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Trying to achieve the famous crocus finish. Going up to an A16 Trizact belt, then emery, grey, then green compound on leather belts. I can still see fine scratches in the surface despite a high reflectivity. Used to polish and sharpen dental and surgical instruments for a living but this has me beat.
Karl does a fantastic job on this and he also has belts. It might be worth a PM to ask him as he makes old blades look new.
Wolfpack has done some amazing work. You can try and PM him but he hasn't frequented the forum in sometime. If you search crocus in the search box lots of info will come up. IIRC seal skin was used as the medium.
+1 on Karl. He does some fabulous restore work. In particular I've been impressed by his crocus finishes. Haven't seen wolfpack's crocus work but I'd take Mark's word for it.
I have not used my belt grinder for finishing razors. I do all of my finishing by hand Opposing directions in the sanding helps me spot previous grit scratches left behind. If they are scratches in my finish, it is because I missed something earlier and I need to back up. I do hate going backwards but sometimes if you want the elusive finish, sometimes backing up is the way forward.. I have tried just pushing forward but it has not worked. Also going to a gloss or mirror finish and then going to x to achieve the final has worked for me.
I've done a few by hand, its a lot of time and work.
I'll sand to 1k, then to 800 crocus paper and oil. Rub till the paper is worn out, then to emory on a rag, then red rouge, then finish with Maas or Flitz.
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Did they do any hand finishing in the razor trade or was all the grinding, glazing and polishing on wheels?
All the big bucks super black finished knive, makers, hand sand. I too hand sand.
It is all about the control. Look at (Nick Wheeler Hand sanding knives 101)
As said look at Mike, Wolfpack 34’s work, especially his 2 tone black polish and satin finishes.
Lots of photos posted, search Wolfpack34.
There was a lot of discussion on Black Polish, crocus finish a few years ago.
Seal and Walrus skin squares were glued on end to a large wooden wheel, then a slurry of various secret formulas of grit were brushed or glued on to the edges. A progression of grits was used to get to the Black finish.
I have read that the process was developed by or at least Daniel Peres was one of the first to widely use the process in Solingen, though it is often referred to as a Sheffield process. Peres it is said developed the process with a blend of Iron Oxide that he worked on for 8 years before perfected. Peres also was one of the first to use crucible steel from Sheffield for knife and razor production,1792, so he was ahead of his time and a leader in the use of technology.
There were also some knife guys in Sheffield, that were attempting to reproduce the original Sheffield Black Polish finish just a few years ago.
Here is an old SRP post where Mike posted some of his work. And also some of Steve Croker’s work, one of the new Sheffield guys experimenting with Crocus finish.
Crocus finish or Satin?
