Polishing

[richmondesi]

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?

[northpaw]

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

[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.

[richmondesi]

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?

[Maximilian]

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.

[jballs918]

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

[kevint]

Safety-wise pressing the razor down on a wood block works fairly well or me. I guess you could set a pin in the block to fit in the tang pivot for added security. at least the edge cant get you and you can polish the entire surface.

I can't say it works great, but some chamois like leather can be charged with "rouge", and rubbed, rubbed, rubbed. So far I've only used cr_o. I'll take a short narrow strip and fold it up to make it match the hollow, and buff off water stains and such

[mry314]

If You don't want or can buy polishing compound, thry to mix some CrOx with white vaseline (from the drug store), and use it as a green polishing paste.

It worked well for me.

As for the technique: use the polishing compound with a rag, or some ear cleaning rods (sorry, i don't know the exact word for this.) At the pin area You can use some dental floss.

[AlanII]

Dental floss, YES. Never come across that one, thanks.

[T-Ram]

If You don't want or can buy polishing compound, thry to mix some CrOx with white vaseline (from the drug store), and use it as a green polishing paste.

It worked well for me.

As for the technique: use the polishing compound with a rag, or some ear cleaning rods (sorry, i don't know the exact word for this.) At the pin area You can use some dental floss.

Over here we call them "Q-Tips". Q-Tips is really a specific brand name of cotton swabs, but "Q-Tips" has come to be the generic term used for all cotton swabs.

No need to apologize. If english is your 2nd, or 3rd, or 4th language, you use it better than a lot of native speakers.

Tony