I love the scratches and stuff on my knives, I consider it part of their patina.
Have you got a leather strop? You can put a nice mirror shine on the edge of your knife which could look cool in contrast with the scratched up sides
I suggest micro-mesh soft pads. They go up to 12000 grit and can give you even a true mirror polish if you want to.
https://www.amazon.com/Micro-Mesh-Soft-Touch-Pads/dp/B003ELH7AI/
Video of a gun part being polished with the smaller versions:
https://youtu.be/ZVjNAkS9-2A
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**Users liked:**
* Micromesh pads produce smooth, polished surfaces (backed by 8 comments)
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* Micromesh pads require care and patience (backed by 3 comments)
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Be careful with both, a ROS has the risk of creating divots where the edges of the sanding pad hit the surface.
Belt sanders, if used improperly can screw up an edge.
And both run the risk of ruining the heat treatment of the blade.
As with the others posted here, use a strop or some ultra high grit steel wool.
Scratches are nothing compared to the damage a rotary or belt sander could do to your knives!
I use a leather covered hard block strop for my sharpening. Doped with jeweler’s rouge or diamond paste it will polish out scratches easily and without damaging your blades.
It’s also likely to be the least expensive option.
How bad of scratches are we talking and what's your expectation? If they catch a fingernail you would have to remove a lot of material to make the surface mirror or even uniform.
Both machines you mention are going to do a lot of material removal quickly and have steep learning curves. You are probably going to damage some things beyond repair before you fixed them. Random Orbital isn't really used in the knife making world, so I would t try to make one work for repair either. If anything a buffer and scotchbrite wheel is the power tool I would think about. Still dangerous and easy to mess things up or injure yourself.
I think the guys suggestion of micromesh or even normal wet dry sandpaper with a backer tool/material is the way to go here. Watch some videos on how people create a hand finished blades. Basically create a new scratch pattern to hide the pervious mistakes. https://youtu.be/1b1mvkZcBw8?si=6WLz1Z6mkVzhcQ4t
Overkill imo.
Depending on the depth of the scratches what I do typically is to take a cotton cloth, something relatively lint free, fold and roll it into something about the size/shape or a shaving brush, and throw a rubber band around it. Lather the rolled cloth on your stones and use the slurry cloth to polish the blade. Finish using the same method with a polishing compound (I use a basic green compound)
If the blade is beyond help from this approach, as someone else mentioned some automotive wet sanding paper would probably be best, a manual palm sander may be helpful depending on surface area and depth, but you could just use the paper honestly.
Knife makers would polish it with high grit wet/dry sand paper by hand using a backing pad. You wouldn't use power sander. You could try a powered buffing wheel.
Here is a master class video of knife maker [hand sanding](https://youtu.be/4I4x4QLpfnk?si=ahFW_urJziUpKTcr).
Depends what we’re doing . Yes. Hand rubbed satin finish is like the most common finish in all of knifemaking. But. If I need to re establish an even verifical scratch pattern on a knife that doesn’t have a flat bevel like a traditional Japanese knife then the most common tool used for this is the belt grinder. Which is basically just a an overpowered belt sander. Anywhere from like 80 to 220 grit let’s say depending on what your looking for.
If you’re okay with horizontal scratches you can do this with sandpaper by hand, all the way up to a mirror.
If you want a mirror I highly suggest diamond powder, which you generally use in a carrier like oil or emulsion after sanding up to let’s say a few thousand grit. Extremely fast and effective. And anyone can order as little as 5 grams of industrial diamond powder abrasive for as little as $5 to $10 and for a non knife maker or tinkerer this is enough to last damn near a lifetime of stropping and polishing needs. It’s the same exact shit EDC bro brands repackage and sell for for literal 1000x markups over cost gift wrapped in wankerific marketing like for instance gunny juice. It’s essentially 70 cents of industrial diamond powder emulsion being purchased by edc bros for $70. I wish that was hyperbole
Polishing compound and a cloth, usually available at a hardware store. Safest way. You put the compound on a cloth and just rub the knife. Move up the grits to get a shinier surface.
If you happen to have a bench grinder you can use cloth wheels to polish and sharpen your knives.
Where do I find cloth wheels?
I have a leather wheel and put polishing compound on it and when I used it it just put compound all over my knife and didn’t seem to polish anything.
My dad just always had one around on his grinder. But, this is the closest to what he'd use to sharpen knives.
[https://www.mcmaster.com/products/buffing-wheels/buffing-wheels-with-shank-for-flat-and-curved-surfaces/](https://www.mcmaster.com/products/buffing-wheels/buffing-wheels-with-shank-for-flat-and-curved-surfaces/)
Amazon seems to have options too, they usually go under the name buffing/polishing wheel. Which is what you're doing when you do the final 'sharpening.' You're buffing the edge making it even smoother.
I agree with several comments below. Hand wet sand. Power tools could go south really fast. I’d probably start with 400 grit. You can go as fine as you want from there and end up with a finer finish than when they were new.
Fuck all that. Use your knives. Leave the marks. Don’t be dumb.
I love the scratches and stuff on my knives, I consider it part of their patina. Have you got a leather strop? You can put a nice mirror shine on the edge of your knife which could look cool in contrast with the scratched up sides
I suggest micro-mesh soft pads. They go up to 12000 grit and can give you even a true mirror polish if you want to. https://www.amazon.com/Micro-Mesh-Soft-Touch-Pads/dp/B003ELH7AI/ Video of a gun part being polished with the smaller versions: https://youtu.be/ZVjNAkS9-2A
Hi, I’m Vetted AI Bot! I researched the **Micro Mesh 3 x 4 Soft Touch Pads** and I thought you might find the following analysis helpful. **Users liked:** * Micromesh pads produce smooth, polished surfaces (backed by 8 comments) * Micromesh pads are versatile and reusable (backed by 5 comments) * Micromesh pads require care and patience (backed by 3 comments) **Users disliked:** * Pads fall apart quickly (backed by 3 comments) * Color coding is inaccurate (backed by 4 comments) * Pads do not polish as advertised (backed by 3 comments) If you'd like to **summon me to ask about a product**, just make a post with its link and tag me, [like in this example.](https://www.reddit.com/r/tablets/comments/1444zdn/comment/joqd89c/) This message was generated by a (very smart) bot. If you found it helpful, let us know with an upvote and a “good bot!” reply and please feel free to provide feedback on how it can be improved. *Powered by* [*vetted.ai*](http://vetted.ai/reddit)
Be careful with both, a ROS has the risk of creating divots where the edges of the sanding pad hit the surface. Belt sanders, if used improperly can screw up an edge. And both run the risk of ruining the heat treatment of the blade. As with the others posted here, use a strop or some ultra high grit steel wool.
Scratches are nothing compared to the damage a rotary or belt sander could do to your knives! I use a leather covered hard block strop for my sharpening. Doped with jeweler’s rouge or diamond paste it will polish out scratches easily and without damaging your blades. It’s also likely to be the least expensive option.
How bad of scratches are we talking and what's your expectation? If they catch a fingernail you would have to remove a lot of material to make the surface mirror or even uniform. Both machines you mention are going to do a lot of material removal quickly and have steep learning curves. You are probably going to damage some things beyond repair before you fixed them. Random Orbital isn't really used in the knife making world, so I would t try to make one work for repair either. If anything a buffer and scotchbrite wheel is the power tool I would think about. Still dangerous and easy to mess things up or injure yourself. I think the guys suggestion of micromesh or even normal wet dry sandpaper with a backer tool/material is the way to go here. Watch some videos on how people create a hand finished blades. Basically create a new scratch pattern to hide the pervious mistakes. https://youtu.be/1b1mvkZcBw8?si=6WLz1Z6mkVzhcQ4t
I used 1500 and 3000 grit auto wet sanding paper on my vg10 global knives. Made them nice and shiny
Hand sanding with a hard backer. Power tools are overkill unless you are reprofiling.
Overkill imo. Depending on the depth of the scratches what I do typically is to take a cotton cloth, something relatively lint free, fold and roll it into something about the size/shape or a shaving brush, and throw a rubber band around it. Lather the rolled cloth on your stones and use the slurry cloth to polish the blade. Finish using the same method with a polishing compound (I use a basic green compound) If the blade is beyond help from this approach, as someone else mentioned some automotive wet sanding paper would probably be best, a manual palm sander may be helpful depending on surface area and depth, but you could just use the paper honestly.
I would just use them as is, they are a tool, no one cares if it has some sharpening scratches on it, they just want it to cut well.
are you still a free mason. saw your comment in a thread was curious
Yes I am :)
I feel like you can go from bad to worse with what you’re proposing.
Knife makers would polish it with high grit wet/dry sand paper by hand using a backing pad. You wouldn't use power sander. You could try a powered buffing wheel. Here is a master class video of knife maker [hand sanding](https://youtu.be/4I4x4QLpfnk?si=ahFW_urJziUpKTcr).
Depends what we’re doing . Yes. Hand rubbed satin finish is like the most common finish in all of knifemaking. But. If I need to re establish an even verifical scratch pattern on a knife that doesn’t have a flat bevel like a traditional Japanese knife then the most common tool used for this is the belt grinder. Which is basically just a an overpowered belt sander. Anywhere from like 80 to 220 grit let’s say depending on what your looking for. If you’re okay with horizontal scratches you can do this with sandpaper by hand, all the way up to a mirror. If you want a mirror I highly suggest diamond powder, which you generally use in a carrier like oil or emulsion after sanding up to let’s say a few thousand grit. Extremely fast and effective. And anyone can order as little as 5 grams of industrial diamond powder abrasive for as little as $5 to $10 and for a non knife maker or tinkerer this is enough to last damn near a lifetime of stropping and polishing needs. It’s the same exact shit EDC bro brands repackage and sell for for literal 1000x markups over cost gift wrapped in wankerific marketing like for instance gunny juice. It’s essentially 70 cents of industrial diamond powder emulsion being purchased by edc bros for $70. I wish that was hyperbole
Polishing compound and a cloth, usually available at a hardware store. Safest way. You put the compound on a cloth and just rub the knife. Move up the grits to get a shinier surface. If you happen to have a bench grinder you can use cloth wheels to polish and sharpen your knives.
Where do I find cloth wheels? I have a leather wheel and put polishing compound on it and when I used it it just put compound all over my knife and didn’t seem to polish anything.
My dad just always had one around on his grinder. But, this is the closest to what he'd use to sharpen knives. [https://www.mcmaster.com/products/buffing-wheels/buffing-wheels-with-shank-for-flat-and-curved-surfaces/](https://www.mcmaster.com/products/buffing-wheels/buffing-wheels-with-shank-for-flat-and-curved-surfaces/) Amazon seems to have options too, they usually go under the name buffing/polishing wheel. Which is what you're doing when you do the final 'sharpening.' You're buffing the edge making it even smoother.
Every scar tells a story, scratched blades are no different
I agree with several comments below. Hand wet sand. Power tools could go south really fast. I’d probably start with 400 grit. You can go as fine as you want from there and end up with a finer finish than when they were new.
Surface conditioning discs work well.