Thread: Tired of easy polishing

A good safety rule is to remove the edge from any razor, that you will be working on. I run a 400 grit diamond file on the edge and dull to a butter knife edge, just a couple swipes.

I will be re-honing when finished, any way and at least, I will have a clean edge to hone on. Sanding, Buffing and Polishing will ruin the edge anyway.

Hand sanding on a piece of 6mm craft foam also allows you to press the razor into the foam and sand or polish right to the edge without any danger of cutting yourself, the edge is buried in the foam.

I also do not wear gloves when buffing as it gives a better grip and allows you to feel the heat in the blade, as soon as it begins to get uncomfortable, quench. I keep a cut off water bottle on the bench with the buffer, cut off half way, they are surprisingly stable and there is no risk of breakage, should it fall.

just want to have a advice. i just cleaned up all the rust on this one. what do you think? need to go down untill which grit of paper to rid of these etchse? 300 - 200 or under once more?

I usually start with 600 and see what remains. On that one maybe start with 400 and see, do not use a lot of pressure to begin and use a hard backer, synthetic wine corks work well, split in half length wise, for the flats. I rarely go below 320.

Try to put in the least amount of deep scratches as possible, but if you find deeper pitting, then drop down on grit, keep dropping until you find a grit that will remove the damage causing the shallowest stria.

The little bit of time you lose, doing it this way will pay off large, by not having to spend a lot of time removing needless deep scratches.

Where a lot of folks have issues with sanding is they don’t change paper often enough, once it stops cutting, get a new piece or shift to an unused part. Or by not changing directions, count your strokes, say 10 or 20, then switch to 90 degree strokes, heel to toe, then spine to edge.

And dull the edge for saftey, I work on a sheet of 6mm craft foam, that you can bury the edge into the foam and sand to the edge with no danger of cutting yourself.

I cut my paper into 3X3 in squares with a Garage Sale paper cutter, here is a post I made about making the paper into pads to save time and looking for grits. Sandpaper Notepads.

I started by 400 than 320. I'm at 800 now but there're still etches. I build a base as said in hand sanding tuto.

When I am hand sanding a blade it seems like the 800 grit range is a turning point and it pays to spend a little extra time there. I find that if I can make it through the 800 grit and have all previous scratches removed it gets noticeably easier from there on. If I make it to final polish and see some scratches are revealed it is usually scratches that I missed around the 800 mark.

I have started at 800 or 600 grit depending on the pitting, scratches & such, then work your way up or down. I have been cutting my pieces around 1" X 2.5" & on pieces that aren't marked, I get my sharpie & mark them so I know what grit it is. I have 240, 280, 320, 400, 500, 600, 800, 1k, 1.5k, 2k, 2.5k & 3k w/d sandpaper. I also have some micro mesh.

“I'm at 800 now but there're still etches.”

Are the etches, scratches from sandpaper or pitting/ defects in the razor.

If pitting, and you intend to remove them, you have to do so at the lowest grit you are using, stay on that grit until you are happy with the finish.

Some times when you move up in grits the defects that you missed are revealed and you have to drop back down to get them out. Remove the previous grits scratches with the next grit, or you will not remove them completely and it will affect your finish.

It is the biggest mistake most folks make, moving up too soon. Sometime the best thing you can do, is take a break…

Originally Posted by Euclid440

“I'm at 800 now but there're still etches.”

Are the etches, scratches from sandpaper or pitting/ defects in the razor.

If pitting, and you intend to remove them, you have to do so at the lowest grit you are using, stay on that grit until you are happy with the finish.

Some times when you move up in grits the defects that you missed are revealed and you have to drop back down to get them out. Remove the previous grits scratches with the next grit, or you will not remove them completely and it will affect your finish.

It is the biggest mistake most folks make, moving up too soon. Sometime the best thing you can do, is take a break…

Thanks for this. Actually I was thinking to get down until 120 buti afraid it will be so hard. For now I came back to 400 and working on it.

actually working on a razor which has black stains not too deep. and as i have problem with my tools i'm using only sandpaper. yesterday worked 6 hours and still not finished the work but i see it getting cleaner. the only thing is, it is really slow.

Originally Posted by Oustoura

just want to have a advice. i just cleaned up all the rust on this one. what do you think? need to go down untill which grit of paper to rid of these etchse? 300 - 200 or under once more?

Hey, again mates.
Well I'm still on the razor and trying only sandpapers. But really there is way too get rid of these black stains. Even I tried 120. They are still there.
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Don't you have a trick to tell me. That's annoying really.