Clouding with Micro Mesh?

Anyone experience this before?

Sanded the blade from 220 to 2500 with traditional paper. I had a nice mirror finish, but with some micro lines still visible if you looked closely. I decided that being the anal retentive guy I am, I would grab the Micro Mesh 12000 and start buffing lengthwise along the blade. After about 5 minutes, I am noticing that the blade is clouding! I tried doing swirls to see if that would help... no dice.

I rinsed off the blade to see if I was just getting material or dirt from the NoCry gloves I was wearing, but that didnt help.

To make a long story short, I had to step back to 1000 grit paper, then 1500, then 2000 and back to 2500 grit paper before I got the clouding to go away, costing me another hour and a half of hand sanding!

Anyone experience this with MicroMesh before?? Or was this user error of some kind?

This is my first restore, so I want to learn from my mistakes! :D

Thanks!
Aldwyn

I haven't used up to 2500 sandpaper, but I have used micromesh and have done buffing and such.

From my experience, I don't think you can get a mirror finish at 2500. I say that based not on sandpaper, but honing. Different, I know, but even hones well above 2500 don't give a mirror finish. Same goes for fine steel wool, micromesh, buffing compounds, etc. I've seen paper towels scratch mirror finished blades.

Also from my experience, if you take something "finished" off a lower grit and then jump to a way higher grit, you will only polish the peaks left behind from the lower grit, not the valleys. This makes the previous scratch pattern more apparent, rather than less apparent. (I have a very distinct memory from a meet years ago, when JoeD was showing Don a method of polishing using oak tag, mineral oil, and lapping compound. Don was completely absorbed in polishing a brand new Livi, only to find that it was looking "worse." He was polishing off the peaks and not getting into the valleys. After all present took a look at the blade and the effect Don created, Don sent the blade out to Lynn and the buffers to get a real mirror finish put onto the blade.)

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Originally Posted by Aldwyn

Anyone experience this before?

Anyone experience this with MicroMesh before?? Or was this user error of some kind?
This is my first restore, so I want to learn from my mistakes! :D
Thanks!
Aldwyn

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Had you used the paper before with soap or cleaner?? That can do the number on the Micro mesh.
hoilli4's answer is more complete!

Anal retentive means you only use MicroMesh sequentially and not from a conventional 2500 to directly MM`12000. I use it in sequence and wet, by the way. Never less that a VG or better finish.

Thanks, gents.

Crap... polishing off the peaks, leaving the valleys untouched. Makes PERFECT sense!

I wanted to leave a little patina on this one to show its age. I just wanted to get the majority of the stains and light pitting out, so I quickly stepped though a couple of the following lower grits to make sure I left some of the "age". I bet I left some pretty deep valleys behind that without a loop, I wouldnt know they were there... Until hours later when I started buffing the peaks. Arrgh!

I hadnt used soap with the paper. Only dry.

Also, thanks for the tip, Moo! MM sequential, and leave the higher grit sandpapers behind... and then only use the MM wet (I was using it dry).

Thanks for the help, gents! Live and learn...

Excellent, answer Hoilli, and so true for honing.

For honing, I do believe the 4k or whatever grit you are using to polish after the 1k is the most critical grit to getting a good polish on an edge. If you do not remove the deep 1k stria, you will pay…down the road.

Same goes for sanding and polishing, there are no short cuts, if you want a quality job. And really it does not take… that much, to put in the extra time where needed…

I have no problem getting mirror finishes with paper. From where ever I need to start then 600/1000/1500/2500 all done wet. For the final touch, about 36 hours in my case tumbler with pecan shell and jewelers rouge.

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Originally Posted by Splashone

I have no problem getting mirror finishes with paper. From where ever I need to start then 600/1000/1500/2500 all done wet. For the final touch, about 36 hours in my case tumbler with pecan shell and jewelers rouge.

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If I'm reading that right, your mirror finish is from the tumbler, not the paper.

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Originally Posted by holli4pirating

If I'm reading that right, your mirror finish is from the tumbler, not the paper.

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I wouldn't say that. Wet sanding through 2500 and hitting it with Mother's leaves a mirror finish. The tumbler removes the lightest hints of scratches that I can see with magnification.

I've never come across this problem especially with micro mesh the quality always seems to be very high, maybe you could have a duffer batch of micro mesh?

It’s not the paper, just did not spend enough time at the lower grits removing the deep stria, from the first grit. The higher grit just polished the tops of the lands, the bottom of the grooves showed though as haze.

When the OP went back down in grit, he removed all the deep stria.

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Originally Posted by Splashone

I wouldn't say that. Wet sanding through 2500 and hitting it with Mother's leaves a mirror finish. The tumbler removes the lightest hints of scratches that I can see with magnification.

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Could you post a walkthrough with photos? I don't get a mirror finish even up through green greaseless (chrome ox based) on buffers, so I would love to save tons of time and effort AND not have to use a buffer by getting a mirror finish off of 2500 sandpaper and Mother's.

I was able to achieve this finish, which I would consider to be mirror (albeit it with remaining patina) with a progression of 400, 800, 1000, 1500 traditional wet/dry sandpaper using WD/40 as a sanding lubricant. Followed by polishing with mothers.Attachment 191538