cement Mixer?

Considering the remote possibility that I could be wrong and what Mr. Caswell wrote, I have changed the wording of the paragraph we are discussing to:

"Most of my orders come from people who want a knife that is engineered by someone with my experience and background - as you might imagine, experience and background in grinding steel is not at the top of their list. With the exception of the Chisos & Baby Chisos I don't regularly fabricate blades.

Bush Monkey Knives is a one man operation that makes old skool tools from a piece of bar stock steel or a finished blade one at a time in Fort Worth, Texas. I design and fabricate some models and custom assemble others using a high quality blade and the finest materials available. I personally fit, finish, assemble and inspect every knife that leaves my shop."

...posted twice on two separate pages of my website
 
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Ok, update time.

I tired the vibratory tumbler today on one of my titanium Drones.

I took the blade to about a 360 grit finish, then blasted it.

I used coarse ceramic media in the tumbler.

After about an hour in the tumbler, I got this:

Tumbled%20Drone.JPG


The finish is very smooth and even. It seems considerably more durable than a blasted finish. I think this might be the ideal way for me to finish small knives like the Drone.

I tried running the tumbler with Dawn and liquid laundry detergent. Both created way to much foam, so I cleaned the media and only used water.

I'm thinking that maybe adding a bit of WD-40 might do the same thing without creating foam.

I may have to try some fine media and see what happens. Perhaps a second tumble in ground walnut shells with a little Flitz might polish it a bit more.
 
That is a great looking finish. I can get a dillion reloading tumbler but I don't know where to get the media you used. Any suggestions?
 
Mitchell Knives said:
I tried running the tumbler with Dawn and liquid laundry detergent. Both created way to much foam, so I cleaned the media and only used water.

I'm thinking that maybe adding a bit of WD-40 might do the same thing without creating foam.
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Simple Green Works. Yes it will foam, but it should be cut down about 50-1 I think. I'll ask my guys tomorrow.
 
Use less detergent. :)

IMO, the key to a 'real' stone wash finish (one that almost looks galvanized), is a coarse blast first and a relatively SHORT tumble in A LOT of media.
The weight of the media makes a BIG difference allowing shorter run times (I usaully tumble for about 3 minutes for a stone wash. If I go much longer, it just turns to a 'tumbled' finish.)
Of course, this means bigger tumblers and lots of media--even if you're only doing a couple parts. If you use a little reloading tumbler, it will take forever, and there will be an annoying tendency to polish some areas while barely touching others. I would much rather modify a cement mixer than get a small vibratory tumbler for this sort of thing.:thumbup:
 
Makes perfect sense. Volume and mass.

thank you

JCaswell said:
Use less detergent. :)

IMO, the key to a 'real' stone wash finish (one that almost looks galvanized), is a coarse blast first and a relatively SHORT tumble in A LOT of media.
The weight of the media makes a BIG difference allowing shorter run times (I usaully tumble for about 3 minutes for a stone wash. If I go much longer, it just turns to a 'tumbled' finish.)
Of course, this means bigger tumblers and lots of media--even if you're only doing a couple parts. If you use a little reloading tumbler, it will take forever, and there will be an annoying tendency to polish some areas while barely touching others. I would much rather modify a cement mixer than get a small vibratory tumbler for this sort of thing.:thumbup:
Click to expand...
 
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I'm sorry. I'm confused. Did that finish come from the concrete mixer?
 
LOL!

I tried running the tumbler yesterday without any detergent and less water. It seemed to give a nicer finish. I'll shorten the tumbling time as you mentioned, and see what happens.

How much media are you using in your tumbler and what grit? I'm using 20lbs of coarse now.
 
jonnymac44 said:
No Andy, I think John picked up one of the tumbling cabinets at Northern tools.
Click to expand...

I actually bought the large tumbler from Harbor Freight. It's about 3 - 4 times the capacity of a standard "reloading" tumbler. It seems to work well so far.

If I start doing a lot of tumbled blades, I'll probably order the one from Northern Tools.
 
Mitchell Knives said:
I actually bought the large tumbler from Harbor Freight. It's about 3 - 4 times the capacity of a standard "reloading" tumbler. It seems to work well so far.

If I start doing a lot of tumbled blades, I'll probably order the one from Northern Tools.
Click to expand...

Oh, that's good to know! The HF model had to be quite a bit more reasonable, right? I'll have to go see if I can find it.
 
I'm running about 120 pounds of ceramic media in a Sweco FMD1LR. That's the small 'finishing mill' from Sweco with a 24-inch bowl, but it has great adjustable action.
I'm using the 5/8 media from MSC in two styles, the long pointy ones and the fatter ones.
I run with water and a few drops of laundry soap (as you discovered, it doesn't take much at all!)
Here's a picture of my tumber(s) without media:
 

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Wow, I had no idea that an industrial unit like the one you posted would be so expensive! I makes the $800 unit I was looking at seem like a bargain.

I took your advice, and reduced the tumbling time down to about 5 minutes. Minimal water, no detergent. I got a much more galvanized look that I actually like better. Thanks for the tip! ;)
 
Just an idea, if you use a cement mixer will normal gravel of pebbles give a blade a good finish?
It will mean stones repetently hitting the blade
 
Hengelo_77 said:
Just an idea, if you use a cement mixer will normal gravel of pebbles give a blade a good finish?
It will mean stones repetently hitting the blade
Click to expand...

A few years ago I found the perfect vibratory tumbler at auction. Relatively small, powerful, and with two chambers. Industrial unit.

I've tried gravel, it didn't work.
I tried pebbles from lowes, it didn't work.
I've tried sand, it didn't work,
I tried BBs, no luck.
BBs with abrasive grit, nodda...


I finally broke down and spent the money and got proper heavy and medium weight aluminum oxide and ceramic media plus polishing medias and got very good results.

So pretty much anything that didn't cost a lot of money didn't work for me. *shrug*
 
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