Thread: The Butchered Blade

There are a few factors on how you are using your greaseless. First off there is the wheel and then there is how much compound you put on the wheel and a really important factor is pressure. If you use a feather touch you will get a much nicer finish. There is also water. A quick dip does not only cool the blade but lubricates it too. It takes a lot of practice to be very good at the buffer. I consider myself to be at the beginning of the curve. That is part of why a I don't use it a lot. I did buy a small lot of junk blades to practice on. It is very easy to kill a blade on the buffer. I am not merely talking about the obvious overheat either. You can kill the lines and ruin the shape. You can also have the blade tossed. Slow and easy goes a long way.

Originally Posted by prodigy

Maybe glen will see this and chime in. I want to know where he gets his voodoo magical emery!

You can see it didn't do much in his last pic! . it just softened the 600 marks IMO.

Originally Posted by RezDog

There are a few factors on how you are using your greaseless. First off there is the wheel and then there is how much compound you put on the wheel and a really important factor is pressure. If you use a feather touch you will get a much nicer finish. There is also water. A quick dip does not only cool the blade but lubricates it too. It takes a lot of practice to be very good at the buffer. I consider myself to be at the beginning of the curve. That is part of why a I don't use it a lot. I did buy a small lot of junk blades to practice on. It is very easy to kill a blade on the buffer. I am not merely talking about the obvious overheat either. You can kill the lines and ruin the shape. You can also have the blade tossed. Slow and easy goes a long way.

Yea I'm at the beginning level too. I have had very good outcomes so far though. It seems larger blades are easier to do. The smaller (6/8 and less) don't contact the wheel unless you apply pressure. I've been fortunate enough to not destroy or ruin a blade yet (knock on wood). I hear people mention this ruining the temper of blades from buffing ALL the time. Obviously it could happen, but I want to know who it has actually happened to. I think it's just an overstated precaution that every one gets super paranoid about, but has probably rarely happened. The exact temperature required to destroy a temper is something I don't know, but I imagine you wouldn't be holding the blade bare handed if it was happening...

Edit: I just looked some info on temper up. To ruin a temper you have to reach the temp that the steal was annealed at, which varies by alloy from 400 to 1500 degrees F. So, I think this is one of those things that doesn't happen, but people get paranoid about. Now, a grinding wheel will could easily create those temps, but I don't think it would be likely on a buffing wheel. I say likely because I'm sure you could make it happen if that was your intended goal. However holding a blade bare handed for short bursts at a time will probably not ruin a temper, and stainless steels have much higher annealing temps, so I'd bet those would be really hard if not impossible to ruin on a buffer.

I'm half tempted to take a junker and buff the living daylights out of it, then see if it takes an edge...

Originally Posted by outback

You can see it didn't do much in his last pic! . it just softened the 600 marks IMO.

It's hard to tell because the blade angle isn't grabbing the light. I do know that by the time he's finished it looks great!

I have a blade here with a blown temper. It is fairly easy to tell because the steel gets quite flexible. The thickness of a full hollow is so thin you can actually get quite a bit of heat quite quickly with a little pressure. If you have junker blades around then yes you should use them to experiment with. If all they are good for is experiments and Tom's wind chimes then got or it. It will likely save you some time in the learning curve.

You can kill the lines...

That is a real deal breaker. If they are 'dead' before you get to them, do what you have to do. But to see a restore, where the before pics with all the blemishes have crisp lines and the after pics show a mirror finish with softened lines...sad. Is there a thread about making soft lines crispy again...I'll have to try that box up there.
I write this from the Peanut Gallery.
In fairness to the Buff Kings out there. Photography has something to do with the lines being delineated. A mirror finish is more difficult to photograph, to get the lines crispy if they actually are crispy. My limited experience (began here on SRP) of photographing metal, has proven to be a little frustrating...to make metal look like metal. I'm interested in HDR photography, to see if it can be applied to makeshift studio pics.

SOTD=Sharptonn
and weren't you just saying that you never were anointed?
The Mods work in mysterious ways.

Originally Posted by WW243

SOTD=Sharptonn
and weren't you just saying that you never were anointed?
The Mods work in mysterious ways.

Nothing mysterious about it, Bill! I post to SOTD only on Sundays.
Max features his shave on Sundays and chooses others throughout the week. Gives him a day off from it, I think!

Were I to post on other days, I would think I would have been chosen for a few, yet I have not the time.
Little thing called a job......

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Nothing mysterious about it, Bill! I post to SOTD only on Sundays.
Max features his shave on Sundays and chooses others throughout the week. Gives him a day off from it, I think!

Were I to post on other days, I would think I would have been chosen for a few, yet I have not the time.
Little thing called a job......

Well congrats Tom!!
The squeeky wheel got oiled.[emoji5]

Well howz about THAT! Seems I owe Max a day off!