Thread: Hand polishing compounds

Originally Posted by MikeB52

No, it turns the entire blade dark, shiny or not. It just bites into the rust deeper.
That blades a candidate for q tips and maybe polishing compound, IMO. Etching is too easy to remove with anything really aggressive, including a lot of polishes. Might want to lay some tape across the etchings before doing anything to protect it.

+2 on that one.

Warn water with dish soap. Nice touch. I will remember that next time im sanding.

Originally Posted by Gasman

Warn water with dish soap. Nice touch. I will remember that next time im sanding.

Learned that painting cars wet sanding clear and such. Does a great job and cheap can't beat that

Here is a thread by Geezer on making an etch pop, using Cold Gun Blue and lapping film.

The trick is super clean the blade and use lapping film, 1um film is like 14-16K grit, much finer than wet and dry, though some guys have had success with 2k paper.

As said if the etch is thin, sanding or buffing will remove it completely.

Revealing Etchings

If you want to see what it will look like and if the etch is deep enough, you can use a sharpie to paint the blade, clean it well with degreaser and acetone and let the sharpie ink, dry for 30 minutes.

Use the highest grit Wet & Dry or film, if you have it. You can buy single film sheets from woodworking supply stores, don’t buy diamond film and use a hard backer, a wine corks works well. WD40 and degreaser will wash the film or Wet & Dry, when done for another use.

The sharpie will last quite a while, it is water resistant, but will scratch off eventually. It works well on tang stamps.

WD40 or Acetone will remove it completely.

Another thing, put baking soda in your sanding and honing water. It will remove acid and reduce future surface rust. Old sword polishers' method used also in Sheffield.
~Richard

Nice tip. Never heard of doing this. Sounds like something everyone should do but guessing very few do sense i hadnt been told this before.