# Refinishing a Knife



## Dubsy (Jul 13, 2011)

a while ago i scratched the side of my misono during sharpening, so i took 1000grit wet/dry sand paper and polished it, followed by 1500grit then a polishing compound, but theres still minor scratching visible, and i was wondering if theres any way to get rid of it. what have you guys done?


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## SpikeC (Jul 13, 2011)

You need to go back to the grit that made the scratches and start working up from there.


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## Lefty (Jul 13, 2011)

Yup...it sucks, but it isn't as bad as it sounds


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## Dubsy (Jul 13, 2011)

okay... so what should i jump to grit from grit? i have a 1k, 3k and 6k stone, and im not sure i can get up to 10k wet sanding paper.


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## Dubsy (Jul 13, 2011)

okay, i just thought back to my wanna-be-luthiery days, and remembered these
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Finishi...ers/Micro-Mesh_Soft_Touch_Finishing_Pads.html
just in case you guys have any knives you wanna refinish, these should work wonderfully. they're foam pads, so i feel alot better about going near a sharp blade with these


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## Line cooked (Jul 13, 2011)

Dubsy said:


> okay, i just thought back to my wanna-be-luthiery days, and remembered these
> http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Finishi...ers/Micro-Mesh_Soft_Touch_Finishing_Pads.html
> just in case you guys have any knives you wanna refinish, these should work wonderfully. they're foam pads, so i feel alot better about going near a sharp blade with these


 
I am loooking for some help on this same topic ...Maybe I did not put enough work in , but I still have minor scratches after using micro mesh pads on a knife of mine...What gets the blade back to a factory look without the minor scratches??? Do I need a grinder to restore that look?


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## Mike (Jul 14, 2011)

You just need to spend more time with each grit making sure that you've removed all of the scratches from the previous grit. I use soapy water when wet sanding to provide lubrication as it works better than water and is less messy than oil. If you want the stria to resemble a factory edge, sand in one direction and be consistent with your pressure and blending.


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## Eamon Burke (Jul 14, 2011)

The scratch is still there because if you want to remove it, think of it like a chip in an edge. You have to remove ALL of the steel that is higher than the scratch, making the lowest point of the scratch the highest average point on your knife. I don't advise worrying about it, unless it's a safequeen. If it's a safequeen, why are you sharpening it without painters tape on the side?!


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## Dubsy (Jul 14, 2011)

sorry, still kinda new to all the lingo. safequeen?


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## mattrud (Jul 14, 2011)

I have those pads and unless you really really work it a the lowest pad your not going to remove those scratches completely. get wet and dry sand paper at a lower grit then what the scratch was made at. Take your time and work in the same direction with all the strokes. It takes time to do it full. But if you go all the way up through the pads it will be a very mirror polish on the blade. But as stated it is just an aesthetics thing.


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## jaybett (Jul 14, 2011)

Dubsy said:


> sorry, still kinda new to all the lingo. safequeen?


I think he meant to say drawer queen. A knife that is kept in the drawer, because the owner is afraid to mess it up. 

Safe queen does conjure up some humorous images, none of them politically correct.


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## Eamon Burke (Jul 14, 2011)

Dubsy said:


> sorry, still kinda new to all the lingo. safequeen?


 
I'll be fixing that sometime tonight!

_"Safequeen -- A top notch knife that will never be used, but is put on display or stored away for a collection."_

To jaybett: 'drawerqueen' is for people who store them in drawers. The image conjured by 'safequeen' is that it needs to be locked up, it's so valuable. :wink:


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## SpikeC (Jul 14, 2011)

Kinda like a 51,000 dollar Kramer?


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## Eamon Burke (Jul 14, 2011)

SpikeC said:


> Kinda like a 51,000 dollar Kramer?


 
Yes. :rolleyes2:


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## Dubsy (Jul 15, 2011)

thats kinda retarded. no offense, but if your gonna leave it on display for its life how do you know its actually worth the money? for all you know it could just be a piece of regular stainless with some nice make-up.


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## toek (Jul 15, 2011)

supply and demand, its worth exactly as much as folks are paying for it regardless of what it is.


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## zitangy (Jul 15, 2011)

Dubsy said:


> okay... so what should i jump to grit from grit? i have a 1k, 3k and 6k stone, and im not sure i can get up to 10k wet sanding paper.


 
Hi..
I have been there....
Polishing your blade... if you go up too fine, you may have have food sticking problems of the blade. People have mirror polished their blades mirror shine and had to go back down the grit.. to resolve this issue. The perpendicular striations I suspect serves as minute airpockets adn also as "teeth" and as in a saw.. it has to be perpendicular to the edge... I think.. for obvious reasons... A teeth on a saw would not be that effective it it is parallel to the edge isnt it?

But do it if you must as an exercise of machoism and after you have done it, looking back, it was an exercise of dogged determination... QUite a few members have already trodden this path amd lived to tell the tale of bloody fingers ( due to abrasion on the stone) and looking back ...it was fun and quite a laugh...

I belong to this group..

Perhaps it's your turn...Whilst you are at it.. enjoy..

rgds


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## goodchef1 (Jul 16, 2011)

you can use 3M microfilm, or get a dremel and polishing kit w/green chrome or microfine honing compound.


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## goodchef1 (Jul 16, 2011)

its a common misconception about food sticking to mirror polished blades more. the sticking is actually caused by a surface tension buildup from cellulose foods with high water content. The sharper the edge making a clean cut, the flatter the food surface area causing that suction even to different textured blades. granton or different edge geometries helps to remedy but does not prevent.


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## Lefty (Jul 16, 2011)

I don't think anyone has mentioned this, but wet/dry paper has a much different grit system than our beloved waterstones. For example, the 2500 grit paper I love so much is about 0.5microns, or roughly 8-10k on our stones.


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## SpikeC (Jul 16, 2011)

I believe that an 8000 waterstone is more like 2-4 micron, fwtw. .5 micron is really fine, diamond paste territory.


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## EdipisReks (Jul 16, 2011)

i use the large micro-mesh pads. if you don't spend enough time on a coarse grit to put an even scratch pattern on the blade and remove the original scratch completely then it won't matter how much time you spend polishing with finer grits. i wouldn't use stones, personally (except for finger stones). either get micro-mesh pads or a range of wet/dry sandpaper and a rubber sanding block.


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## Dubsy (Jul 16, 2011)

so today i decided to try and fix it, and put some turtle wax (30K grit) on a kitchen towel, strapped it to an old sander, and went to town. the result isnt really mirror, the scratches are still there, but it defined them in a way that looks really worn in, and kinda bada$s. i really like it, and its really hard to describe. from some angles its mirror polished, but from others its this gnarly looking knife that has appeared to have seen it all. its really kinda cool.


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## 99Limited (Jul 17, 2011)

Didn't happen without some pics. Really, let's see how it turned out.


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## Dubsy (Jul 18, 2011)

gotta get a camera, first. cell phone kinda sucks.


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