Thread: Polishing

How can someone polish a blade to a mirror finish without using power tools. I'm assuming there is some really fine micromesh out there that will do the job. If so, where I can get my hands on it & what would I need in terms of progression?

I'd also be curious to know if there are alternatives, like using some kind of polishing compound (Turtle Wax?).

lots of elbow grease and patience. You can buy and use dry/wet sandpaper up until 3000 grit (ebay for example) then switch over to micro mesh from 3 to 12K.
You could do several smear,dry and wipe application of Maas, Turtle Wax green rubbing compound in between.
There's many long hours involved but eventually you could achieve a good result.

Originally Posted by Maximilian

lots of elbow grease and patience. You can buy and use dry/wet sandpaper up until 3000 grit (ebay for example) then switch over to micro mesh from 3 to 12K.
You could do several smear,dry and wipe application of Maas, Turtle Wax green rubbing compound in between.
There's many long hours involved but eventually you could achieve a good result.

I don't mind the work. Would you still want to build some sort of a jig with rare earth magnets to hold the blade, or could you safely do this all by hand?

smart, thinking about safety first. Whatever works best for you. If you can build one then that's great. When working on the spine and tang only for example you could tape the edge with some electrical tape. Just make sure when trying to sand and polish to turn the edge away from facing you.

i have also found for blocks that pretty much just shaping a block of wood to what you need also works well. i have just sanded out a few blocks that i rest stuff on as i work

Originally Posted by Maximilian

lots of elbow grease and patience. You can buy and use dry/wet sandpaper up until 3000 grit (ebay for example) then switch over to micro mesh from 3 to 12K.
You could do several smear,dry and wipe application of Maas, Turtle Wax green rubbing compound in between.
There's many long hours involved but eventually you could achieve a good result.

I feel like I'm asking a magician to explain his tricks, but could you describe your progression for the mirror finish with specifics?

I do up to 2k-grit sandpaper (3M) by hand and then carefully use the Dremel 421 red polish on felt pads. I'm curious to see how that compares and if I should invest in higher grit paper and additional polishes, if you don't mind.