Thread: Crocus finish or Satin?

I'm finishing the Big Choppa, so toying what finish to leave it with...

Originally Posted by ChopperDave

I'm finishing the Big Choppa, so toying what finish to leave it with...

That beast will look badass with any finish, as long as it's done well. I am looking forward to seeing how it ends up, whatever you choose.

Sometimes it is not worth the removal of a lot of steel for the sake of a couple of small pits, hit those ones with a satin finish.

A true Crocus finish is a bright “Mirror” finish. But I have noticed some are calling a brighter satin finish a crocus finish. I have also notice on knife sites were some are referring to shiny mirror finish as “glazed”.

As many may know slipjoint blades were finished primarily two different ways. One was called a "glazed" finish, the other a "crocus" finish. The glazed finish is similar to a "as ground" finish many custom makers use now. The crocus finish while not easily replicated today is similar to a mirror polish. At times many slipjoint manufactures would put a crocus finish on the mark side and a glazed finish on the pile side of the blade.

If you hand sand with Crocus Cloth after 1k you can get a soft satin finish but if you continue to polish or use oil it will go to shiny mirror. The trick to a good satin finish as well is to go to at least 1k or 2k finish then lay your satin one directional finish over the polished finish.

Most modern satin used on knives, is 6 or 800 one directional sanding or one directional stroking or Scotchbrite.

The old Sheffield finish was Crocus, (Iron Oxide) on seal or walrus skin covered wooden wheels with hide glue on Crocus powder/flower at about 800 rpm. Some say only Seal/Walrus skin can reproduce that finish.

Mike, Wolfpack34 has perfected a very nice and uniform “Satin” and his two tone, satin/mirror is awesome. It is a good look on old Sheffield’s. Satin works well with razors where some pitting will have to be left.

Here is a good link to Sheffield Crocus Finish.

Just my 2 pence but glazing is the Sheffield word for polishing. Still now as it always was

I too have noticed a tendency to imply that crocus is something less than a polished finish - especially by people who criticise restorations with a high polish - they seem to think the original blades were not finished this way. Crocus finish is way more shiny than satin.

I had never heard of a crocus finish until reading this thread.

Stan Shaw is the only guy alive who was polishing blades when this way of working was common in industry and he told me he uses emery powder stuck on leather wheels with hide glue for pre-glazing and cotton mops for glazing.

Stan is a living legend

Good post Marty. You are right that a 'true Crocus Finish' is a very bright mirror finish, and a brighter 'satin finish' is actually what I am doing with a lot of my blades, accomplished by using a crocus cloth or crocus paste and a wheel. My process is time intensive but not hard to imitate. I will finish a blade with 400 grit and then mirror polish it with black and then white Emory. Then I will lightly 're-glaze' the steel with 800 grit and then polish that with crocus paste. The final look is a polished steel that is what I call a shiny but 'muted mirror finish'. A polished satin or glazed look.

For some time now I have been hard using leather wheels coated with crocus and also lead and have been having a bit of success with this. Lead when applied with a leather wheel will produce a 'brilliant polished look' and will completely polish out even heavy scratches, as will crocus pasted leather wheels, but like Neil said...it takes a lot of patience and time to perfect these methods, and I am at the very beginning stages of the learning curve.

Here's a blade that I recently 'mirror polished' using a combination of a lead covered leather wheel and a crocus leather wheel. As I said..I'm still learning and far from perfect...

Originally Posted by Euclid440

A true Crocus finish is a bright “Mirror” finish. But I have noticed some are calling a brighter satin finish a crocus finish. I have also notice on knife sites were some are referring to shiny mirror finish as “glazed”.

As many may know slipjoint blades were finished primarily two different ways. One was called a "glazed" finish, the other a "crocus" finish. The glazed finish is similar to a "as ground" finish many custom makers use now. The crocus finish while not easily replicated today is similar to a mirror polish. At times many slipjoint manufactures would put a crocus finish on the mark side and a glazed finish on the pile side of the blade.

If you hand sand with Crocus Cloth after 1k you can get a soft satin finish but if you continue to polish or use oil it will go to shiny mirror. The trick to a good satin finish as well is to go to at least 1k or 2k finish then lay your satin one directional finish over the polished finish.

Most modern satin used on knives, is 6 or 800 one directional sanding or one directional stroking or Scotchbrite.

The old Sheffield finish was Crocus, (Iron Oxide) on seal or walrus skin covered wooden wheels with hide glue on Crocus powder/flower at about 800 rpm. Some say only Seal/Walrus skin can reproduce that finish.

Mike, Wolfpack34 has perfected a very nice and uniform “Satin” and his two tone, satin/mirror is awesome. It is a good look on old Sheffield’s. Satin works well with razors where some pitting will have to be left.

Here is a good link to Sheffield Crocus Finish.

Mike are you using a full leather wheel or a leather covered wooden wheel? Did you make them and where are you getting Crocus powder? And what are you using to stick the Crocus to the wheel?

I was thinking of making a wooden wheel and covering it with Roo hide.

I was going to use Ferrous Oxide from Kremer Pigments.

Nice work.

Thanks
Marty

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Mike are you using a full leather wheel or a leather covered wooden wheel? Did you make them and where are you getting Crocus powder? And what are you using to stick the Crocus to the wheel?

I was thinking of making a wooden wheel and covering it with Roo hide.

I was going to use Ferrous Oxide from Kremer Pigments.

Nice work.

Thanks
Marty

Thanks Marty! I'm using a hard solid leather wheel for both the lead and the crocus paste. I'm thinking that a wood wheel with a softer type of leather would be much better to use and I've been meaning to get around to trying to fashion something like this if I can ever find the time. I'll look forward to seeing what you come up with my friend... I picked up the Iron Oxide Pigment Powder, Fe2O3 on EBAY. Very inexpensive, and it seemed fine enough. Ceramic pigment. The lead loads right on the wheel and coats it easily. I made a paste of the Fe203 and beeswax and paraffin and I apply that to the wheel. It works pretty good. I like the idea of using a glue to apply the pigment directly to the leather and I might try that out...