Thread: My First Restore - Wostenholm

Buffing wheel would probably be more economical and versatile.

You can use greaseless compounds to do the actual sanding for you. Plus, you don't have to wait a whole day for the tumbler to slowly do its thing. Might even use less electricity. ???

Of course, I keep seeing all those nice shiney blades that come out of Glen's tumbler and the fire and forget feature really makes me want one sometimes. But alas, no room for a tumbler. Might be able to fit a buffing wheel outside on the balcony......

Or, you could be ridiculously cheap and get a dremel and charge the felt wheels with greaseless. Oddly enough it works, but the scratch marks are inconsistent. Still waiting for the finer grits to get here to see if I can make the scratch marks go away. Looks kind of ugly as is IMHO. Of course, some hand sanding should get rid of everything. We'll see.

I've got the adjustable speed rotary tool for the diamond pastes, and I have a little wheel for the CrO2, too. I also have several larger grinders/buffers that can accommodate 4-10" wheels. I use a 8" CrO2 buffer for my reed knife blades, but that is only to stop the rusting, not to get rid of scratch marks.

I don't like the sandpaper that much, to be quite honest. I would much prefer slip stones or mechanical means (buffing wheel and/or tumbler) to produce a good finish. I've attached pics of my latest #800 wet/dry sandpaper with only a CrO2 finishing buff from the rotary tool. I upped the rpms to about 4, but I really think it made little difference. It is obviously not as shiny as before.

I think for a knife of this vintage that a satin finish would be more "authentic", too.