Finishes help???

Dustin

Dustin

Active Member
I need a little direction on how to finish my knives.
1. I like the mirror finish, but I have a hard time getting it to look smooth. It usually looks like I'm smoothing out the scratches ( I can still see the lines there just shiney now).
What grit do I take it to on my sander?
What grit do I hand sand it to?
2.How do you get the dull satin finish

Right now I mostly use Elmax, 154cm
 
Sand down to the finest grit you can get your hands on. Sand until the sanding marks from the previous grits are gone and keep moving to higher grits until you reach your highest grit. How fine you go depends on the maker. I go down to 1500 - 2000 for mirror finish before buffing. For satin finish I sand to 400-600 grit then use a scotch brite belt.
Just my two cents.
 
I do it all with Trizac belts up to 3000, sometimes 4500.
At 1200 grit I'll give it a quick once over with an extra fine scotchbrite belt, this makes unseen scratches pop. If no scractches I'll start at 1200 again and go up. At 3000 go to grey compound and finish with green chrome on the buffer.
For a satin, I'll machine grind to 600 grit, hit it quick with a 600 cork with green compound on it, then breifly finish hand sand with 800 grit. Done. You can get a quick user satin finish on the grinder by going to 400 grit and then a fine scotchbrite. Gives a nice silky look to the blade.

Rudy
 
Thanks I'll try this and I'll have to get some higher grit belts the highest I have is 1200
 
Dustin said:
Is all this done on your sander? How much do you hand sand?
Click to expand...

Very little, I hate hand sanding.
I was fortunate to spend time with the late Norm Bardsley in the mid 80's. He wasn't impressed with hand sanding either. He would reverse old worn out belts and apply different compounds to them and get mirror polishes that looked crystal clear and wet. I had my time with it too but for me, Trizact belts starting at 220 kind of guarantee no hand sanding for me. It's technique too I suppose as you'll find what works for you with trial and error. But yes, this works for me.

Rudy
 
I would also look at your material. Some of the powder steels like elmax or cpm154 won't shine up as pretty as say 440C.
I sand my blades to 600 grit on the belt sander, then 1000 and 2000 by hand, then chromium oxide with a buffing wheel.
scott
 
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